“Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that?”
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Claudia V. Angelelli
Abstract
Conversations about chronic illnesses, diseases running in the patient’s family, as well as specific medical record questions are frequent in medical encounters. In the United States, as in most countries, these conversations frequently occur between culturally and linguistically diverse patients and providers, and many times they are brokered by an interpreter. In this study I present a transcript that captures a typical healthcare-provider-patient conversation about chronic illnesses and medical history and run it through the lens of critical discourse analysis. I examine the power differentials between interlocutors and the role the interpreter plays in mitigating or reinforcing such power. I look at the co-construction of the meaning of “chronic” among the interlocutors, and the way in which the three orchestrate team efforts to de-construct and re-construct the notion of chronic illnesses exploring a life in-between countries and medical traditions. The data is part of a larger ethnographic study (Angelelli 2001 and 2004a) conducted in a public hospital. Interpreters work for Spanish-speaking patients and English-speaking healthcare providers in face-to-face and over-the-speakerphone interpreted communicative events (ICEs).
Abstract
Conversations about chronic illnesses, diseases running in the patient’s family, as well as specific medical record questions are frequent in medical encounters. In the United States, as in most countries, these conversations frequently occur between culturally and linguistically diverse patients and providers, and many times they are brokered by an interpreter. In this study I present a transcript that captures a typical healthcare-provider-patient conversation about chronic illnesses and medical history and run it through the lens of critical discourse analysis. I examine the power differentials between interlocutors and the role the interpreter plays in mitigating or reinforcing such power. I look at the co-construction of the meaning of “chronic” among the interlocutors, and the way in which the three orchestrate team efforts to de-construct and re-construct the notion of chronic illnesses exploring a life in-between countries and medical traditions. The data is part of a larger ethnographic study (Angelelli 2001 and 2004a) conducted in a public hospital. Interpreters work for Spanish-speaking patients and English-speaking healthcare providers in face-to-face and over-the-speakerphone interpreted communicative events (ICEs).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword xi
- Methods and strategies of process research 1
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Part I. Conceptual and methodological discussions
- Interpreting in theory and practice 13
- Reflections on the literal translation hypothesis 23
- Tracking translators’ keystrokes and eye movements with Translog 37
- Seeing translation from inside the translator’s mind 57
- Metonymic language use as a student translation problem 67
- Sight translation and speech disfluency 93
- Time lag in translation and interpreting 121
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Part II. Process research in interpreting and translation
- A new pair of glasses 149
- Are primary conceptual metaphors easier to understand than complex conceptual metaphors? 169
- Innovative subtitling 187
- Errors, omissions and infelicities in broadcast interpreting 201
- On cognitive processes during wordplay translation 219
- “Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that?” 231
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Part III. Studies of interpreting and translation expertise
- Effects of linguistic complexity on expert processing during simultaneous interpreting 249
- Process and product in simultaneous interpreting 269
- Developing professional thinking and acting within the field of interpreting 301
- Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model 317
- “This led me to start thinking about how this happened, and what the process behind it would be” 345
- Publications by Birgitta Englund Dimitrova 361
- Notes on contributors 367
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword xi
- Methods and strategies of process research 1
-
Part I. Conceptual and methodological discussions
- Interpreting in theory and practice 13
- Reflections on the literal translation hypothesis 23
- Tracking translators’ keystrokes and eye movements with Translog 37
- Seeing translation from inside the translator’s mind 57
- Metonymic language use as a student translation problem 67
- Sight translation and speech disfluency 93
- Time lag in translation and interpreting 121
-
Part II. Process research in interpreting and translation
- A new pair of glasses 149
- Are primary conceptual metaphors easier to understand than complex conceptual metaphors? 169
- Innovative subtitling 187
- Errors, omissions and infelicities in broadcast interpreting 201
- On cognitive processes during wordplay translation 219
- “Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that?” 231
-
Part III. Studies of interpreting and translation expertise
- Effects of linguistic complexity on expert processing during simultaneous interpreting 249
- Process and product in simultaneous interpreting 269
- Developing professional thinking and acting within the field of interpreting 301
- Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model 317
- “This led me to start thinking about how this happened, and what the process behind it would be” 345
- Publications by Birgitta Englund Dimitrova 361
- Notes on contributors 367
- Index 373
