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Facing face: non-professional interpreting in prison mental health interviews

  • Aída Martínez-Gómez ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: January 15, 2016

Abstract

Face, or the public self-image that each individual claims for him-/herself, is continuously constructed and negotiated in interaction. In interpreter-mediated events, the interpreter’s actions may threaten, maintain or enhance the primary participants’ face, as well as their own. This single case study of a real-life interview between a prison psychologist and a foreign language-speaking inmate, interpreted by another inmate, aims to explore how and why the three members of the triad engage in face-threatening acts (Brown and Levinson 1987) and face-boosting acts (Bayraktaroglu 1991). The transcribed audio recording of the interview shows how this non-professional interpreter actively seeks to protect and improve his fellow prisoner’s face, as a potential expression of his in-group loyalty, but ultimately prioritizes his own social image in an attempt to present himself as cooperative and trustworthy before the psychologist. This analysis shows how underlying issues of social distance, power and trust forcefully shape conversational behaviors in the prison environment.

Acknowledgements

The author is greatly indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their feedback on this article.

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Published Online: 2016-1-15
Published in Print: 2016-3-1

© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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