Hale Sandra Beatriz. The Discourse of Court Interpreting: Discourse practices of the law, the witness and the interpreter

John Benjamins, 2004. — xviii, 267 p. — (Benjamins Translation Library).This book explores the intricacies of court interpreting through a thorough analysis of the authentic discourse of the English-speaking participants, the Spanish-speaking witnesses and the interpreters. Written by a practitioner, educator and researcher, the book presents the reader with real issues that most court interpreters face during their work and shows through the results of careful research studies that interpreter’s choices can have varying degrees of influence on the triadic exchange. It aims to raise the practitioners’ awareness of the significance of their choices and attempts to provide a theoretical basis for interpreters to make informed decisions rather than intuitive ones. It also suggests solutions for common problems. The book highlights the complexities of court interpreting and argues for thorough training for practicing interpreters to improve their performance as well as for better understanding of their task from the legal profession. Although the data is drawn from Spanish-English cases, the main results can be extended to any language combination. The book is written in a clear, accessible language and is aimed at practicing interpreters, students and educators of interpreting, linguists and legal professionals.Court interpreting: The main issuesAcccuracy of interpretation
The interpreting process
Pragmatic equivalence
The role of the court interpreterHistorical overview of Court Interpreting in AustraliaReview of Government Reports on Interpreting and Translation Services in Australia
The Australian legal interpreter today
Legal Interpreting Training
Research
Conclusion: A matter of access and equity
Courtroom questioning and the interpreterThe discourse of the adversarial system
The purpose of examination-in-chief and cross-examination
Question form and type
Pragmatic function of questions
Interpreting courtroom questions
The study
The data
Question type according to examination type
Original counsel questions in English and their Spanish interpreted versions
Cross-examination questions through the interpreter
Tag questions
Tag questions in English
Tag questions in Spanish
Interpreters’ renditions of each type of tag question in cross-examination
Invariant tag questions - Positive declaratives with positive ratification tag - “Is that right?” / “Is that correct?”
Invariant Tag questions - Negative declaratives with positive ratification tag - “Is that right?” / “Is that correct?”
Constant Polarity Tag - Positive declaratives with positive auxiliary tag - “You work all night, do you?”
Checking Tags
Examination-in-chief questions through the interpreterThe use of discourse markers in courtroom questionsUses of “well” and “now” in examination-in-chief
Uses of “well” in examination-in-chief
Interpreters’ renditions of “well” in examination-in-chief
The uses of “now” in examination-in-chief
The interpretation of “now” in examination-in-chief
Uses of “well”, “see” and “now” in cross-examination
Uses of “well” in cross-examination
The omission of “well” in the interpreter’s renditions
The uses of “see” in cross-examination
The interpreter’s treatment of “you see”
The uses of “now” in cross-examination
The interpreter’s renditions of “now” in cross-examination questionsThe style of the Spanish speaking witnesses’ answers and the interpreters’ renditionsSpeech style and the evaluation of character
The evaluation of witness’s character
The style of the Spanish answers and their interpretation into English
The data
Analysis of hesitations
Witnesses’ original hesitations
Interpreters’ hesitations
Hedges and fillers
Omissions of hedges and fillers in the interpretation
Additions of hedges and fillers in the interpretation
Hedges and fillers maintained in the interpretation
Discourse Markers
The use of “bueno” in the Spanish original answers
The addition of discourse markers in the interpretation
Grammatical errors in the English interpretations
Examples of errors in the original
Examples of errors in the interpretation
Rules vs. Relational oriented witnesses
Matched-guise experiments
Experiment methodology
The experiments
Experiment 1–Evaluation of Spanish speaking witnesses vs the interpreted versions
Experiment 2–stylistically accurate vs inaccurate interpretationsControl in the courtroomAims of the chapter
The results
Macrostructure of examination-in-chief and cross-examination
Number of questions required to obtain a desired answer
Topics introduced by the witnesses
Questions posed by the witnesses
Questions asking for clarification
Questions asking for a repetition
“I don’t understand” questions
Challenging questions
Rhetorical questions
Questions asking for permission to speak
Counsel resorting to the use of the third person
The interpreter answering the witness’s question
Interruptions to counsel’s questions by the witness, the interpreter, the magistrate and the counsel for the other side
Witness interruptions
Interpreter interruptions
Magistrate’s interruptions and counsel’s objectionsThe interpreters’ responseDetails of questionnaire
Personal details of the respondents
Knowledge of the legal system
Language issues
Translation of questions
Translating “Re-questions”
Translating discourse markers
Translating Declarative Questions with tags
Translation of answers
Role of the interpreterConclusionsSummary of results
Contributions and recommendations