When non-renditions are not the exception. A corpus-based study of court interpreting

This article seeks to explore the nature and function of non-renditions in a corpus of transcriptions of 55 authentic interpreted court proceedings from Barcelona (the TIPp corpus). By doing so, it establishes a dialogue with Cheung's (2017) contribution about non-renditions in court interpreting in Hong Kong. The transcriptions of the TIPp corpus were annotated using the software EXAMARALDA following Wadenjsö's ( 1998 ) distinction between "talk as text" and "talk as activity". Non-renditions were considered a part of "talk as activity". A distinction was made between justified non-renditions, i.e. those that were used to ask for a pause to interpret, to ask for clarification, to confirm possibly misheard information and to retrieve parts of the original message in case of a lapsus, and unjustified non-renditions, e.g. when interpreters give advice to the defendants or warn them, when they answer on behalf of defendants, or when they supply information not provided in the original utterances. The findings reveal alarming averages of non-renditions in the bilingual parts of the trial (58.3 per bilingual hour), with a higher ratio of unjustified non-renditions. These findings have a clear correlation with the poor working conditions of court interpreters in Spain and reveal an urgent need for professionalisation of this practice in this countr

Ressenyes

Index de les obres ressenyades: Robin SETTON (ed.), Interpreting Chinese, Interpreting Chin

Chinese at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Founded in 1968, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) is a public, generalist, campus-based university, mainly located in Bellaterra, near the city of Barcelona. It hosts a total of around 40,000 students (2019-18), counting undergraduate degree, master's degree and PhD students. Research is distributed among 57 departments and teaching takes place in 13 faculties/schools. Both the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting and the Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies have played a leading role as a hub of teaching, learning, research and dissemination where Chinese language and culture are concerned

You speak some Spanish? Indicators of interpreters' (non-) performance in Spanish Criminal Courts

En aquest article intentarem determinar els motius que hi ha darrere de la baixa qualitat de la feina dels intèrprets judicials en el context dels processos penals als tribunals de Barcelona. A partir d'un corpus de judicis reals enregistrats, explorem quatre possibles factors que poden afectar l'actuació dels intèrprets: durada del judici, problemes de gestió de les converses, experiència dels intèrprets i tipus de delicte que es jutja. A més, també analitzem faltes de rendiment injustificades, que es consideren un indicador important de la ineficàcia. Les conclusions es comenten en el context de la competència lingüística de l'intèrpret, el seu paper en la interacció amb tots els participants i les normes establertes dels codis de conducta professionals. En aquest article se subratlla la necessitat de millorar la qualificació dels intèrprets, però també de conscienciar els membres del poder judicial espanyol sobre el paper dels intèrprets, amb l'objectiu de protegir els drets processals de les persones que no parlen ni entenen la llengua en què es du a terme el procediment.In this paper we will attempt to establish the reasons for low-quality performance of court interpreters in the context of criminal proceedings in the courts of Barcelona. Drawing on a corpus of authentic recorded hearings, we explore four possible factors that may have an impact on interpreters' performance: length of the hearing, conversation management problems, interpreters' experience, and type of offence being tried. Furthermore, we also analyse unjustified nonrenditions, which are considered an important indicator of non-performance. The findings are discussed in the context of the linguistic competence of the interpreter, their role in the interaction with all the participants, and the established rules of professional codes of conduct. This paper will draw attention to the need to improve the qualification of interpreters, but also to raise awareness of the role of the interpreter among members of the judiciary in Spain, with a view to protecting the procedural rights of those who do not speak or understand the language in which the proceedings are conducted

Dialogue interpreting in multi-party encounters : two examples from educational settings

This article examines two multi-party encounters involving dialogue interpreting. Participant observation was conducted in these mediated interactions between service providers and Chinese users. The analysis of field notes and transcripts reveals some challenges these complex situations can pose for the interpreter: translating, coordinating turn-taking, and managing exchanges that include both adults and children, or even bilingual participants. The conclusions discuss how the interpreter can ensure an equal balance of power among the participant