The Pragmatics of Dialogue Interpreting

1
The Pragmatics of Dialogue Interpreting

• Ian Mason
• Heriot Watt University

2
Modes of interpreting
3
Dialogue interpreting

• Face-to-face
• Spontaneous
• Three-way exchange
• Consecutive (mostly)

4
Styles

• Courtroom the non-person
• Triadic Exchanges negotiation of roles and
  meaning

5

• Att. What is the name of the airline?
• Int. What is the name of the airline?
• Wit. Its TACA
• Int. Its TACA
• Att. Could you repeat that? And spell it
  
  please?
• Wit. TACA
• Int. Can you spell it?
• Wit. T-A-C-K
• Int. T-A-C-K
• O.J. Simpson trial

6
Interpreter role expectations

• Establish common ground between participants
• Act as intercultural mediator

7
Pragmatics

• The Co-operative Principle
• Maxims
• QUANTITY (Be as informative as required do not
  be more informative than required)
• QUALITY (Do not say what you believe to be
  false)
• RELATION (Be relevant)
• MANNER (Be clear, be orderly)

8
Implicature

• Where a maxim appears to be flouted, seek an
  inference.
• Inference unexpressed meaning supposed by
  hearer.

9
An example QUANTITY, MANNER

• IO That immigration officer would ask you some
  questions.
• Seems to be a statement, not a question.
• Seems to state the obvious
• So, it flouts the maxim of QUANTITY
• Inference Its a question
• Also flouts the maxim of MANNER (vague)
• Inference answer to specific questions.

10
An example QUALITY

• TV So Name and NATO after all. After so many
  years under the communist regime, in NATOs lap
  Mr Ambassador?
• INT A very important question, Your Excellency.
  After so many years being a part of the Warsaw
  Pact under communist rule, how do you feel about
  accessing NATO?
• Seferlis (2006)

11
An example QUALITY

• Objectively, a country cannot be in the lap of
  a military alliance.
• So, the TV hosts expression appears to flout the
  maxim of quality.
• Implicature the country is subordinate to NATO.
• Inference by interpreter an insult.
• The interpreter avoids the implicature in his
  version.

12
Interpreter behaviour

• Compensation for losses
• Accommodation to hearer
• Protection of their own image
• Assumptions about knowledge state of
  participants

13
Knowledge and assumptions

• All a speaker has to go on when treating
  something as given or shared is what s/he
  assumes the hearer assumes
  
• Prince (1981 232)

14
Relevance Theory

• mutual cognitive environment
• Assumptions mutually manifest

15
Mutual manifestness

• A Do you want some coffee?
• B Coffee would keep me awake
• (How are the speaker and hearer to distinguish
  the assumptions they share from those they do not
  share?)

16
Context

• The set of premises used in interpreting an
  utterance
• A subset of the hearers assumptions about the
  world
• Sperber Wilson (1986 15)

17
The culture-specific nature of contextual
assumptions

• I must caution you, you do not
• have to say anything but it may
• harm your defence if you do not
• mention when questioned
• something you later rely on in
• court

18
Relevance Theory

• (Sperber Wilson 1986)
• To communicate is to claim an individuals
  attention hence, to communicate is to imply that
  the information communicated is relevant
• SO

19
Principle of Relevance

• Greatest possible contextual effect in exchange
  for the smallest possible processing effort

20

• Contextual effect any modification or
  improvement to our assumptions brought about by
  an act of communication.

21
An example

• ST At the Feyziyeh seminary my own small child
  Mostafa drank water they cleansed the jar. That
  was because I used to teach philosophy.
• DRINK CLEAN TEACH PHILOSOPHY

22
TT At the Feyziyeh seminary my own small child
Mostafa a son who subsequently died in Iraq
while Khomeini was exiled there, drank water
they cleansed the jar meaning that his son was
considered to be religiously unclean. That was
because I used to teach philosophy.
23
New/old information

• Relevance of new information to an individual is
  to be assessed in terms of the improvements it
  brings to his representation of the world
• Sperber Wilson (1986 103)

24
New/old information

• Connexion of new and old information creates a
  contextual effect through
• creating a new contextual implication
• strengthening a previous assumption
• abandonment of previous assumption

25
Adjustments to improve relevance
26
Immigration interviews

• IO That immigration officer would ask you some
  questions.
• INT The official asked you two questions. What
  did you say to him? Why did you come here?

27
RT account of this move

• Interpreter has adjusted her output in order to
  preserve the balance between contextual effects
  and processing effort in a different cognitive
  environment.

28

• IMM (in Polish) That is I had eight hours mop,
  and two hours Hyde Park.
• INT (in Polish) But from ten till six here at the
  hotel?
• IMM (in Polish) Yes
• INT (in English) Right, I worked nights at the
  hotel from 10-6 in the morning, and then from 6-8
  I was picking up rubbish in Hyde Park.

29
Problem

• What are the limits to the interpreters
  adjustments for the sake of relevance?

30
Interpretive resemblance

• As a producer-oriented guarantee
• Gutt (2000 37), following Sperber Wilson
  (1986 226-237)

31
Extent of resemblance?

• only in those respects that can be expected to
  make it adequately relevant to the receptor
  language audience
• It should be expressed in such a manner that it
  yields the intended interpretation without
  putting the audience to unnecessary processing
  effort
• Gutt (2000 107)

32
Problem

• How can monolingual participants know the extent
  of the interpretive resemblance that has been
  applied by the translator?

33

• IO How is it that youre still in this country?
• INT (in Polish) Why are you still here?
• IMM (in Polish) Because I wanted to go to school
  here, till now I've managed to, I had to earn
  money to go to school because school is quite
  expensive.
• INT (in English) I had to, my intention was to
  attend an English course here, but I didn't have
  enough money, so I had to earn the money in
  order to pay for the course.

34

• IMM (in Polish) And I still go to school, I did
  go to school once a week, unfortunately.
• INT (in English) And I have been attending an
  English course once a week.

35

• IO What were you doing before that in Poland?
• INT (in Polish) And what were you doing in Poland
  before coming here to England?
• IMM (in Polish) I was learning at school.
• INT (in Polish) As a student?
• IMM (in Polish) No, a car mechanic.
• INT (in English) Right, he was attending a
  course, a car mechanics course.

36

• IO (English) What did they say?
• INT (Polish)And what did they say?
• IMM (Polish)That well travel to work in England.
• INT (Polish)What does it mean well travel?
  Because there were more?
• IMM (Polish)Yes
• INT (English) Yes, they said theyd go and work
  in England because apparently he wasnt the only
  one, there were several people involved.

37
Conclusions

• Interpreter motivated by Relevance
• Tends to be receiver-oriented (Gutts guideline)
• Common ground between participants may be
  reduced.