Translating accurately or sounding natural?
The interpreters’ challenges due to semantic typology and the interpreting process
Police interview interpreting is a complex task, as interpreters make difficult choices under pressure and time
constraints. The main dilemma of the interpreter is whether to remain faithful to the original text, with the risk of rendering
non-idiomatic translations, or to give preference to more idiomatic versions that may entail an addition or an omission from the
original text. This article presents an analysis of Spanish-English bilingual police interviews in California. The analysis is
based on the discrepancies found between an interpreter present in the interrogation and a control interpreter who translates the
whole interview post-hoc. This is an original methodology that can be used for future research in this and other contexts. The
results show different types of inaccuracies in the interpretation, which can be attributed to contextual pressures and overall
challenges of interpreting and to challenges related to typological differences between the two languages involved.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Forensic linguistics and interpreting
- 2.1Interpreting skills
- 2.2Applied language typology
- 3.Methodology
- 4.Results: Discrepancies
- 4.1Agentivity
- 4.2Information loss
- 4.3Loss of intensity
- 4.4Manner of motion
- 4.5Modal verbs
- 4.6Euphemisms
- 4.7Grammar errors
- 4.8Addition of intensity
- 4.9Addition of information
- 4.10Emotions
- 4.11Other discrepancies
- 5.Discussion and conclusions
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
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