Article published in:
Describing Cognitive Processes in Translation: Acts and eventsEdited by Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow, Birgitta Englund Dimitrova, Séverine Hubscher-Davidson and Ulf Norberg
[Benjamins Current Topics 77] 2015
► pp. 43–62
ELF speakers’ restricted power of expression
Implications for interpreters’ processing
At the crossroads of English as a lingua franca (ELF) research and interpreting studies, it is paramount to examine why interpreters are at odds with ELF communication in general and with the effects of the output of the growing number of non-native English conference speakers on their work in particular. On the basis of a small-scale case study, the stumbling blocks resulting from non-native English input are examined. The findings point toward what may be a major impediment: activation and retrieval constraints can result from ELF speakers’ restricted power of expression and have an adverse effect on the interpreter’s inferential processing and target text rendering. In the discussion, it is argued that a key problem for devising compensatory (strategic or didactic) measures may lie in the unpredictable and open-ended nature of the means of expression creatively constructed by ELF speakers, which makes it extremely difficult for interpreters to build up a stock of resources that will match the ongoing input items, allowing them to function as activating cues.
Keywords: activating cues, Conference interpreting, English as a lingua franca, inferential processing, mental translation memory, routine transfer links
Published online: 01 October 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.77.04alb
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.77.04alb
References
Albl-Mikasa, Michaela
2010 “Global English and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): Implications for the Interpreting Profession.” trans-kom 3 (2): 126–148. http://www.trans-kom.eu/ihv_03_02_2010.html.
2012a “Interpreting Quality in Times of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): New Variables and Requirements.” In Translation Studies: Old and New Types of Translation in Theory and Practice. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference TRANSLATA. Translation & Interpreting Research: Yesterday? Today? Tomorrow?, May 12–14, 2011, Innsbruck, ed. by Lew N. Zybatow, Alena Petrova, and Michael Ustaszewski, 267–273. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
2012b “The Importance of Being not too Earnest: A Process- and Experience-based model of Interpreter Competence.” In Dolmetschqualität in Praxis, Lehre und Forschung. Festschrift für Sylvia Kalina, ed. by Barbara Ahrens, Michaela Albl-Mikasa, and Claudia Sasse, 59–92. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.
Basel, Elvira
2002 English as Lingua Franca. Non-Native Elocution in International Communication. A Case Study of Information Transfer in Simultaneous Interpretation. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Vienna.
Braun, Sabine
Braun, Sabine, and Kurt Kohn
Chernov, Ghelly. V
Cheung, Andrew
2003 “Does Accent Matter? The Impact of Accent in Simultaneous Interpretation into Mandarin and Cantonese on Perceived Performance Quality and Listener Satisfaction Level.” In Evaluación de la calidad en interpretación de conferencias: investigación, ed. by Ángela Collados Aís, Manuela M. Fernández Sánchez, and Daniel Gile, 85–96. Granada: Editorial Comares.
Christoffels, Ingrid K., and Annette M.B. de Groot
Cook, Guy
Dschulnigg, Nadine, and Leslie Hansen
2011 Englisch als Lingua Franca (ELF) in Dolmetschsituationen. Eine empirische Untersuchung zur Ausdrucksfähigkeit von ELF-Sprechenden in einer Dolmetschsituation. Unpublished B.A. thesis, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
Gile, Daniel
Göpferich, Susanne
Gran, Laura
1989 “Interdisciplinary Research on Cerebral Asymmetries: Significance and Prospects for the Teaching of Interpretation.” In The Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Teaching Interpretation. Proceedings of the Trieste Symposium, 1986, ed. by Laura Gran, and John Dodds, 93–100. Udine: Campanotto.
Kalina, Sylvia
Kohn, Kurt
1990 “Translation as Conflict.” In Confli(c)t. Proceedings of the International Symposium‚ Contact + Confli(c)t, Brussels, 2–4 June 1988, ed. by Peter H. Nelde, 105–113. Brussels: Association Belge de Linguistique Appliquée (ABLA papers 14).
Kohn, Kurt, and Michaela Albl-Mikasa
Kucharska, Anna
Kurz, Ingrid
Kurz, Ingrid, and Elvira Basel
Kutz, Wladimir
Mauranen, Anna
McAllister, Robert
Pöchhacker, Franz
Reithofer, Karin
Sabatini, Elisabetta
Seidlhofer, Barbara
Taylor, Christopher
1989 “Towards a Typology of Speakers.” In Coming of Age. Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the American Translators Association, ed. by Deanna Lindberg Hammond, 183–188. Medford, NJ: Learned Information.
Van Dijk, Teun A., and Walter Kintsch
Widdowson, Henry
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Song, Jing
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 may 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.