De-/Re-Contextualizing Conference Interpreting

Interpreters in the Ivory Tower?

Ebru Diriker | Bogaziçi University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027216595 (Eur) | EUR 99.00

ISBN 9781588115225 (USA) | USD 149.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027295354 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

This groundbreaking study explores Simultaneous Conference Interpreting (SI) by focusing on interpreters as professionals working in socio-cultural contexts and on the interdependency between these contexts and actual SI behavior. While previous research on SI has been dominated by cognitive and psycholinguistic approaches, Diriker’s work explores SI in relation to the broader and more immediate socio-cultural contexts by investigating the representation of the profession(al) in the meta-discourse and by exploring the presence of interpreters and the nature of the interpreted utterance at an actual conference. Making use of participant observations, interviews and analysis of conference transcripts, Diriker challenges some of the widely held assumptions about SI. She suggests that the interpreter’s delivery represents not only the speaker but a multiplicity of speaker-positions, and that this multiplicity may well be a source of tension or vulnerability, as well as strength, for interpreters. Her analysis also highlights how interpreters negotiate meaning in SI, and underscores the need for more concerted efforts to explore SI in authentic contexts.

[Benjamins Translation Library, 53] 2004. x, 223 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.53

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments | p. ix

Introduction | p. 1

1. Previous literature, key concepts and grounding theories | p. 7

2. Broader social context in SI | p. 25

3. Analyzing an actual conference context | p. 51

4. Analyzing an actual SI performance | p. 81

5. Juxta- and counterposing actural SI behavior with the meta-discourse | p. 131

Final remarks | p. 147

“I am quite sure that De-/Re-Contextualizing Conference Interpreting casts new light on the field of Interpreting Studies. One of the major merits of the author is the attempt to consider conference interpreting as a 'real' multifaceted profession, distancing it from the 'ivory tower' aura that somehow sets it apart from other interpreting fields as well as other 'professions' and yet, as many may have experienced, does not help the public identify 'who' interpreters are or 'what' simultaneous conference interpreting may be. Diriker's highly valuable contribution will hopefully be followed by further research that integrates cognitive, social and linguistic aspects with ethics and the 'real' practice of the profession-in-context(s).”

Erika Arecco, University of Trieste, Italy, in Across Languages and Cultures, Vol. 8(1) 2007

“John Benjamins has once again rendered a service to the community of SI and other researchers by publishing this work, based on a PhD thesis. It adopts a novel approach by analysing SI in a socio-cultural context and has interesting things to say about norms, the effects of the meta-discursive representation of conference interpreting and, above all, the manner in which interpreters play an active part in shaping meaning.”

Jennifer Mackintosh, in Interpreting Vol. 8:1

“Ebru Diriker's innovative and remarkable study provides us with a broad and multi-methodological analysis of the presence and performance of simultaneous conference interpreters. In that respect we can only wish that her many interested readers and colleagues will take the oppertunity to contribute to a further exploration of these issues in different cultural, social and thematic contexts.”

Nadja Grbic, Institut für Translationswissenschaft, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Austria, in The Translator, Vol. 11:2 (2005)

“This is one of those rare books that strikes you by its originality and inventiveness, drawing attention to a topic that is so obviously important that you wonder why it hasn't been dealt with extensively in the literature before. What is more — this brilliant new contribution to research on interpreting is very well written, in a fluent, accessible English language.”

Cecilia Wadensjö, University of Linkoping.

“This highly readable account of meta-discursive representation of the interpreter contrasted with a real SI performance is indeed groundbreaking in its approach, as described on the book's back cover. It is a pioneering attempt to bring into simultaneous interpreting studies findings from related fields such as court and community interpreting.”

John M. Matthews, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, in the Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 5 - Jan. 2006

“Founded on postmodern epistemologies and socioculturally sensitive translation theories, Ebru Diriker’s study is a paradigm case of multidimensional fieldwork to account for the full complexity of interpreting as a social practice and a cognitive performance. With both a high degree of personal commitment and a keen analytical perspective on the conference interpreting profession in Turkey, the author offers valuable new insights on the live issue of the interpreter’s role and visibility in a concrete communicative event.”

Franz Pöchhacker, University of Vienna

“This book addresses issues of the socio-cultural, interactional and ideological contexts in which simultaneous conference interpreters are working. Ebru Diriker approaches Simultaneous Interpreting (SI) as situated action, illustrated with reference to a particular SI-mediated conference held in 2000 in Istanbul. Her findings, which are based on participant observations, interviews with interpreters, speakers, organizers and users of interpreting services, as well as a detailed analysis of transcripts of the interpreter's delivery, reflect the interdependency between socio-cultural contexts and the presence and performance of conference interpreters. Her fascinating study sheds new light on the actual behaviour of interpreters, thus illustrating their role as active participants and organizers of the interaction and as powerful regulators of the multiple speaker-positions in the delivery. By highlighting the complex relationship between interpreters, speakers, and socio-cultural contexts, Ebru Diriker's study challenges some of the widely held assumptions and (mis)conceptions of simultaneous interpreting we encounter in the meta-discourse. In particular, her findings challenge the purist cognitive paradigm in SI research. This book will provide great stimulation for researchers, trainers and students of interpreting.”

Christina Schäffner, Aston University

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[no author supplied]

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[no author supplied]

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[no author supplied]

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