This is a corpus-based study that investigates instances in which court interpreters in Hong Kong deviate from using direct speech and the first person, notwithstanding the requirement to use both of these when rendering statements made by witnesses or defendants. Quantitative data indicate that court interpreters do adhere to this requirement when interpreting Cantonese into English, but deviate from it when interpreting English into Cantonese. These data suggest that the use of reported speech and/or of the third person has identification functions that help Cantonese-speaking witnesses and defendants follow court proceedings and serve the pragmatic function of adding illocutionary force to interpreted utterances. Data from interviews with interpreters and legal professionals suggest that some latitude is exercised and tolerated when interpreters deviate from using direct speech and/or the first person when the target language is Cantonese. The findings indicate that court interpreters in the corpus observe strict professional guidelines by using direct speech most of the time, but occasional deviation from the direct approach suggests that court interpreters are able to make discretionary decisions to facilitate communication.
2019. The Jurisprudence and Administration of Legal Interpreting in Hong Kong (1966–2016). International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 32:1 ► pp. 95 ff.
Li, Ruitian, Kanglong Liu & Andrew K. F. Cheung
2023. Interpreter visibility in press conferences: a multimodal conversation analysis of speaker–interpreter interactions. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 10:1
2019. Interpreting Studies by Chinese Scholars (1949–2017). In Translation Studies in China [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 135 ff.
Robinson, Douglas
2019. The Translatorial Middle Between Direct and Indirect Reports. In Indirect Reports and Pragmatics in the World Languages [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 19], ► pp. 371 ff.
Yi, Ran
2023. Interpreting the Manner of Speech in courts: an overlooked aspect. Frontiers in Psychology 14
Yu, Wei
2021. Reporting Verbs in Court Judgments of the Common Law System: A Corpus-Based Study. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 34:2 ► pp. 525 ff.
Zhang, Yifan & Andrew K. F. Cheung
2022. A corpus-based study of modal verbs in Chinese–English governmental press conference interpreting. Frontiers in Psychology 13
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