What’s in a word? Your enemy combatant is my refugee
The role of simultaneous interpreters in negotiating the lexis of Guantánamo in the European Parliament
Morven Beaton-Thome | Cologne University of Applied Sciences
As a result of the fierce controversy surrounding Guantánamo Bay detention camp, the process of naming, or lexicalising, the group of individuals detained there has become central in legitimising or challenging their detention. This positioning becomes even more complex when conducted in a multilingual setting where such lexical choices are also simultaneously interpreted. In this paper, a case study of a simultaneously interpreted plenary debate from the European Parliament (EP) on the potential resettlement of Guantánamo detainees in European Union (EU) member states is presented, with particular focus on the impact of simultaneous interpreting on the negotiation of contested lexical labels. After conceptualising plenary debate at the EP as multivoiced discourse (Bakhtin 1981), this paper investigates the rhetorical strategies employed in the process of overlexicalising Guantánamo detainees throughout the German and English original and interpreted versions of the debate. Interpreter response to controversial lexical labels is then explored, before instances of interpreter intervention in the form of lexical contraction and self-correction are analysed in relation to the ideological impact of such intervention on the multiple voices present in the debate.
Keywords: Guantánamo, political discourse, Bakhtin, multivoicedness, lexicalisation, overlexicalisation, simultaneous interpreting, European Parliament, lexical contraction
Published online: 27 September 2013
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.12.3.04bea
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.12.3.04bea
References
References
Amnesty International
Baker, Mona
Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich
Bazzi, Samia
Beaton, Morven
2007a Intertextuality and Ideology in Interpreter-Mediated Communication: The Case of the European Parliament. Edinburgh: Heriot-Watt University, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis.
Beaton-Thome, Morven
Calzada Pérez, Maria
(1997) Transitivity in Translation. The Interdependence of Texture and Context. A Contrastive Study of Original and Translated Speeches in English and Spanish from the European Parliament. Edinburgh: Heriot-Watt University, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis.
Centre for Constitutional Rights website
2010 http://www.ccrjustice.org/ [last accessed 29 May 2013].
International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) website
2010 http://www.fidh.org/ [last accessed 29 May 2013].
Chilton, Paul, and Christina Schäffner
Connor-Linton, Jeff
Dilley, Roy M.
Duden
2006 Was Sie schon immer wissen wollten: Die Litotes. Duden Newsletter. 16 June 2006. Available online at: http://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/newsletter/duden-newsletter-vom-16-06-06 [last accessed 29 May 2013].
European Parliament Resolution on Guantánamo
2006 Text adopted on 16 February 2006. [P6_TA(2006)0070]. Full Text available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2006-0070&language=EN [last accessed 29 May 2013].
European Parliament Resolution on the Fight Against Terrorism
2007 Text adopted on 12 December 2007. [P6_TA(2007)0612]. Full Text available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2007-0612&language=EN [last accessed 29 May 2013].
European Parliament website
2010 http://www.europarl.europa.eu [last accessed 29 May 2013].
Fowler, Roger, and Gunther Kress
Fowler, Roger
Gill, Terry D., and Elies van Sliedregt
Guardian Online
2010 Guardian Special Report: Guantánamo Bay. Available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/guantanamo-bay [last accessed 29 May 2013].
Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood
Hodges, Adam, and Chad Nilep
Inghilleri, Moira
Intelligence Squared US Debates
2010 “Treat Terrorists Like Enemy Combatants, Not Criminals.” Debate from 14 September 2010. Recording and transcript available online at: http://intelligencesquaredus.org/ [last accessed 29 May 2013].
Jiang, Xiangying
Marzocchi, Carlo
Mason, Ian
Maxwell, Mark David ‘Max’, and Sean M. Watts
Tobia, Simona
Worthington, Andy
US Congress
2010 National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2010. H.R. 2647. Available online at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr2647enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr2647enr.pdf [last accessed 29 May 2013].
US Supreme Court
2004a Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (03–6696) 542 U.S. 507 (2004). Available online at: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/03pdf/03–6696.pdf [last accessed 29 May 2013].
2004b Rumsfeld v. Padilla (03–1027) 542 U.S. (2004). Available online at: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/03pdf/03–1027.pdf [last accessed 29 May 2013].
2004c Rasul v. Bush (03–334) 542 U.S. (2004). Available online at: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/03pdf/03–334.pdf [last accessed 29 May 2013].
Cited by
Cited by 11 other publications
Bartłomiejczyk, Magdalena
Gao, Fei
Gu, Chonglong
Gu, Chonglong
Gu, Chonglong
Gu, Chonglong
Gu, Chonglong
Gu, Chonglong & Rebecca Tipton
Gu, Chonglong & Binhua Wang
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2021. 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.