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Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting at the Interface of Cognition and Emotion
Edited by Ana María Rojo López and Purificación Meseguer Cutillas
[Translation, Cognition & Behavior 7:1] 2024
► pp. 22–47

Syntax, stress and cognitive load, or on syntactic processing in simultaneous interpreting

ORCID logo | Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
ORCID logo | Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
ORCID logo | Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology
ORCID logo | University of Silesia in Katowice
ORCID logo | University of Silesia in Katowice
This corpus-based study examines the effect of syntactic complexity in the source language on simultaneous interpreters’ cognitive load and stress. Previous studies show contrasting results regarding the source text syntax and cognitive load in interpreting, while the link between syntactic complexity and interpreters’ stress remains unexplored. Our research aims to fill this gap by measuring cognitive load through filled and silent pauses, and stress through fundamental frequency. We evaluated syntactic complexity by calculating dependency distance, i.e., the number of words between syntactically dependent elements. We used PINC, the Polish Interpreting Corpus (Chmiel et al. 2022), as our dataset. We found that higher syntactic complexity in the source text increases stress and cognitive load among interpreters. Additionally, when interpreters produce complex syntax themselves, their stress increases. The study provides empirical evidence for simplification in interpreting and shows that syntactic complexity in interpreters’ own output does not necessarily lead to increased cognitive load.
Keywords: simultaneous interpreting, cognitive load, syntactic processing, fundamental frequency, dependency distance, stress
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Syntactic processing and related cognitive load in interpreting
  • 3.Fundamental frequency as an indicator of stress
  • 4.The present study
    • 4.1Data analysis
    • 4.2Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • Complex syntax in the source text increases stress and cognitive load
    • If the interpreter produces complex syntax in the previous sentence, the load is imported to the next sentence causing higher fundamental frequency
    • Interpreters simplify syntax in the target texts they produce in simultaneous interpreting
    • Impromptu speeches have longer dependency distance than read out speeches
    • Pauses in interpreting depend on the source text delivery rate, interpreting direction and speaker’s pausing behaviour
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 10 October 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00091.chm
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