Book review
Sabine Braun. Kommunikation unter widrigen Umständen: Fallstudien zu einsprachigen und gedolmetschten Videokonferenzen
Tübingen:: Gunter Narr, 2004. viii + 352 pp. ISBN 3-8233-6068-X 49.90 € (Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik, 475).

Reviewed by Sylvia Kalina
Köln
Table of contents

This volume by German linguist and translatologist Sabine Braun describes video conference (VC) communication as a communication technique which is typical of our time, with the growing trend towards exchanging information and messages using the most advanced technological data transmission facilities. The ease with which people can be contacted without having to travel, but also the problems connected with this type of communication are discussed with special emphasis on the complexities of bilingual videoconferences mediated by interpreters. Chapter 1 describes monolingual VC communication and explains its specific conditions, complexities and the problems caused by factors such as speech overlap as a consequence of transmission conditions. Its main concern, then, is to analyse how participants adapt to these conditions. Chapter 2 presents the state of the art of interpreting studies and contrasts theoretical results obtained in the discipline with the practical concerns of interpreters. The more complex situation of interpreting in VC conditions is discussed in Chapter 3, where the author demonstrates that problems arising in monolingual, or, for that matter, unmediated bilingual VC communication are multiplied when interpretation comes in to overcome linguistic problems and ensure optimum comprehension between communication partners.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Grice, Paul
1975 “Logic and conversation”. Jerry Morgan and Peter Cole ed. Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic Press 1975 41–58.Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, Philip
1983 Mental models: Towards a cognitive science of language, inference, and consciousness. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P.Google Scholar
Kalina, Sylvia
1998 Strategische Prozesse beim Dolmetschen: Theoretische Grundlagen, empirische Fallstudien, didaktische Konsequenzen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Google Scholar
Kohn, Kurt
1990 Dimensionen lernersprachlicher Performanz: Theoretische und empirische Untersuchungen zum Zweitsprachenerwerb. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Google Scholar
Mouzourakis, Panayotis
1996 “Videoconferencing: Techniques and challenges.” Interpreting 1:1. 21–38.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan and Deirdre Wilson
1995² (1986). Relevance, communication and cognition. Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
[ p. 180 ]