More spoken or more translated? Exploring the known unknowns of simultaneous interpreting from a multidimensional analysis perspective
Abstract
This article explores the features of simultaneous interpreting (SI) from a multidimensional (MD) analysis perspective (Biber 1988), drawing on a newly built comparable intermodal corpus, the LegCo+ corpus. The corpus incorporates Cantonese speeches that are both interpreted and translated into English, as SI and written translation (WT), respectively. Additionally, a third English corpus consisting of English native speeches (NS), without mediation, serves as a benchmark comparison. We aim to examine the extent of similarities and differences between SI, NS and WT in terms of the linguistic patterns they display. Our findings show that: (1) SI is a hybrid language mode, exhibiting features that lie between those of non-mediated spoken language and mediated written language; (2) in terms of its spoken nature, SI resembles NS in certain dimensions where typical features are associated with orality, suggesting a strong modality effect; and (3) in terms of its mediated status, SI demonstrates similarities with WT, despite their perceptibly distinct modalities, pointing to a potential mediation-specific effect. These empirical findings emphasize the necessity of understanding the multidimensionality inherent in interpreted language.
Keywords:
Publication history
Table of contents
Intuitively speaking, simultaneous interpreting (SI) in the spoken modality is perceptibly distinct from written translation due to its intrinsically different mediation mode or modality. However, Shlesinger (2008) and Shlesinger and Ordan (2012) have challenged this intuitive understanding, sparking further debates on the impacts of modality (oral vs. written) and ontology (translated vs. non-translated; see Section 2.1) on the linguistic manifestations of interpreted outputs. Their ultimate goal has been to isolate features of SI as being both spoken and translated discourse (referred to as ‘interpretese’) so as to deepen our understanding of the complexities of oral translations, instead of subsuming them under the generic concept of ‘translation’.
References
Agrifoglio, Marjorie
2004 “Sight Translation and Interpreting: A Comparative Analysis of Constraints and Failures.” Interpreting 6 (1): 43–67. 
Avner, Ehud Alexander, Noam Ordan, and Shuly Wintner
2016 “Identifying Translationese at the Word and Sub-word Level.” Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 31 (1): 30–54.
Baker, Mona
1993 “Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies: Implications and Applications.” In Text and Technology: In Honour of John Sinclair, edited by Mona Baker, Gill Francis, and Elena Tognini-Bonelli, 233–250. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
1995 “Corpora in Translation Studies: An Overview and Some Suggestions for Future Research.” Target 7 (2): 223–243.
1996 “Corpus-based Translation Studies: The Challenges That Lie Ahead.” In Terminology, LSP and Translation: Studies in Language Engineering in Honour of Juan C. Sager, edited by Harold Somers, 175–186. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Baroni, Marco, and Silvia Bernardini
2006 “A New Approach to the Study of Translationese: Machine-learning the Difference between Original and Translated Text.” Literary and Linguistic Computing 21 (3): 259–274.
Bernardini, Silvia, Adriano Ferraresi, and Maja Miličević
2016 “From EPIC to EPTIC: Exploring Simplification in Interpreting and Translation from an Intermodal Perspective.” Target 28 (1): 61–86.
Biber, Douglas
1986 “Spoken and Written Textual Dimensions in English: Resolving the Contradictory Findings.” Language 62 (2): 384–414.
1988 Variation Across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1992 “The Multidimensional Approach to Linguistic Analyses of Genre Variation: An Overview of Methodology and Findings.” Computers and the Humanities 26 (5–6): 331–345.
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, and Eddie A. Levenston
1978 “Universals of Lexical Simplification.” Language Learning 28 (2): 399–415.
Cencini, Marco
2002 “On the Importance of an Encoding Standard for Corpus-based Interpreting Studies Extending the TEI Scheme.” In CULT2K, edited by Silvia Bernardini and Federico Zanettin, special issue of InTRAlinea. https://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/1678
Chafe, Wallace, and Jane Danielewicz
1987 “Properties of Spoken and Written Language.” In Comprehending Oral and Written Language, edited by Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels, 83–113. London: Academic Press.
Chafe, Wallace
1982 “Integration and Involvement in Speaking, Writing, and Oral Literature.” In Spoken and Written Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy, edited by Deborah Tannen, 35–54. Westport: Praeger.
Chang, Chia-chien, and Diane L. Schallert
2007 “The Impact of Directionality on Chinese/English Simultaneous Interpreting.” Interpreting 9 (2): 137–176.
Chen, Jiansheng, and Yani Cui
2010 “A Corpus-based Study on Lexical Features in the English Translation of Report on the Work of the Government.” Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies 6: 39–43.
Chesterman, Andrew
2017 Reflections on Translation Theory: Selected Papers 1993–2014. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dayter, Daria
2018 “Describing Lexical Patterns in Simultaneously Interpreted Discourse in a Parallel Aligned Corpus of Russian-English Interpreting (SIREN).” Forum 16 (2): 241–264.
De Sutter, Gert, and Eline Vermeire
2020 “Grammatical Optionality in Translations: A Multifactorial Corpus Analysis of That/Zero Alternation in English Using the MuPDAR Approach. In New Empirical Perspectives on Translation and Interpreting, edited by Lore Vandevoorde, Joke Daems, and Bart Defrancq, 24–51. London: Routledge.
De Sutter, Gert, and Marie-Aude Lefer
2020 “On the Need for a New Research Agenda for Corpus-based Translation Studies: A Multi-methodological, Multifactorial and Interdisciplinary approach.” Perspectives 28 (1): 1–23.
Defrancq, Bart, Koen Plevoets, and Cédric Magnifico
2015 “Connective Items in Interpreting and Translation: Where Do They Come From?” In Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics: Current Approaches to Discourse and Translation Studies, edited by Jesús Romero-Trillo, 195–222. New York: Springer.
Defrancq, Bart
2018 “The European Parliament as a Discourse Community: Its Role in Comparable Analyses of Data Drawn from Parallel Interpreting Corpora.” The Interpreters’ Newsletter 23: 115–132.
Evert, Stefan, and Stella Neumann
2017 “The Impact of Translation Direction on Characteristics of Translated Texts: A Multivariate Analysis for English and German.” In Empirical Translation Studies: New Theoretical and Methodological Traditions, edited by Gert de Sutter and Marie-Aude Lefer, 47–80. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Ferraresi, Adriano, Silvia Bernardini, Maja Petrović, and Marie-Aude Lefer
2018 “Simplified or Not Simplified? The Different Guises of Mediated English at the European Parliament.” Meta 63 (3): 717–738.
Gile, Daniel
2001 “Consecutive vs. Simultaneous: Which is More Accurate?” Interpretation Studies 1 (1): 8–20.
2009 Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training. Rev. ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gumul, Ewa
2006 “Explicitation in Simultaneous Interpreting: A Strategy or a By-product of Language Mediation?” Across Languages and Cultures 7 (2): 171–190.
Hu, Kaibao, and Qing Tao
2009 “A Corpus-based Study of Explicitation of Textual Meaning in Chinese–English Conference Interpreting.” PLA International Studies University Journal 32 (5): 67–73.
Hu, Xianyao, Richard Xiao, and Andrew Hardie
2016 “How do English Translations Differ from Nontranslated English Writings? A Multi-feature Statistical Model for Linguistic Variation Analysis.” Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 15 (2): 347–382.
Ilie, Cornelia
2015 “Parliamentary Discourse”. In Parliamentary Discourse, edited by Karen Tracy, 1–15. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Kajzer-Wietrzny, Marta, and Ilmari Ivaska
2020 “A Multivariate Approach to Lexical Diversity in Constrained Language.” Across Languages and Cultures 21 (2): 169–194.
Kajzer-Wietrzny, Marta, and Łukasz Grabowski
2021 “Formulaicity in Constrained Communication: An Intermodal Approach.” In Reflexión crítica en los estudios de traducción basados en corpus / CTS Spring-cleaning: A Critical Reflection, edited by María Calzada and Sara Laviosa, special issue of MonTI 13: 148–183.
Kajzer-Wietrzny, Marta
2012 Interpreting Universals and Interpreting Style. PhD diss. Adam Mickiewicz University.
2015 “Simplification in Interpreting and Translation”. Across Languages and Cultures 16 (2): 233–255.
2022 “An Intermodal Approach to Cohesion in Constrained and Unconstrained Language.” Target 34 (1): 130–162.
Kotze, Haidee
2022 “Translation as Constrained Communication: Principles, Concepts and Methods.” In Extending the Scope of Corpus-based Translation Studies, edited by Sylviane Granger and Marie-Aude Lefer, 67–98. London: Bloomsbury.
Kotze, Haidee, and Bertus van Rooy
2024 “Introduction: The Constrained Communication Framework for Studying Contact-influenced Varieties.” In Constraints on Language Variation and Change in Complex Multilingual Contact Settings, edited by Bertus van Rooy and Haidee Kotze, 1–28. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kruger, Haidee, and Bertus van Rooy
2012 “Register and the Features of Translated Language.” Across Languages and Cultures 13 (1): 33–65.
2016 “Constrained Language: A Multidimensional Analysis of Translated English and a Non-native Indigenised Variety of English.” English World-Wide 37 (1): 26–57.
2018 “Register Variation in Written Contact Varieties of English: A Multidimensional Analysis.” English World-Wide 39 (2): 214–242.
Kruger, Haidee, and Gert de Sutter
2018 “Alternations in Contact and Non-Contact Varieties: Reconceptualising That-Omission in Translated and Non-Translated English Using the MuPDAR Approach.” Translation, Cognition & Behavior 1 (2): 251–290.
Kruger, Haidee
2019 “
That Again: A Multivariate Analysis of the Factors Conditioning Syntactic Explicitness in Translated English.” Across Languages and Cultures 20 (1): 1–33.
Lanstyák, István, and Pál Heltai
2012 “Universals in Language Contact and Translation.” Across Languages and Cultures 13 (1): 99–121.
Laviosa, Sara
1998 “Core Patterns of Lexical Use in a Comparable Corpus of English Narrative Prose.” Meta 43 (4): 557–570.
Li, Dechao, and Kefei Wang
2012 “A Corpus-based Study on Lexical Patterns in Simultaneous Interpreting from Chinese into English.” Modern Foreign Languages 4: 409–415.
Liang, Junying, and Qianxi Lv
2020 “Converging Evidence in Empirical Interpreting Studies: Peculiarities, Paradigms and Prospects.” In New Empirical Perspectives on Translation and Interpreting, edited by Lore Vandevoorde, Joke Daems, and Bart Defrancq, 303–332. London: Routledge.
Lv, Qianxi, and Junying Liang
2018 “Is Consecutive Interpreting Easier than Simultaneous Interpreting? A Corpus-based Study of Lexical Simplification in Interpretation.” Perspectives 27 (1): 91–106.
Nini, Andrea
2014 The Multidimensional Analysis Tagger. https://sites.google.com/site/multidimensionaltagger
Olohan, Maeve, and Mona Baker
2000 “Reporting That in Translated English: Evidence for Subconscious Processes of Explicitation?” Across Languages and Cultures 1 (2): 141–158.
Pym, Antony
2015 “Translating as Risk Management.” Journal of Pragmatics 85: 67–80.
Qin, Hongwu, and Kefei Wang
2009 “A Parallel Corpus-based Study of Chinese as Target Language in EC Translation.” Foreign Language Teaching and Research 2: 131–136.
Russell, Debra
2002 Interpreting in Legal Contexts: Consecutive and Simultaneous Interpretation. Burtonsville, MD: Linstok.
Russo, Mariachiara, Claudio Bendazzoli, and Annalisa Sandrelli
2006 “Looking for Lexical Patterns in a Trilingual Corpus of Source and Interpreted Speeches: Extended Analysis of EPIC (European Parliament Interpreting Corpus).” Forum 4 (1): 221–254.
Sandrelli, Annalisa, and Claudio Bendazzoli
2005 “Lexical Patterns in Simultaneous Interpreting: A Preliminary Investigation of EPIC (European Parliament Interpreting Corpus).” Proceedings from the Corpus Linguistics Conference Series 1 (1): 1–18. Birmingham: University of Birmingham. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/corpus/conference-archives/2005-journal/ContrastiveCorpusLinguistics/lexicalpatternsinsimultaneousinterpreting.doc
Scott, Mike
2012 WordSmith Tools (Version 6). Lexical Analysis Software. https://lexically.net/wordsmith/downloads/
Shlesinger, Miriam, and Noam Ordan
2012 “More Spoken or More Translated? Exploring a Known Unknown of Simultaneous Interpreting.” Target 24 (1): 43–60.
Shlesinger, Miriam
1989 Simultaneous Interpretation as a Factor in Effecting Shifts in the Position of Texts in the Oral-Literate Continuum. MA thesis. Tel Aviv University.
1995 “Shifts in Cohesion in Simultaneous Interpreting.” The Translator 1 (2): 193–214.
1998 “Corpus-based Interpreting Studies as an Offshoot of Corpus-based Translation Studies.” Meta 43 (4): 486–493.
2008 “Towards a Definition of Interpretese: An Intermodal, Corpus-based Study.” In Efforts and Models in Interpreting and Translation Research: A Tribute to Daniel Gile, edited by Gyde Hansen, Andrew Chesterman, and Heidrun G. Arbogast, 237–253. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Van Rooy, Bertus, Lize Terblanche, Christoph Haase, and Joseph Schmied
2010 “Register Differentiation in East African English: A Multidimensional Study.” English World-Wide 31 (3): 311–349.
Volansky, Vered, Noam Ordan, and Shuly Wintner
2015 “On the Features of Translationese.” Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 30 (1): 98–118.
Wu, Baimei, Andrew K. F. Cheung, and Xing Jie
2021 “Learning Chinese Political Formulaic Phraseology from a Self-built Bilingual United Nations Security Council corpus: A pilot study.” Babel 67 (4): 500–521.
Xiao, Xiaoyan
2015 On the Oral-Literate Continuum: A Corpus-based Study of Interpretese. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press.
Xu, Cui
2021 Identification of L2 Interpretese: A Corpus-based, Intermodal, and Multidimensional Analysis. PhD diss. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Xu, Cui, and Dechao Li
2022 “Exploring Genre Variation and Simplification in Interpreted Language from Comparable and Intermodal Perspectives.” Babel 68 (5): 742–770.