This book presents qualitative research into court interpreting in Poland. Conversation Analysis of bilateral communicative events where the Polish-English and Polish-Spanish language pairs are involved confirms that interpreters, obliged to satisfy the principles of professional ethics, are active participants in the interaction.

Court interpreting understood as services provided for court stakeholders and court's private clients is a subdiscipline which has emerged as an area of investigation within Interpreting Studies. Although the research in court interpreting has been enjoying prominence at an international level, there are still aspects of the profession which need further analysis. This book is aimed at presenting qualitative research into court interpreting in Poland, and in particular, where the Polish-English and (to a lesser extent) Polish-Spanish language pairs are involved. The study pertains to the descriptive research into court interpreting where the interpreter is perceived as an active participant in the interaction obliged to satisfy the principles of professional ethics.

Autorentext

Agnieszka Biernacka is a legal translator and interpreter, court interpreting researcher and trainer at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, Poland, as well as author of a monography on court interpreting and of papers on court interpreting and legal translation. She also is a member of several professional organizations (PSH, AESLA, EST).

Inhalt

Contents

Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I Theoretical Background for the Research into Court Interpreting

1 Court interpreting: contextualization

1.1 Court interpreting within the context of community interpreting the context of community interpreting

1.2 Historical dimension of court interpreting

1.3 Principles of ethics in court interpreting

1.4 Interpreters and the right to a fair trial: Polish perspective

1.4.1 Past legislation concerning court interpreters in Poland

1.4.2 The Polish Act on the Profession of Sworn Translator

1.4.3 The Polish sworn translator's code

1.4.4 Professional associations of sworn translators in Poland

1.4.5 Sworn translator's training in Poland

1.5 Conclusions

2 Interpreters as active participants in the communicative events: literature review

2.1 Ethnomethodological insights into court interpreting

2.1.1 Garfinkel's approach to interaction

2.1.2 Goffman's ritualized face-to-face interactions

2.1.3 Institutional talk

2.2 Shift from a conduit metaphor to active participation

2.3 Visibility of the interpreter involved in the trilogue

2.3.1 The interpreter's active participation as manifested by asking and answering questions

2.3.2 Additions and omissions introduced in the interpretations

2.3.3 Modifications of the main speakers' styles

2.4 Conclusions

Part II Empirical Study of Episodes of Interpreter-Mediated Interactions in the Polish Courtroom

3 Methodology and preliminary constraints in the research into interpreter-mediated courtroom talks

3.1 Collecting data for qualitative research in court interpreting

3.1.1 The Court's permission

3.2 Data processing for CA

3.2.1 Transcribing the recordings

3.2.2 Quality of the collected material

3.2.3 Collected material: sample size and languages

3.2.4 Data presentation

3.3 Integrated research in interpreter-mediated court interactions

3.3.1 Classification of the collected material according to the mechanisms in interaction

3.3.2 Interpreter's renditions and interpreter's utterances: evolution of the model

3.3.3 Integrating the results: correlation of interaction mechanisms and interpreter's renditions

3.4 Conclusions

4 Interpreters as participants in the turn-taking system of courtroom talks

4.1 The next speaker selected by the current speaker

4.1.1 The primary party selected as the next speaker

4.1.2 The interpreter selected as the next speaker

4.2 The next speaker self-selects

4.2.1 The interpreter self-selects

4.2.2 The primary party self-selects

4.3 Conclusions

5 Overlaps and gaps in the interpreter-mediated interactions

5.1 Overlaps

5.1.1 Interpreter-included overlaps

5.1.2 Interpreter-excluded overlaps

5.2 Gaps

5.2.1 Interpreter-created gaps

5.2.2 Primary-party created gaps

5.2.3 Multiple gaps

5.3 Conclusions

6 Adjacency pairs as components of bilingual institutional talk

6.1 Counters in courtroom interactions

6.1.1 Judge-created counters

6.1.2 Primary party-created counters

6.2 Judge-initiated preferred and dispreferred responses

6.3 Upgrades

6.3.1 The Judge's assessment upgraded

6.3.2 The Witness's/Defendant's assessment upgraded

6.4 Over-answering yes-no questions

6.5 Under-answering yes-no questions

6.6 Same evaluation

6.6.1 Lawyer-interpreter same evaluation

6.6.2 Witness-interpreter same evaluation

6.7 Downgrades

6.7.1 Judge's assessment downgraded

6.7.2 Witness's/Defendant's downgraded assessment

6.8 Conclusions

7 Pre- and post-expansions in the interpreters' renditions

7.1 Pre-expansions

7.1.1 Interpreter-created pre-expansion

7.1.2 Primary party-created pre-expansion

7.2 Post-expansions

7.2.1 Interpreter-created post-expansions

7.2.2 Primary party-created post-expansions

7.3 Multiple expansions

7.4 Conclusions

8 Insert expansions in communicative events

8.1 Post-first insert expansions

8.1.1 Interpreter-created post-first insert expansions

8.1.2 Primary party-created post-first insert expansions

8.2 Pre-second insert expansions

8.2.1 Interpreter-created pre-second insert expansions

8.2.2 Primary party-created pre-second insert expansions

8.3 Multiple-insert expansions

8.3.1 Interpreter-created multiple-insert expansions

8.3.2 Primary party-created multiple-insert expansions

8.3.3 Multi-party multiple-insert expansions

8.4 Conclusions

9 Repairs as responses to problems in bilingual interactions

9.1 Self-initiated self-repair

9.1.1 Interpreter-created problem in conversation

9.1.2 Primary party-created problem in conversation

9.2 Self-initiated other-repair

9.2.1 Interpreter-created problem in conversation

9.3 Other-initiated self-repair

9.3.1 Interpreter-created problem in conversation

9.3.2 Primary party-created problem in conversation

9.4 Other-initiated other-repair

9.4.1 Interpreter-created problem in conversation

9.5 Conclusions

10 Discussion on the results and recommendations for further research

Bibliography

Index