On omission in simultaneous interpreting: Risk analysis of a hidden effort

Abstract

One of the long-standing debates in studies on simultaneous interpreting would pit "contextualists", who see interpreters' performances as being conditioned by contextual determinants, against "cognitivists", who analyze performances in terms of cognitive constraints that would be the same for all professionals, regardless of context. Gile's Effort Models would seem to be very much in the cognitive camp. However, modeling of the resources used when interpreters make omissions suggests that cognitive management may actively respond to contextual factors such as the aims of the discourse, the strategies of the speakers, and the variable risks of the text items. Analysis of the data from one of Gile's experiments indicates that the cognitive management of omissions is indeed highly variable. Omissions that are low-risk for the aims of the discourse occur in a constant background mode, almost without source-text stimuli, such that they are found in repeat performances with similar frequency but in different places. On the other hand, omissions that incur high levels of risk tend to be repaired in repeat performance. This suggests that simultaneous interpreters strive for non-omission only in the case of high-risk contextualization. Further, since their management skills must incorporate enough contextualization for the necessary risk analysis to take place, the cognitive strategies of interpreters should be modeled in the same terms as those of all other linguistic mediators.

More spoken or more translated?

“…The next stage will be towards deepening our understanding of the ways in which the product of interpreting may be used to teach us more about translation, and vice versa. Given that "contemporary translation practices are promoting more and more situations in which the translator's time-on-task is highly regulated, such that time is regularly assessed as a variable in the final quality equation" (Pym 2008: 100) the relevance of such inferences is all the more real.…”

Engagement and graduation resources as markers of translator/interpreter positioning

“…My interpretation of the data (Pym 2008) suggests that the interpreters invested greater discursive effort in the high-risk items in their second rendition, resulting in more elaborate syntax and fewer omissions with respect to those items.…”

Los exámenes de admisión en las organizaciones internacionales: la oposición para intérpretes en plantilla de las Naciones Unidas

“…Over the years, numerous studies have been carried out on the problems associated with interpreting fast speeches (e.g. Gerver 1969Gerver /2002Barik 1973Barik , 1994Sunnari 1995;Pio 2003;Meuleman & Van Besien 2009;Pym 2009;Changshuan 2010;Barghout, Ruiz Rosendo & Varela García 2015). In these studies, it is often argued that since the total cognitive capacity of the interpreter is limited, there exists the possibility of his or her working memory becoming overloaded when confronted with speeches delivered at a high rate.…”