Transpreters’ translations of complainants’ narratives as evidence: whose version goes to court?

Ralarala, Monwabisi K.

doi:10.1080/13556509.2014.934002

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The lack of interpreter services throughout the justice system in Maputo means that many victims of DV are reliant on ad hoc interpretation from lawyers and advocates. Rather than responding to this situation with concern, as demonstrated by the female civil society participants, or activism, as demonstrated in neighbouring South Africa (Ralarala 2014), these male lawyers respond by asserting their professional right to act as gatekeepers to justice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Multilingualism on Reporting Domestic Violence in Mozambique

Heydon

Mabasso

2018

Language Matters

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This article examines the linguistic environment in which police and justice agencies conduct interviews in domestic violence cases in Maputo, Mozambique. In Maputo, most people speak one or more African languages and many do not speak the official language, Portuguese, fluently. Moreover, a complex justice environment in Maputo incorporates customary law such as community-based mediation. This article examines justice and civil society stakeholder attitudes towards the role of language in the justice system. Interviews with staff from ten agencies indicate that stakeholders recognise the positive value for victim-survivors of domestic violence to tell their story in their own language. However, stakeholder agencies sometimes act as "linguistic gate-keepers" and the authors conclude that a suitable first step in improving the state's response to domestic violence is the development of tools to support agency staff at all levels in explaining legal terminology and processes in simple Portuguese, or local language translations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Multilingualism on Reporting Domestic Violence in Mozambique

Heydon

Mabasso

2018

Language Matters

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“…In the South African context, record construction, pre-statement activity, as well as the formulation of a sworn statement, involve a joint exercise between both the transpreter and the complainant (Harding & Ralarala, 2017;Ralarala, 2014Ralarala, , 2016. The complainant relies solely on the linguistic competences and capabilities of the transpreter to act as a mouthpiece to convey accurately the content and the meaning of the original narrative while translating it into a legal text, hence a sworn statement.…”

Section: Context Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, he was found guilty on all five (5) counts (triple murder, attempted murder and obstructing the course of justice or administration of justice). Arguably, anomalies and errors in translation, or rewording, or retelling, that result in incompetence, as well as a lack of ethics on the part of transpreters (in Ralarala's 2014Ralarala's , 2016 in police interviewing of sworn statements could contribute to incarceration and incrimination (Ralarala & Rodrigues, 2019) or the opposite. Intralingual translation, like 'translation proper' , is characterised as a form of translation in that it "… rel[ies] on the same faculty of the human mind: its ability to interpret meaning from linguistic expressions and reformulate it depend[s] on the cognitive profile of the assumed reader" (Whyatt, 2017:189).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Police intralingual translations of complainants’ statements in South Africa: From interviewing to collaborative record construction of a legal text

Ralarala¹,

Lesch²

2022

Language and the Law: Global Perspectives in Forensic Linguistics From Africa and Beyond

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A civilian complainant's first encounter with an officer at a local police station in South Africa is an example of an event in which language, translation, narrative, power, law and criminal justice are all interconnected. Statements written by officers during these sessions form the basis of any further legal action and are a critical aspect of the law. In discharging this function, officers act as both intralingual and inter-lingual translators (Harding & Ralarala, 2017:158).

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“…Makhubu (2011) doen verslag oor die ontwikkeling van 'n tolkdiensmodel by die Durban Universiteit van Tegnologie. Ralarala (2012Ralarala ( , 2014 se werk handel oor die ondoeltreffendheid van hoftolking. Feinauer en Lesch (2013) wys op die gebrekkige vaardighede van tolke in die gesondheidsektor, en Molefe (2015) gee terugvoer oor die gebruik van tolking en vertaling vir verbeterde dienslewering in openbare domeine in die Vrystaat.…”

Section: Inleidingunclassified

Die vertaling en lokalisering van Terminologie van het tolken vir 'n Suid-Afrikaanse teikengehoor

Cornelius

Pienaar

2017

SPIL

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Although much research is currently undertaken on interpreting in South Africa, the profession and academic discourse lack standardised interpreting terminology, especially in the indigenous languages. One possible reason for this relates to the unique South African interpreting context compared to the rest of the world.It is against this backdrop that a decision was taken to translate the 2008 work, Terminologie van het tolken, by Salaets, Segers and Bloemen, published by Vantilt in Nijmegen, into Afrikaans, English, Northern Sotho and Zulu. However, right from the outset it became clear that a direct translation of the lemma list would not suffice and that a domestication translation strategy should be followed for the South African context. Firstly, it was necessary to expand the lemma list to provide for educational interpreting as practised in South Africa. Secondly, it became clear that the examples used for the purposes of elucidation would have to be localised. Thirdly, the source list contains several terms that are unique to a Dutch (and European) context, but which are not relevant in South Africa. Such terms were cautiously identified and omitted from the target list. The source list includes a number of terms from foreign languages (mostly French terms, for example cheval, décalage, déclic, perroquet) that were retained in Dutch and English, but for which new terms had to be coined in the indigenous languages in order to increase semantic accessibility for a local audience. The changes in the lemma list also necessitated certain editorial interventions.This article reports on the translation and localization process and the concomitant utilization of a predominantly domestication translation strategy to accomplish this purpose.

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Transpreters’ translations of complainants’ narratives as evidence: whose version goes to court?

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

The Impact of Multilingualism on Reporting Domestic Violence in Mozambique

The Impact of Multilingualism on Reporting Domestic Violence in Mozambique

Police intralingual translations of complainants’ statements in South Africa: From interviewing to collaborative record construction of a legal text

Die vertaling en lokalisering van Terminologie van het tolken vir 'n Suid-Afrikaanse teikengehoor

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