NON-COGNITIVE CONSTRAINTS AND INTERPRETER STRATEGIES IN POLITICAL INTERVIEWS

Approaches to Translation Studies

Volumn 14, Issue , 1997, Pages 111-129

  Baker, Mona ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 85182629565     PISSN: 01690523     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1163/9789004485884_011     Document Type: Chapter

References (9)

1. A notable exception is Anderson (1976), who explicitly mentions such things as the interpreter's effort to cope with role conflict and role overload (217), as well as "the level of tension" specifically (222). Brian Harris (personal conuuunication) also suggests that more infonuation on this aspect of interpreter perfonuance may be gleaned from the memoirs of interpreters who worked extensively for political leaders such as Hitler, Churchill and Stalin.
2. Many more millions watched this aSSigIIDlent, or clips of it, in other parts of the world. I am grateful to the staffat the ITN Press Office for providing this information.
3. It is worth pointing out that although the political interview as such is not a new genre, the televised version of it, as discussed in this paper, is a relatively recent phenomenolt. Also, other types of media interpreting may prove subject to constraints similar to those discussed here.
4. Trevor McDonald, who has interviewed many world leaders (including Saddam Hussein and Qaddafi), has been extremely helpful in pointing out some of the regularities in this type of context and in describing the specific events surrounding the interview with Saddam in great detail. I am very grateful for his assistance.
5. S When interviewed outside their own countries, it is more conUllon for leaders who have some competence in the language of the host country to give interviews in that language. King Hussein of Jordan, for example, gives interviews on American television in English. Similarly, President Jacques Chirac of France was recently interviewed in English on an American chat show, where "the fact tltat he was appearing as a guest on a specifically American television progranulle was not felt to detract from France's campaign to maintain French as an intemational language" (Language lntemational 1995).
6. Ruth Morris (personal communication), conunenting on an earlier draft of this paper, states that "the strategy of giving several altematives to cover the entire semantic field was sometimes used in the Demjanjuk trial", and suggests that "0 C011Unon thread, in part, is the idea of saying something 'on the record'. with the potential consequences for the interpreter of getting it wrong by plumping for just one meaning being horrific. So one goes for covering one's back".
7. The interpreter actually uses the English word helpless here.
8. It had clearly not been decided at this stage whether the interpreter was going to translate in both directions. In the event, he did not interpret any of McDonald's utterances but worked into English only.
9. I am grateful to Miriam Shlesinger, Ruth Morris and Daniel Gile for their perceptive comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and to Brian Harris for a number of helpful suggestions Ibllowing an oral presentation of this material at Malaga University in Febmary 1996. Any remaining errors and infelicities are my OW11.