UTF-8__0415396417Translation

ISSUES IN INTERPRETING STUDIESRather, an effort has been made to label the main themes in parallel withthe ‘issues’ addressed in other chapters of this book. In any case, it shouldbe pointed out that the various research topics are not clearly separable butinherently interrelated (as holds true also for the conceptual and modellingperspectives reviewed in section 8.2).8.3.1 COGNITIVE PROCESSINGIn line with the influential view of (simultaneous) interpreting as a cognitiveprocessing activity (see section 8.2.3), and given the unquestionable centralityof human mental faculties in carrying out whatever type or variant of thiscomplex communicative task, the basic component processes of comprehensionand production in two different languages are fundamental to anyaccount of interpreting (see Pöchhacker 2004, Chapter 6). Drawing oninsights and methods from such fields as cognitive psychology, psycholinguisticsand cognitive pragmatics, research has explored both the cognitivesubstrate (i.e. memory) and the various strategies employed in processingverbal messages and their paralinguistic and non-verbal components (seePoyatos 1987). Given the limitations of human working memory, a crucialconcern is the high cognitive task load generated by the simultaneityof the main processing operations – concurrent source-text comprehensionand target-text production in the simultaneous mode, but also source-textcomprehension, memorizing and note taking in consecutive interpreting.As highlighted in Daniel Gile’s (1997) Effort Models, concurrent processescompeting for limited attentional resources lie at the heart of performanceproblems in (conference) interpreting, making attention management theinterpreter’s essential skill (see also Chapter 4).A related focus of interest is the strategies used by interpreters to cope withsuch processing constraints as high source-text presentation rate (speed), highinformation density, scripted style and unusual accents. They include on-linestrategies such as anticipation, compression and syntactic restructuring as wellas off-line strategies preceding the real-time task (e.g. background research,study of documents, preparation of glossaries). Most of the latter are designedto enhance the interpreter’s thematic and contextual knowledge and thus toaid ‘top-down’ (knowledge-driven) processing of linguistic input. At the sametime, interpreters are guided by communicative (listener-oriented) considerations,so that features of the situated interaction become an integral part oftheir cognitive processing activity.8.3.2 QUALITYProducing an interpretation that fulfils the communicative needs andexpectations of the intended addressee is arguably the interpreter’s primarytask – and the principal yardstick for measuring the quality of an interpreter’s135