Identifier: TDX:2413
Authors: Lambertini Andreotti, Julia
Abstract:
In California, non-English speakers involved in judicial proceedings are assisted by a language interpreter so that they are placed on an equal footing with those who understand English. This purpose is articulated in a code of ethics, which also requires interpreters to maintain the source form and register in the target language, and to keep silent even when non-comprehension is suspected. This intercultural communicative event involves judicial officers who use a formal register of legal language; a Spanish speaker from a different culture, education level, and exposure to (a different) legal system; and an interpreter who must be as invisible as humanly possible. This empirical research aims to find out and compare English speakers’ and Spanish speakers’ comprehension of high-register legal language, and experiment with register simplification to assess any effects on said comprehension. Additionally, this research aims to collect data on interpreters' views and awareness of register, register variation, and intervention; and on attorneys' views on interpreters' intervention. In keeping with the sociocultural turn that has made itself felt in Interpreting Studies, this research seeks to bring the social, cultural, and educational constraints of the target-language receiver into the equation of modern-day judicial interpreting in California, which is still guided by principles of formal equivalence and source orientedness. In order to account for these target constraints, a target-oriented approach was applied to investigate this communicative event borrowing concepts from skopos theory and Toury’s notion of norms, two conceptual frameworks that challenged the equivalence paradigm. The aim of this research is to collect data that will help gain a better understanding of the interpreter's role and the communicative effectiveness of interpreter-mediated judicial proceedings.
Repositori URV