The Discourse of Court Interpreting: Discourse practices of the law, the witness and the interpreter(52 Benjamins Translation Library)

This book explores the intricacies of court interpreting through a thorough analysis of the authentic discourse of the English-speaking participants, the Spanish-speaking witnesses and the interpreters. Written by a practitioner, educator and researcher, the book presents the reader with real issues that most court interpreters face during their work and shows through the results of careful research studies that interpreter’s choices can have varying degrees of influence on the triadic exchange. It aims to raise the practitioners’ awareness of the significance of their choices and attempts to provide a theoretical basis for interpreters to make informed decisions rather than intuitive ones. It also suggests solutions for common problems. The book highlights the complexities of court interpreting and argues for thorough training for practicing interpreters to improve their performance as well as for better understanding of their task from the legal profession. Although the data is drawn from Spanish-English cases, the main results can be extended to any language combination. The book is written in a clear, accessible language and is aimed at practicing interpreters, students and educators of interpreting, linguists and legal professionals.

Table of Contents:
1. Acknowledgements; 2. Introduction; 3. 1. Court interpreting: The main issues; 4. 2. Historical overview of Court Interpreting in Australia; 5. 3. Courtroom questioning and the interpreter; 6. 4. The use of discourse markers in courtroom questions; 7. 5. The style of the Spanish speaking witnesses' answers and the interpreters' renditions; 8. 6. Control in the courtroom; 9. 7. The interpreters' response; 10. Conclusions; 11. Notes; 12. References; 13. Index

Review :
The Discourse of Court Interpreting is an important contribution to a number of areas. It is primarily aimed at the field of court interpreting, adding to the limited knowledge about its practice and theory. It provides answers to practical problems based on emperical results, and its findings will be useful to court interpreters, interpreter educators and researchers. The book also makes a contribution to the field of discourse analysis regarding the discursive practices of different agents, the way in which discourse in negotiated in an institutional setting, and the way social roles are affected by discourse. Another contribution is made to the translatability of oral discourse between Spanish and English, from the lexical and grammatical to the pragmatic aspects of both languages. The book is also a contribution to achieving a higher standard of justice to speakers of non-dominant languages in the context of the courtroom. It provides linguists, interpreters and legal practitioners alike with invaluable insights into multiple ways in which pragmatics can have a crucial role in interpreted legal proceedings. The aim of the Benjamins Translation Library is to stimulate research and training in translation and interpreting studies. It is to be hoped that Hale's book on discourse practices of the law, the witness and the interpreter will inspire other researchers worldwide to follow the laborious but fascinating path, where the systems allows, of identifying, gathering and analyzing material in this area. The findings and insights gained form such rewarding work in each country can be used to inform the design and content of vital training courses for legal interpreters hoping to work in the jurisdiction concerned, and also – hopefully – as valuable input in efforts to raise the awareness of the judicial participants in legal proceedings involving individuals who do not speak the language of those proceedings. This book is a must for all those who either work with court interpreters or who themselves practice the profession of interpreting. By generating an impressively rich collection of data, Sandra Hale provides linguists, interpreters and legal practitioners alike with invaluable insights into the multiple ways in which pragmatics has a crucial role to play in interpreted legal proceedings. Discourse analysts, in particular, would have much to gain from the important findings of Hale’s research. The research reported in this book provides an important contribution to the study of court interpreting by investigating in detail the ways in which the interpreters' renditions may alter the pragmatic force of questions and answers in the courtroom. Sandra Hale's contribution is certainly to be added to the few serious attempts to get to grips with the intricacies of community interpreting. The book has impressed me as a substantial study of courtroom interpreting practices by a knowledgeable specialist. Hale's style is scholarly and readable, and her prose is richly illustrated with a total of 168 extracts from the courtroom data and 48 summary tables. DCI is a book which can be enjoyed by readers from a wide range of backgrounds, and I thoroughly recommend it to interpreters, interpreter trainers and students of Interpreting, legal professionals and law students, and linguistic scholars and students.