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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

Acknowledgements xiii Introduction xiv 1. Court interpreting: The main issues 1 2. Historical overview of Court Interpreting in Australia 15 3. Courtroom questioning and the interpreter 31 4. The use of discourse markers in courtroom questions 61 5. The style of the Spanish speaking witnesses' answers and the interpreters' renditions 87 6. Control in the courtroom 159 7. The interpreters' response 211 Conclusions 235 Notes 245 References 247 Index 263

"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." Susan Berk-Seligson, University of Pittsburgh

"Sandra Hale's contribution is certainly to be added to the few serious attempts to get to grips with the intricacies of community interpreting." Basil Hatim, American University of Sharjah, UAE

"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." Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer, Department of Linguistics, New York University, on Linguist List, Vol.16.1381 (2005)

"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." Diana Eades , University of New England, Australia

"The book has impressed me as a substantial study of courtroom interpreting practices by a knowledgeable specialist." Vladimir Khairoulline, Ufa, Russia, in Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, Vol. 15:1 (2007)