LINGUIST List 10.658

Wed May 5 1999

Review: Wadensjo: interpreting as Interaction (2nd Rev)

Editor for this issue: Andrew Carnie <carnielinguistlist.org>



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  • Cynthia Roy, Interpreting as Interaction Review

    Message 1: Interpreting as Interaction Review

     Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 10:00:24 -0500
    From: Cynthia Roy <cbroyuno.edu>
    Subject: Interpreting as Interaction Review


    Wadensjo, Cecilia. Interpreting as Interaction. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Ltd. 312 pp. (softbound)

    [Editor's note: The 'o' in Dr. Wadensjo's last name has an umlaut over it. Unfortunately, the Linguist Listserv cannot yet deal with diacritics. Our apologies]

    Reviewed by Cynthia Roy, University of New Orleans

    Synopsis: In Wadensjo's own words: "This book is about interpreter-mediated conversations as a mode of communication, about interpreters and their responsibilities, about what they do, what they think they should do, and what others expect them to do in face-to-face, institutional encounters" (2). The heart of the book examines empirical data - audio-recorded, interpreted encounters within medical, legal, and social service settings - to show us how interpreters and primary speakers make 'sense' of the interaction at the time it is occurring and as they talk to each other. Wadensjo's work is theoretically grounded in analytical frameworks about the nature of social organization (Goffman) and in the dialogic theory of language and interaction (Bahktin). She offers a seminal perspective of the interpreter as an engaged actor solving not only problems of translation but problems of mutual understanding in situated interaction. Her analysis demonstrates that interpreting requires two interdependent activities - translation and coordination - established by the fact that interpreters create two kinds of talk: talk that is generated from relaying the messages of the other speakers, and talk that is generated from the interpreter to assist (or mediate) the flow of talk. She provides examples of utterances directed at the interpreter and from the interpreter which are not about the content of the relayed message. Thus, the progression of talk is both a co-ordinated activity among the participants, and a responsibility of the interpreter. "In an interpreter-mediated conversation, the progression and substance of talk, the distribution of responsibility for this among co-interlocuters, and what, as a result of interaction, becomes mutual and shared understanding - all will to some extent depend on the interpreter's words and deeds" (195). Exploring further the interpreter-mediated conversation as situtated activity and interpreter rights and responsibilities, Wadensjo problematizes 'understanding' in conversation and its opposite 'miscommunication' by showing three different ways interpreters handle miscommunication while on duty. The ways in which interpreters deal with miscommunication reveals their perspectives on what constitutes sufficient understanding among the participants and how the primary parties achieve shared and mutual understanding. Towards the end, Wadensjo explores the interpreter's performance as an art of reporting others' words. How interpreters relate as narrators of others' speech to convey impressions of self as a person using others' words or to "re-present the expressiveness of preceding talk" is how interpreters mark the distinction between their own and others' responsibilities for meaning. For the general public and newcomers, interpreters often explain their role and responsibility with an old adage "just translate and translate everything." But it is not useful for defining or explaining the everyday experience of interpreting work. Nor does it define interpreting as a profession. Wadensjo has opened a vast new perspective for understanding, researching, and teaching the work of interpreting.

    Evaluation: Much of the research and writing about interpreting focuses on interpreters interpreting a single speaker, or 'conference interpreting.' Much of the research derives from cognitive, psycholinguistic frameworks which focus on the transmission of a message in one direction. However, the bulk of interpreting work world-wide is that of an interpreter with two primary other participants all of whom are engaged in an immediate effort to understand each other and accomplish a goal. This has proved a complex and difficult communicative event to unravel. Wadensjo has given us the first full-length work to suggest that we can understand the task of interpreting much better if we alter our perspective to account for the interactivity of the primary participants, rather than looking only at the interpreter and/or the interpreted message. The frameworks of social interaction and discourse analysis provide a deeper, more complex understanding of the nature of rights and responsibilities within an interpreter-mediated encounter. Wadensjo's detailed, meticulous, brilliant analysis has thrown open avenues of research that will be explored for years to come. When Goffman (1981) introduced his notions of participation framework, the complex ways in which speakers relate to their utterances and to other speakers, he did not explore the complexities within the role of listener. Wadensjo does. She develops the notion of reception formats corresponding to that of Goffman's 'production formats.' Distinguishing between production roles is a way of making explicit in what sense speakers display their own and others' opinions or attitudes, the gain in distinguishing different modes of listening is to more thoroughly elucidate how individuals demonstrate "their own opinions and atttidues concerning rights and responsibilities in interaction" (92). This is a major contribution to linguistics, social interaction, and communication theory. An interpreter's role, as both a social role and a role that performs an activity is realized through interaction with others. With analytical precision and detail, Wadensjo explains how interpreters both listen and speak within shifting stances of their own participation, shifting from relaying to coordinating the interaction. Thus, they change the level and degree of their participation. This is significant because it profoundly changes the current vision of what interpreters are doing. In fact, the pas de troix is the basic, fundamental encounter of interpreting and other models should be seen as deriving from it. It changes teaching the process of interpreting and the ways in which interpreters are certified. It changes everything.

    Goffman, Erving. 1981. Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Cynthia B. Roy, Ph.D., has just accepted a new position as Associate Professor and Director of an American Sign Language/English Interpreting Program at Indiana U/Purdue U Indianapolis. Her book, Interpreting as a Discourse Process, published by Oxford University Press, is due out in early fall.

    - Cynthia B. Roy, Ph.D. Dept. of English University of New Orleans New Orleans LA 70148 504-280-7323; 280-7334 (fax) cbroyuno.edu