Functional System of Simultaneous Interpretation

Under the term "functional system of simultaneous interpretation" we mean the sequence of stages and steps in interpreting process at which interpreter performs "certain mental work" in order to complete interpreting successfully. Human brain does not only reflect events of the real world in space and in time but also accumulates the experience of the past, so that predictive statements about the world can be made. This feature of the human brain allows to forecast how events may develop and to use the technique of "anticipation" (імовірнісне прогнозування) or "foretelling", "predicting" units of information that may appear in the ongoing oral discourse. Having in mind the communicative aim of the speaker, the order inwhich the speaker introduces "new information" (rhemes) and develops the essential idea in his speech, interpreter may switch from listening and perception to understanding and anticipating; from selecting the best option of translation to self–correction.

The functional system of simultaneous interpretation may be in the most general terms described as having the following stages:

Stage 1. Comprehension of the SL message and anticipation of the possible development of the sense of the message, which consists of the following steps:

a) Perception of the phonic substance (sounds and intonation) of the SL message or its elements. If the interpreter fails to complete this step, further interpreting becomes totally impossible. Therefore the skills of "hearing" the speaker are so important for interpreting and should be developed at early stages of training professional interpreters.

b) Comprehension of the sense of the SL message (or its elements) on the basis of the general linguistic, professional and cultural knowledge of the interpreter and conversion this sense into the " inner speech" of the interpreter. In practice this step is confined to "browsing" through all possible synonyms of what the interpreter has perceived at step "a", which, in the ideal case, leads to step "c" – "understanding". However to understand in full scope what stands behind certain "senses", the interpreter has to be "a little bit of an expert" in the subject field of interpretation, which is not always the case. Nevertheless, even if only steps "a" and "b" have been successfully completed, it is quite possible to proceed with interpreting (i.e. to go on to stage 2, without the in–depth understanding of the nature of things or processes denoted by certain words, of course under condition that the interpreter knows (or, rather has in his active thesaurus) the TL equivalents of those words (usually these are subject field terms or pat phrases.

c) Understanding of the sense of the SL message on the basis of steps "a" and "b", which, of course, is the best possible scenario of interpreting.

d) Anticipation, which is the basis for further perception, comprehension and understanding.

Stage 2. "Taking decision" (a subconscious act) to interpret the message. It is kind of a "red line" or turning point, after which interpreters "start speaking" in the TL. The natural interval between the source and target language signals usually ranges from 3 to 7 seconds with professional simultaneous interpreters.

Stage 3. Constructing the message in the TL, that consists of the following steps:

a) Constructing the semantic structure of the TLmessage (constructing sense).

b) Constructing the grammatical and syntactic structure of the TLmessage (constructing grammar patterns and arranging words in a certain order).

c) Constructing the prosodic structure of the TLmessage (constructing the phonic substance and intonation).

Stage 4. Self–correction (if necessary). Self–correction is a rare case in simultaneous interpreting due to obvious technical reasons, however, if the interpreter feels that he has made a mistake, it is better to try to correct it in further interpreting. This may be done very quickly in a parenthetical way without interrupting the "flow" of interpreting or in a short pause that may occur in oral discourse but, obviously, correction should be made within the shortest possible time after a mistake has been made and not when the conference is over. All these stages (except, probably, self–correction) are performed at a subconscious level and have to do with professional skills of simultaneous interpreters, which they develop throughout their everyday practice. These stages may look pretty good on paper but they are not the kind of saying to yourself: " Well, I have perceived and understood what the message is all about and now I start interpreting.'" There is no vocal " Ta–da! Here I start with my TL option!" in real time. All these subconscious processes haven't yet been in full scope studied either by linguistics, or by psychology and are acquired with practice and experience of work.