Compression

Compression and its Types in Simultaneous Interpretation Compression (компресія змісту повідомлення) is understood as the economy of speech signals that are required to render the same amount of information (the same sense). Compression becomes possible due to the natural redundancy of speech and is widely used in simultaneous interpreting, especially when the speaker speaks fast. However, if the speaker speaks slowly, excessive compression may result in the unnatural pauses in translation, which make listeners believe that interpreter does not translate everything. In such cases it is even better to use a little bit of contextually grounded expansion (e.g. instead of складні умови праці interpreter may say: умови, які значно ускладнюють працю), or to use a pause to compensate previous losses or for self–correction.

However, interpreters are highly recommended not to abuse the so–called "hedges" to fill in the gaps in interpretation. The abuse of hedges makes interpretation too lengthy and, in fact, may be perceived as a lack of interpreter's knowledge or as the use of the "powerless" or "female" talk as it is described by many scholars writing on the gender issues in language and speech. Typical examples of hedges are as follows: well; you know; that is to say; somehow; kind of; you see; et cetera; ну; так би мовити; мовляв; типу, etc.

Most authors distinguish between the following kinds of compression in simultaneous interpreting, which may be illustrated by the examples from one and the same language or from the contrasted languages.