Simultaneous Interpreting in the Environment of Complicated Bilingual Communication

Researchers of linguistic and extralinguistic aspects of simultaneous interpretation are unanimous in assuming that simultaneous interpreting is performed in the extreme conditions of communication – acoustic and phonological "noise", deficit of time, the speed of speech imposed by the speaker upon the interpreter and the need to interpret from time to time passages of written documents, which the speaker reads out. [Чернов: 11; Виссон: 19-36]. Therefore simultaneous interpreting is a complicated job not only in terms of speech but also in terms of psychological pressure and stress the interpreter has to endure. At the end of the day, the speaker addresses the audience but not the interpreter. Interpreters, thus, have to perform a double function ofbeing at the same time receivers and senders of information ("split attention"). Ergonomic research of simultaneous interpreter's work gives grounds to compare it with other kinds of activities performed in the complicated environment, such as, for instance, the work of flying control officers at airports, who monitor take-off and landing of the aircraft at airports [Чернов: 10]. Professional standards of simultaneous interpretation are set up by the international associations of interpreters such as AIIC (see Annexes 2 and 8). However successful simultaneous interpretation, when in many instances the interpreter does not know the end of the message he started to interpret, has to be ensured by certain tools and techniques [Чужакин: 17].

One of such tools is anticipation based upon the previous context, macro context of the discourse and background knowledge of the interpreter. Theoretically, anticipation is quite feasible at all linguistic levels - from the morpheme and lexeme to the whole fragment of utterance.

However, there are situations, when even skills of anticipation do not help simultaneous interpreter very much. First of all this concerns interpretation from languages, where the reversed order of words is allowed, i.e. where the speaker begins the utterance with the objects or adverbial modifiers and places the predicates (verbs) and subjects at the end. This often happens in such languages with the free order of words as Ukrainian, Russian, German or Portuguese, whereas translation into English presumes the direct order of words: subject, predicate (verb), object, etc. Sometimes speakers of languages with the free order ofwords intentionally or unintentionally "rhematise" (highlight) certain words by putting them into the front position of the utterance which creates additional complications for the interpreter, who has to apply certain tools and techniques to allow himself/herself some extra waiting time to hear, to perceive and to anticipate what the speaker says or might say in the final part of the utterance. These tools and techniques provide safeguards for simultaneous interpreters, so that they avoid "gaps" in interpreting, however, these tools have not yet been profoundly studied. They should not be regarded as mistakes or professional weaknesses of interpreters, as practically all simultaneous interpreters, certified by AIIC and TAALS, use them.

Below we suggest a brief description of such tools and techniques followed by the analysis of a sample transcript of a real-life simultaneous interpreting product.