Conference interpretation
SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
IN A MULTICHANNEL INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT
The article analyzes various types of information that is perceived by an interpreter during simultaneous interpreting. The totality of audio and visual channels, their features and importance for achieving maximum equivalence of the interpreted text are considered. It is concluded that the interpreter's speech is repeatedly "filtered", rethought, processed and synthesized information, received in parallel through several audio and visual channels.
Key words: interpretation; simultaneous interpreting; simultaneous interpreter; information channel; sound channel; visual channel; extralinguistic factors; speaker; recipient; communicative act; kinesics; selective ability of the interpreter.
The purpose of the article is to analyze the practical significance of information channels perceived by an interpreter during simultaneous interpreting. In its most simplified form, simultaneous interpreting is usually described as a type of professional interpretation, which "includes two parallel processes: the perception of speech in the source language and its generation in the target language"
At the same time, this definition requires detailing, taking into account the fact that simultaneous interpreting is “a form of a complex process of information processing by a person, including the perception, accumulation, isolation, transformation and transmission of verbal information." Let us pay special attention in this definition to the word “information”, which is the key word for us, and also clarify whether we are talking about the perception of only verbal information.
Indeed, the information that a simultaneous interpreter perceives is not limited to the sound channel of the speaker's speech, which enters the headphones. This channel is accompanied by other information flows, the essence and meaning of which for the interpreter may vary depending on a number of objective and subjective factors. Below is a list of information channels entering the simultaneous interpreting booth.
1. The first sound channel: the speaker's speech. The main channel that carries the main semantic information. It is namely on it that the interpreter's attention is constantly focused. It is fundamentally important that only the audio information, i.e. the speaker's speech itself, is transcribed by the interpreter in the target language. All other information channels are auxiliary ones.
On the one hand, we are talking about solving a technical problem.
Many students who are learning simultaneous interpreting complain about the difficulty of finding the optimal balance between the loudness level of the speaker and their own voice. This complexity is indeed purely technical in nature, since the interpreter perceives both the sound channel at the same time and is forced to literally “split” his hearing so as not to drown out the speaker with his own voice, and vice versa.
On the other hand, the interpreter 's own speech is a valuable channel that carries the entire amount of information.
