Chapter 7: Analysis and Synthesis during Interpretation Process

The qualities of a good translator are not few.

Martin Luther

7.1. Two stages of interpretation process

The process of interpretation as a speech communication consists of two stages, following directly each other – analysis (comprehension) and synthesis (speaking), which proceed in quick succession, which implies automatic performance. In analysis automatism means that every translation unit (some set of lexical-grammatical meanings, necessary and sufficient for finding their equivalents in the target language is recognized and extracted at the earliest possible time on the basis of the preceding units, i.e. context.

7.2. Understanding and extraction of meaningful units

While interpreting there is no possibility to draw away from the context. One must learn the skill of extracting meaningful units which must be translated, i.e. analyzing the text even when some of its portion was not understood or was comprehended with distortions, especially when translating from foreign language. The point is that every message is always overlaid by noise, different types of disturbances and interferences, which make message comprehension difficult. Not always these noises can be eliminated fully, especially when we use sound-transmitting equipment. Often the interpretation proceeds in circumstances not adapted for high quality communication (place with bad acoustics, – boom, buzz, unauthorized, secondary talks, lots of people present, industrial or agricultural enterprise, construction site, military object, transport, etc.).

It goes without saying that a prerequisite to the satisfactory interpretation of the speech is that it should have been understood as fully and accurately as possible. This implies that the interpreter should:

1) hear it well;

2) have an intimate knowledge of the language in which it was given;

3) be acquainted with the specific culture of the country of the speaker;

4) be aware of the linguistic peculiarities of that country in connection with pronunciation, terminology, etc.;

5) be well versed in the subject matter;

6) have the advantage of a wide general education.

7.3. Hearing and the types of noises

The notion of “noise” includes not only physical but linguistic factors as well: incorrectly pronounced speech units, the words unknown to the interpreter (abbreviations, terms, proper names, etc.), polysemantic words (ambiguous), complicated grammatical constructions, different speech fails or errors, etc.

7.4. Guess and intuition

All these noises the interpreter can overcome completely, differentiating correctly the meaningful unit which is to be interpreted, taking the previous context into account. “Guess” (ability to establish the probability of speech unit appearance) is a necessary precondition of the analysis in interpretation. This skill is developed on the basis of training, practice, general erudition, linguistic efficiency and the efficiency in regional geography, as well as the result of substantial mastering typical (stereotyped) word combinations, syntagmatic connections, grammatical and intonation devices for sentence cohesion. Regular exercises with using technical appliances (TV, video, recordings) promote this ability as well as regular reading and analysis of different texts in native and foreign languages.