PROBLEMS OF ORAL TRANSLATION

2.1 PROBLEMS OF ORAL TRANSLATION

Consecutive translation is not full by definition. Firstly, even unique memory of some legendary interpreters is hardly able to keep all the details of a long speech, let alone the memory of mere mortals. Secondly, the consecutive translation is fulfilled basically denotatively, i.e. this is not a word-for-word translation of source text but its more or less free interpretation. This either suggests differences and incompleteness.

In consecutive translation the interpreter should rely on as much as possible set of wide and universal equivalents, on the context and on maximally full common and special knowledge base. Context plays the most important role in consecutive translation in contrast to simultaneous translation where the wide context practically absent and the choice of equivalents given by the dictionary is to be made according to the situation and background knowledge. /18/

Professional simultaneous translation is the type of oral translation at international conferences which is realized at the same time with the perception of the message by ear given instantaneously at the source language. The interpreter is at the booth which isolates him from the audience. During the simultaneous translation the information of a strictly limited volume is being processed in the extreme conditions at any space of time.

The extreme conditions of professional simultaneous translation sometimes lead to the statement of a question about appearing the condition of stress at the simultaneous interpreter. /25/

Simultaneous translation is always connected with huge psychological works and often with stress and it is quite natural, because to listen and to speak simultaneously is impossible for a usual man it is a psychological anomaly. It is impossible to translate simultaneously without special equipment. The translator needs earphones, a special booth and most of all he needs skills and translation devices. During the translation the reporter speaks or reads his text to the microphone in one language and the interpreter hears it from the ear-phones and translates it into another language simultaneously with the speaker. When the interpreter speaks to his microphone the audience, which hears his translation from the ear-phones, must gain an impression that the speaker reporter speaks in their language.

The specialists pay special attention to the following factors which determine the difficulty of simultaneous translation:

-  Psychophysiological discomfort caused by the necessity to listen and to speak simultaneously;

-  Psychophysiological strain connected with irreversibility of that the reporter has said into the microphone. The reporter won’t be stopped and asked to repeat;

-  Psychological strain connected with big audience and irreversibility of the translation. It is impossible to excuse and to correct;

-  Psychophysiological strain caused by quick speech. The simultaneous interpreter must always speak quickly without pauses otherwise he will be left behind. But the pauses in speech bring not only semantic but psychophysiological work: to take breath, to collect one’s thoughts.

-  Difficult linguistic task of tying up the utterances in the languages which have different structure during the simultaneous translation, when the context is extremely limited and there is lack of time for translation;

-  A difficult linguistic task of speech compression which helps to compensate the translation into the language which has long words and verbose rhetoric.

These factors work in the ideal case when the reporter speaks in a usual speed in a clear literal language, when his pronunciation is standard and he understands that he is being translated and he is interested in that the audience to understand him. But this happens rarely.

The simultaneous interpreter must always be ready morally and professionally that

the reporter will speak very fast or will read the text of his speech;

the reporter’s pronunciation will be indistinct or nonstandard;

the reporter will use nonstandard abbreviations in his speech, which weren’t entered beforehand, or professional jargon words or expressions.

All these difficulties may undoubtedly present at consecutive translation but there always exist a feed-back with the reporter. The interpreter may ask again, ask to repeat and there is always a contact of the interpreter with the audience where is surely someone who knows the language and subject of the speech and he will always prompt and correct benevolently, as a rule, if the translation is well in general./18/

2.2 NOTE-TAKING IN CONSECUTIVE TRANSLATION

While listening to the speaker the interpreter takes notes of the message he or she receives, while the utterance is being received. It means that perception and comprehension are concurrant with note-taking.

The interpreter’s notes are an ideographic system of encoding the message. They are word- and symbol-based, their syntax is simple, their word order is direct and grammatical functions are expressed by fixed positions of the elements of the utterance, while positions themselves are vertically organized.

This brief description of the system of interpreter’s notes makes one realize that to take notes one has to translate the original utterance into another code. This code is in fact very close to what has been previously described as the internal semantic code of the Recipient. And the fact that the interpreter’s notes are something only the interpreter who has made them can read, or decode, proves the point.

So in order to be able to listen, comprehend and take down a processed and transformed version of the original utterance the interpreter has to run ahead of the utterance being received and anticipate its morpho-phonemic, syntactical and semantic structure.

If we now take our model of the interpretation process we shall see that it represents a two-phase process of consecutive interpreting in which the phases are separated from each other, the first phase being completed when the semantic representation is achieved in the form of notes, and the second phase being started when this semantic representation is utilized for programming and producing the message in the TL (target language).

No such border-line can be drawn for simultaneous interpreting. If we attempt a graphic representation of the process of simultaneous interpreting for one utterance, we shall see that the processes of speech perception and speech generation concur and run parallel to each other.

The language in which an interpreter has to take notes is the source language. Note-taking is a help for short-term memory. It reflects basic thoughts of the source text. The system of note-taking is based at widely spread abbreviations and individual own symbols.

Symbols and abbreviations used in note-taking must meet the following requirements:

-  they should be understandable, easy to write and to decode;

-  to be universal and easy to remember;

-  they should mean definite notion, symbol, sense, which appears clearly and monosemantically both in linguistic and extra linguistic context;

-  to be recognizable at the given moment of speaking and translating.

In order to read and interpret the notes easily you should place them downward in diagonal way. The first level is subject group, the second level is predicative, the third level is Direct Object and the fourth level is Indirect Object.

Model:

Object (Indirect)

Object (Direct)

Predicative

Subject group

 

	homogenous
	parts of
	the sentence

 

Some examples of the symbols used in the note-taking:

MP – Member of Parliament

VIP – Very Important Person

G-7 – Group of seven

Common used abbreviations:

CIS – СНГ (Commonwealth of Independent States)

EU – European Union

RF – Russian Federation

US – United States

UK – United Kingdom

UN – ООН (United Nations Organization)

MOW – Moscow

NY – New York

LON – London

CEO – chief executive officer

JV – joint venture

FTZ – Free trade zone

P – President

VP – Vice President

I/V – investment

↑I – growth of inflation

E – employment

E – unemployment

D/B – budget deficit

Usage of contracted words:

pro – professional

demo – demonstration

info – information

 Letter precision information such as proper names and geographical names is written only by means of consonants. Numeral precision information like days of a week and months is written by numbers.

e.g. – Friday, 11 – November

dates: current decade – 2008 = ‘8

current century – 1995 = .95

current millennium – 1812 = .812

numbers from 1100 to 10000 is to be written by hundreds

e.g. 17H = 1700

17t = 17 thousand

17m = 17 million

17b = 17 billion

17tr = 17 trillion

Marking of semantic ties between the symbols is the most important and rather difficult point. Especially when the interpreter is voicing his notation. Speaking is marked with : after the subject group; emphasis is marked with :! (claimed, referred, accused, offered). The symbol (:) means press-conference, press-release, statement.

 approval – OK

disapproval – OK

plural – sign of square; e.g. MP² = Members of Parliament

m² = millions

repeat = R with an arrow with the place which is repeated

> - more, < - less

↑ - growth, rise; increase; improvement; future

↓ - decrease, fall, degradation; past

∆ - state, country

lines: → departure; E - export; address to

← arrival; I - import

Expression of modality:

possibility: m – may; m? – might

c – can; c? – could

doubt: ? or ?!

necessity: d (must, to be to, should) – from debere (lat.)

Comparative and Superlative degrees of Adjectives: signs of square and cube

e.g. big² – bigger, big³ – the biggest

“Speaking” symbols:

○ – congress, meeting

 X – war, conflict

This approach shouldn’t be accepted as a third language. It should be created by imagination of an interpreter. /28/