Techniques of Interpreting
In legal settings, only three modes of interpretation are permitted by federal or state statute, court rule, or case law. These modes are: simultaneous interpretation, consecutive interpretation, and sight translation. All three modes require skills beyond near-native proficiency in both languages.
The main technique in judiciary interpretation is that the interpreter uses the same grammatical voice as each speaker, without ever lapsing into the third person. This is called direct speech, and permits people to communicate with each other directly. The interpreter’s task is to interpret everything from one language into the other language, while preserving the tone and register of the original discourse. In any legal or quasi-legal setting, an interpreter is not permitted to add, omit, or delete any content. Nor is an interpreter permitted to give a summary (also known as “occasional” interpretation) of a speech or text.
Some judges and attorneys have a mistaken belief that an interpreter renders court proceedings word for word, but this is impossible since there is not a one-to-one correspondence between words or concepts in different languages. For example, sometimes one word in English requires more than one word in another language to get the same idea across, and vice versa. Rather than word for word, then, interpreters render meaning by reproducing the full content of the ideas being expressed. Interpreters do not interpret words; they interpret concepts.
Source: NAJIT.ORG
