Silent pauses and disfluencies in simultaneous interpretation: A descriptive anaysis

Abstract

Literature on simultaneous interpretation (SI) contains many recommendations addressed to interpreters on the need to avoid pauses and interruptions in order to produce a more fluent high-quality delivery.Yet not many scholars have gone deeper into this subject and questions still remain open as to whether such occurrences depend on the interpreter, situational constraints of SI or the source-text (ST).In order to start investigating this subject ten interpretation students were asked to translate simultaneously two text excerpts of a spontaneous speech containing pauses, hesitations and interruptions.It is the aim of this study to analyse whether and to what extent the presence of such occurrences in the ST affects the interpreter's comprehension and delivery.Occurrences in both ST and target-texts (TT) were described in an attempt to produce a taxonomy which can be specifically applied to SI; pauses and interruptions were not seen as mere interruptions of fluency; whenever possible, their communicative value and/or tactical use were stressed.

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