Table Of ContentLANGUAGE INTERPRETATION
AND COMMUNICATION
NATO CONFERENCE SERIES
I Ecology
II Systems Science
III Human Factors
IV Marine Sciences
V Air-Sea Interactions
III HUMAN FACTORS
Volume 1 Monitoring Behavior and Supervisory Control
Edited by Thomas B. Sheridan and Gunnar Johannsen
Volume 2 Biofeedback and Behavior
Edited by Jackson Beatty and Heiner Legewie
Volume 3 Vigilance: Theory, Operational Performance, and Physiological Correlates
Edited by Robert R. Mackie
Volume 4a Recent Advances in the Psychology of Language: Language Development
and Mother-Ch ild Interaction
Edited by Robin N. Campbell and Philip T. Smith
Volume 4b Recent Advances in the Psychology of Language: Formal and Experimental
Approaches
Edited by Robin N. Campbell and Philip T. Smith
Volume 5 Cognitive Psychology and Instruction
Edited by Alan M. Lesgold, James W. Pellegrino, Sipke D. Fokkema, and
Robert Glaser
Volume 6 Language Interpretation and Communication
Edited by David Gerver and H. Wallace Sinaiko
LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION
AND COMMUNICATION
Edited by
David Gerver
University of Stirling
Stirling, Scotland
and
H. Wallace Sinaiko
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D. C.
Published in coordination with NATO Scientific Affairs Division
PLENUM PRESS, NEW YORK AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nato Symposium and Language Interpretation and
Communication, Giorgio Cini Foundation, 1977.
Language interpretation and communication.
(NATO conference series: III, Human factors;v. 6)
"Proceedings of the NATO Symposium on Language I nterpretation and Communi
cation, held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the Isle of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice,
Italy, September 26-0ctober 1, 1977, sponsored by the NATO Special Program
Panel on Human Factors."
Includes bibliographic references and index.
1. Translating and interpreting - Congresses. 2. Congresses and conventions
Translating services - Congresses. 3. Sign language - Congresses. 4. Linguistics
Congresses. I. Gerver, David. II. Sinai ko, H. Wallace. III. Nato Special Program
Panel on Human Factors. IV. Title. V. Series.
P306.N371977 418'.82 78-15105
ISBN-13: 978-1-4615-9079-8 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4615-9077-4
001: 10.1007/978-1-4615-9077-4
Proceedings of the NATO Symposium on Language Interpretation and
Communication held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the Isle of San
Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy, September 26-0ctober 1, 1977, spon
sored by the NATO Special Program Panel on Human Factors
© 1978 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1978
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
PREFACE
Language Interpretation and Communication: a NATO Symposium, was a
multi-disciplinary meeting held from September 26 to October 1st 1977 at the
Giorgio Cini Foundation on the Isle of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The
Symposium explored both applied and theoretical aspects of conference interpre
tation and of sign language interpretation.
The Symposium was sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and we would like to express our thanks to
Dr. B. A. Bayrakter of the Scientific Affairs Division and to the Members of the
NATO Special Programme Panel on Human Factors for their support. We would
also like to thank Dr. F. Benvenutti and his colleagues at the University of Venice
for their generous provision of facilities and hospitality for the opening session of
the Symposium. Our thanks are also due to Dr. Ernesto Talentino and his colleagues
at the Giorgio Cini Foundation who provided such excellent conference facilities
and thus helped ensure the success of the meeting.
Finally, we would like to express our appreciation and thanks to Becky
Graham and Carol Blair for their invaluable contributions to the organization of the
Symposium, to Ida Stevenson who prepared these proceedings for publication, and
to Donald I. MacLeod who assisted with the final preparation of the manuscript.
David Gerver
H. Wallace Sinaiko
v
CONTENTS
SECTION 1. CONFERENCE INTERPRETATION - AN INTRODUCTION
1. Language Interpretation and Communication : Introduction to the
Proceedings 1
David Gervcr and H. Wallace Sinaiko
2. How Conference Interpretation Grew 5
Jean Herbert
3. Selection and Training of Conference Interpreters 1J
Walter Keiser
4. Reflections on the Training of Simultaneous Interpreters: A meta
linguistic approach 25
Claude Namy
5. Intercultural Communication and the Training of Interpreters at the
Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies 35
EtiIvia Arjona
6. An Integrated Programme for Training Interpreters 45
Patricia Longley
SECTION 2. SIGN LANGUAGE AND SIGN LANGUAGE
INTERPRETATION
7. The Role of Oral Language in the Evolution of Manual Language 57
Harlan Lane and Robbin Battison
8. Sign Language Interpretation: The State of the Art 81
Rita L. Domingue and Betty L. Ingram
9. Research in Sign Language Interpreting at California State
University, Northridge 87
Harry J. Murphy
Uta
Contents
VIZZ
10. Sign Language and Psycholinguistic Process: Fact, Hypotheses and
Implications for Interpretation 99
Ryan D. Tweney
11. Sign Language Interpretation and General Theories of Language,
Interpretation and Communication 109
Robert M. Ingram
SECTION 3. BILINGUALISM, TRANSLATION AND
INTERPRETATION
12. Linguistic Abilities in Translators and Interpreters 119
John B. Carroll
13. Psychological Approaches to Bilingualism, Translation and Inter·
pretation 131
Wallace E. Lambert
14. True Bilingualism and Second Language Learning 145
Christopher Thiery
15. Translating as an Innate Skill 155
Brian Harris and Bianca Sherwood
16. Four Generations of Machine Translation Research and Prospects for
the Future 171
Yorick Wilks
SECTION 4. LINGUISTIC, SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND SOCIAL
APPROACHES
17 On the Distinction between Linguistics and Pragmatics 185
E. M. Uhlenbeck
18. Language Meaning and Message Meaning: Towards a Sociolinguistic
Approach to Translation 199
Maurice Pergnier
19. Contributions of Cross·Cultural Orientation Programs and Power
Analysis to Translation/Interpretation 205
Richard W. Brislin
20. Interpreter Roles and Interpretation Situations: Cross-Cutting Typ
ologies 217
R. Bruce W. Anderson
21. Behavioral Aspects of Liaison Interpreters in Papua New Guinea:
Some Preliminary Observations 231
Ranier Lang
Contents
IX
SECTION 5. PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES
245
22. On the Representations of Experience
Paul A. Kolers
23. The Bilingual's Performance: Language Dominance, Stress, and
259
Individual Differences
Stanislav Domic
24. Summary and Recall of Text in First and Second Languages: Some
Factors Contributing to Performance Differences 273
John Long and Edith Hanling-Esch
25. Psychoscmantics and Simultaneous Interpretation 289
Jean-Fran~ois Lc Ny
26. An Information-Processing Model of Understanding Speech 299
Dominic W. Massaro
SECTION 6. THEORY AND RESEARCH IN CONFERENCE
INTERPRETATION
315
27. Human Factors Approach to Simultaneous Interpretation
H. McIlvaine Parsons
28. Simultaneous Interpretation- Units of Meaning and Other Features 323
Marianne Lederer
29. Language and Cognition 333
Danica Seleskovitch
30. Syntactic Anticipation in German-English Simultaneous Interpreting 343
Wolfram Wilss
31. Simultaneous Interpretation: A Hypothetical Model and its Practical
Application 353
Barbara Moser
32. Adult Simultaneous Interpretation: A Functional Analysis of Lin
guistic Categories and a Comparison with Child Devdopmcnt 369
Annette Karmiloff-Smith
SECTION 7. CONCLUSION
33. The Contribution of Cognitive Psychology to the Study of
Interpretation 385
G. B. Flores d'Arcais
Appendix A. Discussion Report 403
x Contents
Appendix B . List of Participants 405
Name Index 413
Subject Index 421
Language Interpretation and Communication:
Introduction to the Proceedings
David Gerver
Univcrsity of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
H. Wallace Sinaiko
Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
This volume is the record of a symposium Language Interpretation and
Communication which was part of the NATO Human Factors Conference and Sym
posium Program for 1977. Ninety-six participants from 16 countries and 6 inter
national organizations met at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the Isle of San Giorgio
in Venice during the last week of September, 1977 to take part in the first interdisci
plinary forum on practical and theoretical aspects of conference interpretation.
Those present included conference interpreters, sign language interpreters, and
teachers of these skills, as well as representatives from the fields of psychology,
linguistics, translation, anthropology, sociology, and psychiatry.
Techniques for mediating spoken communication among people who do not
speak or understand the same natural language have long been in use, but contem
porary society is becoming even more dependent on these techniques. The prolif
eration of international organizations, international meetings of professional and
scientific bodies, the expansion of international travel, as well as the ever increasing
capacities and use of telecommunication facilities (to name but a few factors) have
all led to a greater interdependence among peoples, consequently tnere· is a greatcr
reliance on the skills of the interpreters and translators to facilitate communication
across language boundaries. Indeed, the very survival of such bodies as the United
Nations is crucially dependent upon language services. Similarly, international
scientific communication at multilingual meetings is enhanced or degraded by the
quality of language interpretation provided. In spite of the importance of the con
tribution made by conference interpreters to communication and understanding in
the world today, relatively little research has been carried out in this field. The
Venice symposium afforded a unique opportunity for professional interpreters,
those involved in their training and employment, and workers in the other fields
cited above to discuss theory and research, and outline future research nceds.
The aims of the symposium were thrcefold: The dissemination and exchange
of theory and research findings in the fields of psychology, linguistics, translation
1
