A bilingual's balance between communicative intention and use of strategies in simultaneous interpreting : a case study

Abstract

The present work aims to provide a real perspective on a bilingual's balance between communicative intention and adoption of strategies in simultaneous interpreting. Two methodological methods are adopted by analyzing the SI corpus: quantitative, in which metalinguistic aspects of the performance are examined, and qualitative, which focuses on the shifts of the interpreting product. It is concluded that: i) there are indeed communicative "strategy" that a bilingual interpreter without academic training resorts to to ensure the quality and fluidity of simultaneous interpreting, however, these intentions do not present a sufficient reasoning nor do they reveal a systematic pattern, therefore they would be designated as "intuitive strategies" of a bilingual; ii) a bilingual privileges the communicative role of interpretation to ensure the transmission of messages, instead of seeking to follow their pre-established strategies.

Keywords

• bilingual
• interpretation
• communication
• strategy
• corpus