Interpreting profanity in police interviews

Bibliographic Data

ID11293818
AuthorsSandra Hale (0000-0003-4291-4022, Interpreting and Translation, University of New South Wales, Morven Brown Building, Gate 8 High Street, Kensignton, Sydney, New South Wales2052, Australia, corresponding author), Natalie Martschuk (0000-0002-2963-6139, Charles Sturt University), Jane Goodman-Delahunty (0000-0001-6764-6920, Charles Sturt University), Jane Goodman‐delahunty (0000-0003-4409-0063, Charles Sturt University), Mustapha Taibi (0000-0003-2826-6401, Interpreting and Translation, Western Sydney University, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia), Han Xu (0000-0001-6857-2353, Interpreting and Translation, University of New South, Sydney, Australia)
Year2020
Volume39
Issue4
Pages369-393
Publication date2020-07-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMultilingua (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-8507 • E-ISSN: 1613-3684
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/multi-2019-0065
OpenAlexW2999035055
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited26

Professional interpreters are obliged by their codes of ethics to interpret the speakers’ speech faithfully, including offensive, profane or vulgar language. In order to achieve this goal, interpreters need to be pragmatically competent, so as to understand the intention and effect of the offensive remark in the source language and be able to appropriately render it into the target language to achieve the same effect in the hearer. Research has shown, however, that not all interpreters abide by this requirement, and many tend to tone down or even omit any offensive language, for a number of reasons, including attempts to protect the hearers or to save their own face. This study examined the ways in which Arabic, Mandarin and Spanish speaking interpreters interpreted offensive language by a suspect in a simulated police interview into English. Experienced qualified interpreters in the three languages, maintained the highest levels of pragmatic equivalence

Criminology · Face (sociological concept · Interpreter · Linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Offensive · Suspect · Tone (literature · Computer Science · Engineering · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism

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