Repetition in Dialogue Interpreting

Abstract

This chapter is on corpus-driven research on the relevance of repetition in interpreter-mediated Italian talkshows. It focuses more on other- (second-speaker) next-turn repetition than on self- (same-speaker) repetition occurring (within the same turn) immediately after the original. The aim of this study is to investigate repetition not so much as a disguised form of self-correction but as an interactional resource through which the interpreter (as the second speaker) ensures cohesion and coherence among turns (mainly made up of questions and answers) produced by speakers of two different languages. Using naturally-occurring data and a conversation analysis approach, the claim will be made that repetition – defined as any stretch of talk that has recognizably occurred before – is a salient feature of talkshow interpreting, being inextricably related to the sequential and interactional dimension of dialogue interpreting in terms of turn-taking organization, topic management and face-work, i.e. speakers’ concern for their face needs or “face wants” (Brown & Levinson 1987). The data are taken from a large subcorpus on talkshow interpreting, made up of 1,500 interpretations, which is part of CorIT (Italian Television Interpreting Corpus).