Researching TV interpreting: selected studies of US presidential material

Abstract

This paper presents a selection of empirical studies of television interpreting in the Austrian context. Following an introductory review of the unique features of TV interpreting and the rationale for studying it, the main methodological options, ranging from observational to experimental approaches, are briefly discussed. The paper then reports empirical analyses, several of them conducted in the framework of recent MA theses completed at the University of Vienna under the author’s supervision. These examples serve to demonstrate the significant potential of research using corpora of authentic high-exposure interpreting and highlight the great variety of issues to be investigated, which range from the distinction between different target-language varieties to product-oriented analyses of rhetorical devices and to experiments eliciting TV interpreting consumers’ preferences and attitudes.