Abstract
AbstractInterpreters are hypothesized to anticipate the source language (SL) in comprehension and the target language (TL) in production to facilitate timely delivery. In two experiments, we examined whether interpreters make more predictions in SL comprehension in consecutive interpreting than in regular language comprehension and whether such enhanced prediction (if any) is constrained by cognitive resources. Participants were quicker at reading a predictable versus unpredictable critical word and/or following words (e.g.,Without the sunglasses/hat, the sun will hurt your eyes on the beach, whereeyesis the critical word), and the prediction effect was larger when they read to later interpret (into Chinese) than to later recall. The enhanced prediction in reading to interpret disappeared when the cognitive load was high, suggesting that SL prediction in interpreting requires cognitive resources. Our findings suggest that, when cognitive resources allow, interpreters engage in enhanced linguistic prediction in SL comprehension to facilitate the delivery of interpreting.
Highlights
Interpreters translate from a source language (SL) into a target language (TL)
As the critical word was often a noun preceded by a determiner and/or an adjective, it is likely that these “early” prediction effects prior to the critical word reflected quicker reading of the determiner and/or adjective before the predicted noun
We found that participants were more likely to engage in lexico-semantic prediction when reading to later interpret, as suggested by the larger prediction effects in reading to interpret than to recall
Summary
Interpreters translate from a source language (SL) into a target language (TL). To do this, they need to first arrive at a semantic message by decoding SL lexical and syntactic information and find corresponding TL lexical expressions and syntactic structures to express the semantic message in the TL. Interpreters often have to execute these tasks under time pressure (in either simultaneous or consecutive interpreting). We ask whether interpreters make more predictions in SL comprehension than in regular language comprehension in order to maximize timely delivery of interpreting, and if that’s the case, whether such a predictive advantage in SL comprehension is constrained by cognitive resources.
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