Abstract
According to the thematic progression model of Janikowski (2011) religious texts can be used at the early stages of interpreter training. The reservations against such placement of allegedly stylistically sophisticated texts are scrutinised in the following paper by means of (1) developing a set of features of spoken religious discourse and (2) empirically testing their frequency in a convenience corpus. The results do show an unexpectedly high level of metaphorical saturation of spoken religious texts (1.4 per minute of speech), but they also show that only 8% of these metaphors were unconventional and that speakers sometimes employed special means of facilitating metaphor processing. Additionally, the appearance of other markers traditionally recognised as elements of religious style (intertextual allusions, markers of higher register and other figures of speech) was only marginal. Thus, the results support the use of religious texts as the second stage in thematic development, however, with a set of recommendations.
Highlights
According to the thematic progression model of Janikowski (2011) religious texts can be used at the early stages of interpreter training
Since there are no studies of features of spoken religious texts available, especially ones that would serve the purpose of elucidating difficulties for interpreting, I take as a starting point a very informative characterisation of religious discourse proposed by Wilkoń (2002: 271–272)
Limited as this study is, it still allows some conclusions to be drawn about the nature of potential difficulties in using religious texts in interpreter training and especially about metaphor use in spoken religious texts as a hindrance for the wouldbe interpreter
Summary
Janikowski: Style of religious texts as a potential. matic progression principle. The core of the thematic progression model is the progressive increase in the difficulty of the training materials (source texts for class and individual practice) postulated to occur as the class sequences through the following domains of human activity: general, religious, political, business, legal and academic. This sequence was never planned to be autonomous and self-sufficing, rather, coordination with other aspects of the learning process was highly advised These two interventions (getting rid of written and theological texts) should already clear some ground for the application of religious texts in the interpreter training programmes; yet the group that emerges as spoken religious (not theological) is still suspected of a high level of stylistic sophistication and merits a more in-depth analysis of its actual nature
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
