A functional-contextual appraisal of professional interpreting. Interpreting practice and entextualisation in multi-phased institutional procedures

Begin - Einde 
2022 - 2024 (lopend)
Type 
Vakgroep(en) 
Vakgroep Vertalen, Tolken en Communicatie
Andere instituten 
University of Antwerp
Onderzoeksgebied 
Tijdsperiode 

Tabgroup

Abstract

This project examines interpreting practices in marriage fraud investigations conducted by Belgian authorities, in which a complex chain of interviews and reports results in the decision whether a transnational couple's marriage application is genuine or fake. Both professional and non-professional interpreters are relied on to interpret the statements and answers given by the applicants not proficient enough in Dutch or French during an interview with a municipal officer and later on with a police officer. During the interpreter-mediated interaction, a written statement and interview report is noted down by the interviewer. The project incorporates two analytical foci: one about the spoken interpreting practice and one about the role of the interpreter in the entextualised codification of spoken evidence. The descriptive objectives pertain to the extralinguistic and linguistic factors of the spoken interpreting practice and cross-sectional differentiation in entextualisation involvement. The theoretical objective of the project aims to further our understanding of how the context and function of an interpreter-mediated encounter influences the behaviour of the interpreter, irrespective of his/her professional status. The project's final, applied objective is to increase awareness of the significant role and complexities involved in interpreter selection and entextualisation in marriage fraud investigations by Belgian authorities.

Onderzoekers

Promotor(en)

Doctoraatsstudent(en)

Externe medewerkers

Mieke Vandenbroucke

Antwerp University, Linguistics