16.2248, Review: Translation/Semantics: Chernov (2004)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2248. Sun Jul 24 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.2248, Review: Translation/Semantics: Chernov (2004)

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1)
Date: 24-Jul-2005
From: Ihab Shabana < ishabana at yahoo.com >
Subject: Inference and Anticipation in Simultaneous Interpreting 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 12:59:30
From: Ihab Shabana < ishabana at yahoo.com >
Subject: Inference and Anticipation in Simultaneous Interpreting 
 

AUTHOR: Chernov, Ghelly
EDITORS: Setton, Robin; Hild, Adelina
TITLE: Inference and Anticipation in Simultaneous Interpreting
SERIES: Translating and Interpreting
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2004
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-151.html


Ihab A. I. Shabana, Ph.D Candidate, Teacher of Arabic SOAS, 
University of London and Assistant Lecturer, Department Of English, 
Al-Azhar University-Egypt

SUMMARY

Practice makes perfect. More focused and comprehensive training makes a 
highly skilled professional interpreter. These two statements represent 
the core points of this book. In this book, the author presents a 
comprehensive approach that will help interpreters and their trainers to 
reach a successful rendition of the source language into the target 
language.

Simultaneous interpretation involves multiple activities that run within 
the working memory of the interpreter. These activities include listening, 
comprehension of the source language and instantly turning the message of 
the source language into the target language. That is "by its very nature, 
simultaneous interpreting imposes large demands on an individual's 
cognitive resources" (Liu et al. 2004:20). This pressure motivated 
researchers in simultaneous interpreting to access the theories of 
psychology in order to develop the performance of simultaneous 
interpreters, bearing in mind the various challenges they might experience 
while practicing interpreting. 

Among the remarkable points about this book is that it shows how research 
in simultaneous interpreting in the former Soviet Union has gained a 
considerable amount of interest due to the need to build bridges with 
other countries. This resulted in significant contributions like this 
book, which can be taken as a distinctive example of how research in 
interpreting studies can make use of other disciplines. The author, 
Chernov, has gained a wide reputation for his interest in theories of 
Psychology and Philosophy, and relating them to the field of interpreting 
research. In addition, Chernov conducts an experiment with the aim of 
supporting the assumption of his book, namely the existence of message 
probability anticipation, which Chernov views as the basis of the 
simultaneous interpreting cognition and which is significantly reliant on 
message redundancy. The experiment highlighted the fact that the 
performance of simultaneous interpreters is affected by semantically 
unfamiliar expressions, which might be syntactically well formed. Chernov 
also detected some errors in interpreting that usually happen because they 
contradict with background received before in the mind of the 
interpreters. This highlights the fact that training courses should 
provide multi-contextual and variable courses. This would put the 
interpreter in a semi-work environment, which would improve his 
performance. The importance of providing this training lies in the fact 
that simultaneous interpreting is normally performed in an unfriendly 
environment, where the interpreter is required to mediate communication 
between two different worlds. Thus, the objective semantic discourse 
redundancy of the source language would enable the interpreter to infer 
the message of the source language correctly and hence would make his 
rendition into the target language more accurate. It will also help the 
interpreter to achieve speed and accurate interpretation under normal 
pressure.

Chapter one presents a general discussion of the psychological approach to 
simultaneous interpreting research. In this framework, it examines the 
characteristics of simultaneous interpreting in comparison with written 
translation. In addition, the chapter discusses the research assumptions 
for simultaneous interpreting processes. These assumptions include: 
(i) simultaneous interpreting proceeds at multi-layered levels, which 
underlie different mechanisms including probability and anticipation in 
the perception of the source text and also anticipating the production of 
the target language; 
(ii) dynamic development takes place since the perception and production 
in simultaneous interpreting is synchronized and it is a continuous 
process; 
(iii) cumulative sense perception emerges from the fact that there is a 
need to take up the holistic meaning of a given discourse as well as its 
contextual background; 
(iv) the mental activities that are experienced by the interpreter are 
discrete as they represent certain operations over certain units of 
meaning and sense. 

Also in this chapter, Chernov discusses the object of conducting 
simultaneous interpreting from a psychological perspective. In this 
regard, he follows the Zimanaya and Vygotsky-Leont'ev School of psychology 
theories. Thus, he relates the process of interpreting to psychological 
concepts like the need and the motive, considering that the interpreter's 
intention to absorb and render the message of the speaker to the target 
language as an integrated process that comprises both concepts of the need 
and the motive. Chernov also argues that the mechanism of verbal, 
syntactic and semantic probability anticipation of message development in 
the perception and comprehension of the source language discourse, and 
anticipatory synthesis in message reproduction in the target language 
discourse, is an effective mechanism that would ensure simultaneity in the 
process of interpreting.

Chapter two examines the relation between the aspects of speed, memory and 
simultaneity and how the relation among them is quite interactive. Chernov 
also discusses the concept of simultaneity and he comes to the conclusion 
that simultaneous interpreting is relatively instant as there can be some 
lag in the target language discourse due to number of constraints imposed 
on the interpreter. Time and pace of the speaker are among these 
constraints, however it is generally known that the interpreter adapts 
himself to the pace of the speaker till he reaches an optimal rate in the 
target language that can capture the amount of information included in the 
source language.

Chapter three discusses the semantic and pragmatic structure of discourse. 
Chernov presents a survey of the different types of meaning and the role 
of the word as a semantic unit and what types of meaning it might have. He 
also defines some lexical relations e.g. polysemy and synonymy. 
Componential analysis of meaning and semantic agreement are reviewed. In 
his analysis, Chernov indicates that he will follow two principles of 
semantics: (1) semantic components of word meaning and (2) understanding 
the rules that combine the semantic components together. Chernov also 
reviews the concept of semantic redundancy in discourse and how it 
represents a key factor, which underlies the psycholinguistic mechanism of 
message probability anticipation.

In chapter four, Chernov presents a general discussion of semantic 
structure and objective semantic redundancy. Firstly, he reviews the 
concept of sense and its role in the realm of meaning. In this context, 
sense is conceptualised as the product of interactive communicative 
situations, which have been conducted by a creative mental effort. Thus, 
sense is the final output of a word being used in different communicative 
situations. Secondly, the concept of theme ~V rheme and its role in 
communicative foregrounding is investigated. Thirdly, Chernov examines the 
semantic structure of discourse and how such structure is based on an 
integrated network of denotative meanings. This network represents an 
array of mental representations of entities, images and experiences that 
shape the external world in our minds. Finally, the chapter ends by 
discussing how semantic structure represents the object and the product of 
simultaneous interpreting. That is, the semantic structure of the source 
language discourse represents the object of simultaneous interpreting, 
while rendering this object into the target language discourse represents 
the product of the interpreting process.

Chapter five discusses communicative context and subjective redundancy. 
The main activity of an interpreter is to construe messages and draw 
inferences from these messages according to his extra-linguistic knowledge 
of the world where a given communicative took place. Thus, inferring the 
implicit meaning of an utterance is an essential process without which the 
rendition of meaning cannot be successful. Having realized this, Chernov 
reviews linguistic, cognitive situational and pragmatic inference and 
shows how significant it is for an interpreter to be aware of the 
different levels of inference, and most importantly of the different 
contexts in which these inferences occur redundantly. According to 
Chernov, this aspect of redundancy is an essential and adequate condition 
for the process of the psychological mechanism of message development 
probability anticipation, which enables the interpreter to precisely 
receive and comprehend the message.

Chapter six presents the model of probability anticipation for simultaneous 
interpreting which Chernov develops in this book. He assumes that the 
basic mechanism which makes simultaneous interpreting possible is 
probability anticipation of the development of the message. This 
assumption finds its roots in the Theory of Activity in the Russian school 
of psychology, which embraces the idea that mental activity, and 
especially perception, is driven by a basic principle of anticipatory 
reflection of reality. The basic assumptions in this theory are derived 
from Anokhin (1978), who claims that human beings develop a certain 
mechanism that enables them to anticipate all life experiences which they 
have previously had. According to Anokhin, all living beings acquire 
adaptive characteristics that help them get familiar with the new life 
experiences that they may undergo and thus they can anticipate the 
appropriate way of dealing with them. Chernov relates this assumption to 
the fact that the interpreter brain generates hypotheses in anticipation 
of certain verbal and semantic developments of the discourse. The 
interpreter builds his assumptions on the subconscious subjective 
estimations of the set of probabilities within a certain semantic 
situation. The probability anticipation mechanism includes the following 
hierarchy: Syllable-word- syntagm-utterance-discourse.

Chapter seven presents a discussion of theme and the tendency of the 
interpreter to compress it while the discourse develops during the process 
of interpreting. This springs from the fact that there is redundancy in 
the theme as the discourse unfolds and thus the interpreter tends to 
compress his themes to make his sentences shorter to keep up with the pace 
of the source language discourse. Chernov gives illustrative examples of 
redundancy in Spanish public speaking and ends the chapter by reviewing 
types of speech compression in simultaneous interpreting. This compression 
can be syllabic, lexical, syntactic and semantic, which makes it an 
effective device for the interpreter to save time and effort in 
interpreting.

Chapter eight examines the concept of rheme and information density. The 
basic principle here is that the brains of human beings are provided with 
a neurophysiological mechanism that allows them to perceive data from the 
external world as a way of measuring information. That is, there are 
certain sections in the brain that store and process information whenever 
needed. This principle can be seen as similar to Relevance Theory by 
Sperber & Wilson (1986/1995) which assumes that human communication is 
based on "ostensive stimulus". This stimulus is responsible for passing 
relevant messages to the hearer who in his turn would process it and infer 
the relevant meaning. By the same token, the interpreter's main objective 
is to infer the intended meaning of the speaker in any type of discourse. 
Also in this chapter, Chernov reviews the concept of the dominant rheme in 
political discourse, as the objective of the speaker in politics is not 
only passing the message to the audience but also convincing them of his 
argument. Doing this, the speaker in a political context does not only 
inform but also wants to impose his values on the audience. Therefore, 
Chernov examines the role of the interpreter in mediating evaluative 
messages, which puts another pressure on the interpreter as he has to 
choose the correct synonym that can render accurately all the evaluative 
components intended by the speaker.

Chapter nine presents a discussion of syntax and communicative order as it 
is known that word order varieties can have immense effect on the process 
of interpreting. Chernov provides illustrative examples in Russian on the 
variation of word order and how the interpreter has to wait while 
interpreting until the rheme of the utterance in the source language is 
completed. Then, the interpreter starts placing the different constituents 
of the utterance according to the word order of the source language.

In chapter ten, Chernov presents detailed discussion of Anokhin's theory 
of Activity, which was highlighted earlier, and its value in simultaneous 
interpreting. According to this theory, human beings develop a functional 
system that stores our experiences about the whole world around us. This 
system has a structure of its own that defines its mechanism of action, 
and it also underlies all actions in all life situations. According to 
Chernov, Anokhin's theory agrees with simultaneous interpretation in all 
its processes. He assumes that the probability anticipation model which he 
developed earlier can be taken as an example of a specific functional 
system that is established by the human mechanism to enable him to perform 
simultaneous interpreting.

Chapter eleven presents an experiment to test how a method of anticipation 
in interpreting can help the interpreter to figure out the intended 
meaning of the message. Chernov wanted to prove from this experiment that 
the mechanism of developing an approach of probability anticipation can 
act as an effective model for a better performance at both the vocal and 
the semantic levels. He also tried to show that his results confirm his 
model.

Chapter twelve concludes that it would be more productive and effective to 
apply the method of probability anticipation in interpreting as it helps 
to develop the spontaneous response of the interpreter, which would 
guarantee an effective rendition of the message. Chernov also recommends 
that training courses should focus on developing the linguistic skills of 
the interpreter to ensure a good performance in dealing with the target 
language discourse.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

I find this book a rich and comprehensive contribution to the field of 
interpreting research. What is most significant about Chernov's work is 
that it tries to explore the link between psychological theories and the 
practice of simultaneous interpretation as a bilingual activity that is 
performed under pressure. Understanding the psychological aspects that 
surround the process of interpreting would help us to control the 
performance of the interpreter and probably train him to cope with the 
psychological burden he undergoes while interpreting.

It is also noteworthy that this book sheds light on the Russian school of 
research in the field of interpreting which, as it seems, might have a lot 
to contribute in this emerging field of research. However, the book is 
written in a style and tone of English which sometimes feels a 
little 'heavy', however this may well be attributed to the fact that it 
was originally written in Russian.

Finally, this book can be considered as a useful reference for those 
interested in inter-disciplinary studies in general and interpreting 
research in particular. It is also a good source for professional 
interpreters and their trainers as it would help them develop more tactics 
in the interpreting process and also some useful skills that can help to 
improve their performance. 

REFERENCES

Anokhin, P.K. (1978) Philosophical Aspects of the Functional System 
Theory, Moscow (In Russian)

Chernov, G. V. (1979) Semantic aspects of psychological research in 
simultaneous interpretation. Language and speech 22, 277-295

Liu, Minhua, Schallert, Diane L. and Carroll, P. J. (2004) Working 
memories and expertise in simultaneous interpreting, Interpreting 6:1, 19-42

Schaffner, Christina (ed.) (2004) Translation Research and Interpreting 
Research, Clevendon (England): Multilingual Matters.

Sperber, D. & Wilson, D. (1986/1995) Relevance: Communication and 
Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ihab A. Shabana is a Ph.D. candidate at Al-Azhar-Egypt and SOAS, has a 
B.A. in Simultaneous Interpreting (English & Arabic) and an M.A. in 
Linguistics, was Assistant Lecturer of Linguistics-Al-Azhar and Visiting 
Research Student at SOAS in 2002-2004, and is now on full- time teaching 
post of Arabic at SOAS. Areas of interest include Pragmatics, Political 
Discourse, Sociolinguistics and Translation studies.





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