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Discourse in a multilingual and multicultural courtroom: A court interpreter's guide (vol 8, pg 276, 1999)
... Court interpreting has been studied by scholars such as Moeketsi (1999), Lebese (2015), Tria (2023), and Liu and Wang (2023), focusing on various issues such as interpreter challenges in legal setting; strategies used by interpreters in facilitating the court interaction and the impact of interpreter-mediated communication on the justice system. Such studies are reviewed below. ...
... Court interpreting has been an ongoing topic in interpreting studies by scholars such as Moeketsi (1999); Lebese (2015); Usadolo and Kotzé (2015); Wang and Grant (2015); Liu (2020); Philister and Mwangi (2020); Ngarambe and Ruvebana (2023); and Tria (2023), featuring in investigations on challenges faced by court interpreters. These studies give evidence that in different countries like South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, New Zealand and China interpreters are faced with a variety of challenges. ...
... These studies give evidence that in different countries like South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, New Zealand and China interpreters are faced with a variety of challenges. Such challenges may, firstly, be political, as Moeketsi's (1999) study reveal that in the past, court interpreters in the South African courts were forced to serve under judges and magistrates, who were mostly for the apartheid government and did not care about the proper training of court interpreters. As a result, some interpreters felt justified when they declined to take responsibility for poor performance. ...
Court interpreting services are an essential component of the Lesotho’s legal system to ensure that everyone has access to justice and can present their cases in the language of their choice, more especially at the Lesotho High Court where English is the language of the court. Effective court interpreting requires interpreters with, among other things, high level of linguistic and cultural proficiency in their working languages, strategic competence, and a set of specific skills. However, the lack of formal professional training for court interpreters can have serious consequences on both the communication and the decisions of the court. Following the methodological principles of a qualitative case study explored strategies employed by the Lesotho High Court interpreters in their attempt to address linguistic challenges that they often encounter during their facilitation of communication between judges, lawyers and plaintiff/defendant/witnesses. The study further examined how such strategies may affect communication of the intended message in the interpreter’s renditions. Employing a pragmatic approach guided by Gricean maxims, this paper discussed a purposive sample of 19 excerpts extracted from the transcripts made from ten audio recordings of criminal cases from the Lesotho High Court. The study discovered that such strategies were employing to address linguistic challenges such as terminological challenges, long sentences and incomplete or too brief source language utterances. The study further established that the use of the identified strategies may distort the original speaker’s intended message and hence misinform the witnesses and/or target recipients, which in turn could result in an unfair trial. To enhance the court interpreting process to uphold fairness and clarity in legal proceedings, this paper therefore recommends that the Lesotho High Court should provide formal training to its interpreters to raise their awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies they use.
... The denotative equivalents of penis, vagina and urinate are bonna, bosadi and ho rota, respectively. However, the euphemisms motsoko, kuku and ho ncha metsi ka dinoka, are used instead (Moeketsi 1999). ...
... Euphemisms may be classifi ed as part of hlonipha discourse, a highly gendered cultural and linguistic system of respect which exists in most Southern African Bantu language speaking societies (Moeketsi 1999). Thetela (2002) reports that Basotho women who had been raped tailored their narratives to avoid the use of vulgar language; they also gave their evidence in a toned down manner. ...
... As Nhlekisana (2008) notes, many of the interpreting errors are due to the fact that Setswana and English represent different cultural values, norms and beliefs. Her identifi cation of culture-specifi c terms and metaphors as creating some of the interpreting problems resonates with the literature on the subject (eg Moeketsi 1999 andThetela 2002). Such items are diffi cult to interpret due to lack of equivalence, to be discussed presently, between the SL and TL. ...
This article explores the lexical problems of court interpreters interpreting from Setswana to English and
from English to Setswana in Botswana. Data for the study were collected from audio CDs and transcripts
of court proceedings of criminal trials at Lobatse High Court. Among the major findings are the poor interpretation of some of the lexical items in Botswana’s elaborate kinship and cattle naming systems into English, and that of certain English legal jargon and slang expressions into Setswana. Evidence of a tacit collective resolve, especially by judges, to ensure that interpreters perform adequately in the Botswana law court exists in the data.
... In South Africa, for instance, as Moeketsi and Wallmach (2005) observe, English and Afrikaans are the languages of the courts of law, yet the majority of cases (about 90%) involve speakers of the indigenous languages. In the past, as observed by Moeketsi (1999), court interpreters in the South African law courts were compelled to serve under judges and magistrates, who were agents of the apartheid regime and thus would neither concern themselves about the proper training of court interpreters nor encourage any improvement in their working conditions. Hoffmann (in the mid-twentieth century) introduced certain requirements, such as a working knowledge of Shona, Ndebele and Chewa. ...
... One can question the sincerity of such a training programme given the daily realities and conditions of interpreters' work (Giles 1995). Hale (2004a) points out these court interpreters need an extended training programme that enlightens them about the different spheres in which they do their work (Moeketsi 1999). Candidates who pass this phase proceed to the Induction Phase. ...
... Normally, it takes six months for a new interpreter to be 'properly' trained in Zimbabwe; it used to take a meagre six-week orientation period provided by the Judiciary College in South Africa before 1994 (Moeketsi 1999). Once the trainee interpreter has managed the dummy court, he/she is taken to a plea court and thereafter goes to the trial courts. ...
Zimbabwe’s National Language Policy (1998) and The Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe (Amendment No. 20 of 2013)
safeguard linguistic human rights and are both very clear on the need for the provision of court interpreters where the
accused/complainant is not familiar with the language of the courts of law, namely English. Although significant strides have
been made towards fulfilling this constitutional requirement by ensuring that all courts provide interpreters as and when
required, the effort has not been supported by either the availability of a properly designed curriculum to ensure the availability
of qualified interpreters or by the existence of a professional association, which could ensure that there is a professional code
of ethics to which members must adhere or face sanction. This situation does not augur well for the practical intentions of court
interpreting, particularly those aspects to do with the quality of court interpreting in Zimbabwe. It is against this background that
court interpreting remains a contested area, with interpreters on several occasions being accused of misrepresentations and
misinterpretations. This paper therefore explores the challenges Zimbabwe is facing in interpreter training and the prospects
that lie ahead for the future. The paper argues that instead of procrastinating, Zimbabwe should consider trends and
developments in court interpreting in different parts of the world, tailor-make them according to her needs and resources and
move forward. This will be a giant step towards making sure that the rights of the linguistically handicapped with regard to the
use of the language of the courts, namely English, are handled cautiously.
DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2p106
... Interpreters are influential participants in courtroom discourse, because the use of untrained interpreters could lead to miscarriages of justice. This is because, apart from being bilingual, a court interpreter must have a functional knowledge of the two languages in question and understand the differences in linguistic properties and pragmatic usage (Moeketsi 1999). In Nigerian courts, the interpreter is often a court clerk who is bilingual in English and the language spoken by the litigant (Olanrewaju and Oyedekun-Alli 2020). ...
... following the interpreter's threat of withdrawing his services. The linguistic features of the interpreter's speech place him among the participants in courtroom interactions who wield pervasive power over the speakers they interpret for (Moeketsi 1999). The exchanges overtly utilise the tenets of TLP and SAT, and present the accused as a powerless participant who depends on the interpreter to connect with court processes. ...
... [26] Moeketsi (1999Moeketsi ( , 2000 lê klem op die feit dat die tolk ʼn amptenaar van ʼn hof is en ʼn kardinale rol speel in die verloop van die regsproses. In haar navorsing gee sy ʼn duidelike uiteensetting van die beginsels waarvolgens ʼn tolk in ʼn hof moet optree asook die eed en vertolkingskode waarbinne ʼn tolk hom/haar van ʼn taak moet kwyt. ...
... In haar navorsing gee sy ʼn duidelike uiteensetting van die beginsels waarvolgens ʼn tolk in ʼn hof moet optree asook die eed en vertolkingskode waarbinne ʼn tolk hom/haar van ʼn taak moet kwyt. Verder verwys Moeketsi (1999Moeketsi ( , 2000 ...
Law is dependent on language. This is seen, amongst others, in a court of law’s responsibility to interpret the meaning of words. Cases regularly revolve around words; as a result courts have to deal with lexical semantic issues. They do this by referring to a word’s definition in the relevant act, or they cite previous (mostly reported) cases that have dealt with the same words or situations. Sometimes a court will call on a linguist to give his/her expert opinion regarding tricky linguistic issues or terminology or a presiding officer will refer to a scholarly publication. However, when neither of these approaches shed any light nor seem necessary, a court has to interpret words according to their ordinary meaning. For this they often use dictionaries. Apparently a presiding officer never makes use of any other linguistic means to determine the contextual meaning of a so-called ordinary word. Dictionaries tend to be unreliable. By no means do they contain all the words in a language, their definitions are not always clear and they seldom define words in context. Apart from this, dictionaries get outdated quickly and they are dissimilar in their definitions. This study has found that presiding officers in South Africa make use of outdated dictionaries, they sometimes use bilingual dictionaries to define words and the majority of dictionaries used by them are compiled and published outside of South Africa. Using foreign dictionaries to give meaning to words used in South African contexts leads to obvious misinterpretation. It was also found that some South African presiding officers use dictionaries with limited scope, such as pocket and compact dictionaries. All of this creates the impression that law practitioners generally do not know that dictionaries have different goals and target audiences. Because dictionaries should rather be used as a starting point when dealing with the meaning of words in court cases, I suggest law practitioners approach meaning conceptually. Drawing on the work of Rosch, Fillmore and Barsalou, this study advocates the solving of lexical semantic problems by using frames, more specifically Barsalou’s frame model (1992). Due to the fact that speakers understand and process meaning by connecting language to experience and general knowledge, and by categorising information into groups that contain exemplars considered to be the best example of that category; it makes sense for a court of law to give meaning to words in the same way. Speakers deal with information in the form of concepts and those concepts are interconnected and form vast networks of meaning. Words are the lexical representations of those interconnected networks of meaning. Defining a word outside of its conceptual web implies that an interpreter thinks words mean the same in every context, and this is not true. If courts follow a conceptual approach, they will come much closer to a word’s actual, contextual meaning than what they find in a dictionary. The study comprises the following: Chapter 2 provides an overview of both international and local activities of forensic linguistics and positions the study within this field of research. Chapter 3 discusses the different means by which South African courts deal with meaning and the interpretation of words. This includes the theories of interpretation, the Interpretation Act and the use of dictionaries. Chapter 4 focuses on the field of semantics. The different aspects of semantics are discussed, leading to the cognitive linguistic view of prototypes and frames. The chapter ends with an introduction and explanation of Barsalou’s model and the six steps needed to interpret ordinary words found in cases. In Chapter 5 the model is illustrated and tested on words found in 20 South African court cases. In Chapter 6 the conclusion is drawn that the model shows the necessary potential to interpret ordinary words alongside dictionaries.
http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2346
... What seems lacking in this literature, however, is work in areas that foreground multilingualism as an intragroup phenomenon, such as the effects of gendered uses of language in formal institutional contexts like the courtroom. With the exception of a few studies by Moeketsi (1999), Thetela (2002Thetela ( , 2003 and Makoni (2013Makoni ( , 2014, very rarely have scholars of African languages examined potential challenges that may engender inequalities rather than ratify such institutional usages. Even with these early studies on language and law, the focus on isihlonipho has been in juxtaposition to the use of English with no questions asked about the conduct of the legal professionals themselves. ...
... His masculine identity as a Ndebele man dictates that he should be more forthright and not indulge in avoidance of more explicit language. As Moeketsi (1999), Thetela (2002) and Makoni (2014) indicate, in African languages where isihlonipho is used, men have access to sexual discourses that women do not. It is possible that although the defense attorney is aware of the isihlonipho expressions and possibly understands their meaning, it is not expedient for him to acknowledge this in a courtroom setting because doing so might jeopardize the chances of his client being acquitted at two levels. ...
Drawing from Fishman's ideas on language planning and multilingualism , the aim of this article is to explore isihlonipho sabafazi 'women's language of respect', a variety of the Ndebele language spoken in Zimbabwe, as a minority language by analyzing the attitudes and ideologies directed at female isihlonipho speakers by not only male but also female legal experts in rape trials. In analyzing data consisting of interview transcripts with male and female attorneys on how they view and respond to isihlonipho in the courtroom, the focus is on the societal biases, ideologies, and attitudes towards isihlonipho use that are demonstrated. The findings suggest that language planning is an elitist enterprise that conceals inequalities and leads to injustice under the guise of law. Use of isihlonipho in the courtroom allows insight into how language planning is based on hegemonic discourses that permit discriminatory language practices. Given that speakers of isihlonipho do not adapt to the dominant language ideology, they then face dual marginality and are denied access to justice. This, in turn, raises important questions about power and ethics in language planning in that while language planning may address issues of multilingualism , at minimum it addresses diversity from without and not within.
... However, Pöchhacker (2004:30) It can be seen that interpreting as an object of academic investigation is a fairly recent construct and that liaison interpreting in particular is a field still ripe with opportunities for research enquiry. This is even more true for interpreting in South Africa, where there is a very limited number of studies in this area (Blaauw 2008, Bothma and Verhoef 2008, Du Plessis 2008, Erasmus 1999, Kotze 2010, Moeketsi 1999). ...
... She also describes court interpreters as "intrusive elements" (in Roy 2000:29) in court proceedings and illustrates the many ways that they step out of the generally accepted neutral role. Moeketsi's (1999) pioneering work on court interpreting in South Africa confirms this view. ...
... The first is that in both systems, English occupies a pre-eminent position in the legal system. Moeketsi (1999) also laments the loss of meaning in courtroom translations through such techniques as approximation and lexical simplification which court interpreters often resort to. In some cases, she argues, there is outright falsification of source information by interpreters due to the limitations arising from lack of direct linguistic equivalents between different languages giving rise to the possibility of miscarriage of justice. ...
... Both Cameron (2001) and Fernandez (1993) use theories from law discussed in the justification of the study above to study language and legal criticism. The current researchers adopt a linguistic approach in analysing courtroom discourse which is similar in some respects to Moeketsi's (1999) work. ...
This article analyses the nature of courtroom discourse in a Zimbabwean context in cases of alleged rape. The research investigated the language used by both court officials and lay persons during legal proceedings and examined the linguistic and socio-cultural factors that motivate the choice of certain lexical and syntactic features. Transcripts of court proceedings held at the Mutare Magistrates’ courts between November 2006 and March 2007 were the primary source of data. A multi-faceted analytic approach including Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), conversational analysis and text linguistics was employed. It was established that the courtroom discourse of both court officials and lay persons in cases of alleged rape was characterised by differences in linguistic features such as euphemisms, sexually explicit register, technical (legal) jargon and syntactic complexity. The research also established that, while some linguistic features used by courtroom participants serve a purely legal function, others serve important socio-cultural functions. The findings of the study, it was concluded, have practical implications for both law and linguistics. An example is the need for the training of court officials to raise their sensitivity to language use in cases of alleged rape in order to improve the presentation of evidence in such cases.
... As a result, the tag that is added at the conclusion of the declarative statement asks for the declarative to be confirmed (Loftus, 1980). The grammatical form of Tag Questions, thus, emphasizes the examiner's ability to extract testimony from a witness, as further highlighted by Moeketsi (1999). Consider Table 4. Table 4, the three witnesses are subject to such type of questioning, i.e., tag questions, from the court attorneys. ...
This paper attempts to explore the different strategies of questioning in courtroom discourse, by highlighting the various discursive structures employed to form a question between courtroom interlocutors. More specifically, this research looks at the techniques employed in courtroom cross-examination to persuade the judge(s) to accept attorneys' accounts of what happened as well as the effectiveness of responses in fending off the influence and power of barristers. The corpus of this study is taken from 3 testimonies of prosecution witnesses in the trial of Timothy McVeigh concerning the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1997. By employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the study investigates six questioning patterns, including wh-questions, yes-no questions, tag questions, so-questions, say-questions, and declarative questions. The study reveals that some types of questions used in courtrooms are strategically utilized to persuade juries and judges, confirm a piece of information, clarify an argument, threatening witnesses’ face, manipulate and/or coerce interlocutors within courtrooms. The paper also reveals that questioning is not only used to instigate an answer or a response but also to communicate information and draw conclusions.
... This offers the profession some hope in light of the fact that, prior to these dates, interpreting (especially in the public domain) was of poor quality (cf. Moeketsi 1999, Pienaar 2006. ...
After South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994, there was an expectation that problems related to translation services would receive more attention, especially given the fact that 11 languages received official status after 1994 (Lubbe 2002:78). In addition, the call to transform and decolonize South Africa has led to widespread discussion regarding which steps need to be taken to strengthen the African perspective in higher education. Kotzé and Wallmach (forthcoming) offer an in-depth look at research trends on interpreting in South Africa for the period 2006 to 2016. They highlight that, in order to transform South African interpreting studies, it is essential to know what has already been researched and, going forward, what we can learn from publication trends on interpreting.
By using a systematic literature review (Fink 2005), this bibliometric study investigates the trends of interpreting research done in South Africa, from the first publication found in 1968, through to 2017. The findings from this study will be of value to current and future interpreting researchers in that they will highlight current trends and shortcomings in South African interpreting research, and contribute to understanding and solving issues of transformation within this specific field.
... In adversarial courtrooms, the contention of the counsel is considered the basis for establishing the legal truth (May 2005), and the adversarial procedure is characterized by a focus on oral argument and presentation (Fenton 1997). To facilitate court proceedings, court interpreters are expected to maintain a high degree of impartiality and to produce faithful and accurate renditions (González and Vásquez and Mikkelson 2012;Hale 2004Hale , 2008Laster and Taylor 1994;Moeketsi 1999). Court interpreters are also required to "exercise the kind of restraint required of a professional in the judicial process" (Ng 2009: 180). ...
By examining the types and frequencies of non-renditions in a 100-hour corpus of court interpreting records from Hong Kong, this study demonstrated that court interpreters actively coordinate communication when carrying out their interpreting duties. Non-renditions are interpreters’ utterances that do not have a corresponding counterpart in the source language, and such renditions are ordinarily used to coordinate interpreter-mediated exchanges. This analysis revealed that in the Hong Kong court setting, non-renditions were less common in English (the court language) than in Cantonese (the main language of the witnesses and defendants). In the Cantonese subsample, interactional non-renditions were more common than textual non-renditions, and most of these utterances were self-initiated rather than prompted by others. In the English subsample, textual non-renditions were more common than interactional non-renditions, and most of them were other-prompted. The skewed distribution of non-renditions, and particularly the tendency to address non-renditions to the lay participants, suggests that court interpreters may not be absolutely impartial.
... Once appointed by the DoJ, interpreters may be sent to the Justice College in Pretoria to attend a sixweek training programme, but attendance of such a programme seems to be haphazard and not compulsory. (This also echoes the findings of Moeketsi (1999) and Ralarala (2012) referred to above). ...
Since the inception of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), much has been done to professionalize interpreting in South Africa in terms of accreditation, training and research. Yet two incidents in particular, namely the memorial service of the late President Nelson Mandela and the Oscar Pistorius trial highlighted the gap between theory and practice and strengthened the common perception that South African interpreters are incompetent. This article investigates these common perceptions by focusing mainly on media reports on interpreting, in general, and the events surrounding the sign language interpreting services rendered during the widely televised memorial service and the equally widely covered Pistorius trial, in particular. Criticisms in the media voiced from within the interpreting profession by academics and SATI accredited interpreters, and aimed mainly at the Department of Justice during the Pistorius trial, also receive attention. It is concluded that the struggle remains for insight into what interpreters can and cannot do, the conditions required for optimal interpreting performance and the perception that anyone who speaks two languages, can interpret between them.
... Although there are studies on court interpreting in South Africa, none has looked thoroughly at issues of foreign court interpreters, especially foreign African court interpreters. A study by Moeketsi (1999), for example, contains a passing reference to foreign African interpreters but does not go into detail regarding the challenges they face. A comprehensive study is therefore necessary which looks at the challenges faced by foreign African interpreters, especially given the emphasis on linguistic human rights in the South African Constitution. ...
This study investigates interlingual communicative challenges faced by interpreters in South
African courtrooms. Data were collected from the participants in the study by taking a
qualitative approach based on the observation of courtroom proceedings, as well as unstructured
and structured interviews. The interlingual challenges identified can be linked to factors such
as bilingualism, dialect usage, biculturalism and the requirement of sight translation in court.
Potential solutions to the problems brought about by these factors form the focal point of this
study. Finally, suggestions for further research are made within the limitations of the research
framework.
... In South Africa, although the issue of the role of court interpreters has been researched and discussed by scholars such as Moeketsi (1999) and others, no approach has been suggested which could assist in better understanding the role of court interpreters. As a consequence, the current study aims to address this deficiency by asking court interpreters to describe and define the concept of 'interpreting' using their South African indigenous languages. ...
In South Africa there are no models of court interpreting to serve as a guide for court interpreters when performing their task. This is because there is no proper definition of the role of a court interpreter. Models of court interpreting define and describe the process by stating what court interpreters are actually doing when carrying out their task. The absence of these models presents challenges to South African court interpreters as they are expected to follow international models which are formulated culturally, using English metaphorical language which differs from that of indigenous South African languages. As a result, the metaphorical language is likely to be misinterpreted by South African court interpreters as English is not their first language. The application of international models is likely to cause challenges when applied in the South African context, hence the need to formulate models of court interpreting which can be applied to the South African context. The study follows a qualitative research approach and uses multifaceted theoretical frameworks, namely descriptive translation studies (DTS), cognitive process analysis, and content analysis in collecting and analysing the data.
... The guidelines instruct interpreters to provide verbatim translations of original utterances 'using the same words and phrases, whenever this is possible'. However, when faced with the reality of the courtroom, interpreters deviate from this mechanistic way of interpreting (see, e.g., Mason, 2000;Moeketsi, 1999). The article thus analyses the effect of additions on the 'propositional content' (Thomas, 1995: 69) and style of source language (SL) texts in four consecutively-interpreted rape trials heard in Shona and English in Zimbabwean courtrooms. ...
This article investigates the conflict between interpreters’ ethical guidelines and the reality in Zimbabwean courtrooms. Although court interpreters’ instructions generally prescribe verbatim translations of original utterances, the reality in the courtroom may demand deviation from what the guidelines prescribe. Focusing on the effect of emphasising and down-toning additions on source language texts in four consecutively-interpreted rape trials heard in Shona and English, this study reveals that court interpreters are aware that their primary goal is to ensure that participants fully understand each other’s intentions. Interpreters therefore adopt a strategy for conveying renditions which would ensure that a speaker’s communicative intention, and not only his/her words, is available to an end receiver. The resultant renditions would nevertheless reveal some additions which may impact on the propositional content and style of the source message and hence the administration of justice. I therefore argue that interpreted courtroom dialogues are essentially ‘three-party’ (Mason, 2000: 9) face-to-face transactions involving two primary speakers and one interpreter.
... Scholars such as Roseann Dueñas González, Vásquez, and Mikkelson (1990, 502) advocate strict adherence to the original linguistic features and limitation of the interpreter's role merely to "language specialist" in court interpreting; while others (e.g. Moeketsi 1999;Berk-Seligson 1990;O'Barr 1982) question the court's strategy of providing "non-interfering" interpreting services to secure equal access to the legal system for people with limited English proficiency. They argue that the interpreter's intervention is necessary when participants' respective forms of discourse are different due to their educational, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. ...
This article explores interpreters' agency in wartime, with a focus on their active positioning and border-crossing strategy when facing violent conflicts. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of capital, it presents a case study of Xia Wenyun, who served as a Chinese interpreter and double agent between the Chinese Kuomintang government (KMT) and Japanese forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931–1945), highlighting the interpreter's hybrid cultural background and accumulation of social and political capital via interpreting work. It argues that interpreters' agency is determined by the relative value of their capital (including their linguistic and cultural competences, interpreting and social skills) recognized by other agents and institutions. The relative value is subject to the structure(s) in which interpreters position themselves and relates to the interpreters' personal profiles. When facing extreme situations such as wartime, interpreters can actively use their accumulated capital to negotiate benefits beyond the interpreting situation and protect themselves.
... In adversarial courtrooms, the contention of the counsel is considered the basis for establishing the legal truth (May 2005), and the adversarial procedure is characterized by a focus on oral argument and presentation (Fenton 1997). To facilitate court proceedings, court interpreters are expected to maintain a high degree of impartiality and to produce faithful and accurate renditions (González and Vásquez and Mikkelson 2012;Hale 2004Hale , 2008Laster and Taylor 1994;Moeketsi 1999). Court interpreters are also required to "exercise the kind of restraint required of a professional in the judicial process" (Ng 2009: 180). ...
This is a corpus-based study that investigates instances in which court interpreters in Hong Kong deviate from using direct speech and the first person, notwithstanding the requirement to use both of these when rendering statements made by witnesses or defendants. Quantitative data indicate that court interpreters do adhere to this requirement when interpreting Cantonese into English, but deviate from it when interpreting English into Cantonese. These data suggest that the use of reported speech and/or of the third person has identification functions that help Cantonese-speaking witnesses and defendants follow court proceedings and serve the pragmatic function of adding illocutionary force to interpreted utterances. Data from interviews with interpreters and legal professionals suggest that some latitude is exercised and tolerated when interpreters deviate from using direct speech and/or the first person when the target language is Cantonese. The findings indicate that court interpreters in the corpus observe strict professional guidelines by using direct speech most of the time, but occasional deviation from the direct approach suggests that court interpreters are able to make discretionary decisions to facilitate communication.
... Isihlonipho also involves broad discourse choices ranging from lexical to pragmatic and rhetorical forms. It is manifested verbally through politeness strategies, such as euphemism, vagueness (Channell 1998), and complete avoidance of profanities (Moeketsi 1999). Talk about sexual issues is considered profanity and is, therefore, couched in vague isihlonipho forms that may sound nonsensical to an outsider. ...
The aim of this article is to explore the interconnection between language, linguistic human rights (LHR), and law through an analysis of the Ndebele use of isihlonipho sabafazi (women's language of respect) in a courtroom setting. Using a cultural approach to discourse as an interpretive framework, the analysis illustrates that the LHR framework is not adequately sensitive to gendered forms of language discrimination. LHR is predicated on the protection of languages of minority ethnic groups and does not take into consideration gendered intra-group differences, leading to the sidelining of intra-linguistic variation, which exposes some members of the same linguistic community to intra-linguistic discrimination. Using isihlonipho sabafazi as a case in point, the article argues that this form of language use is a type of gender discrimination that contributes to women's linguistic exclusion and social marginalization. Given that language is not only a tool for communication but also central to culture, these gendered practices of linguistic exclusion leave women exposed to a regime of linguistic ‘dis-citizenship’ or ‘semi-citizenship’.
... The court interpreter's job is to convey an accurate and faithful message, conserving the form and content of original utterances (e.g. Astiz 1986;Gonzalez et al. 1991;Laster & Taylor 1994;Edwards 1995;Moeketsi 1999;Hale 2004Hale , 2008. There is consensus about the fact that the court interpreter should be sensitive to cultural dimensions and linguistic differences that might cause misunderstanding and ineffective communication. ...
This paper explores the role of the court interpreter in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic communication in the courtroom. Drawing on the analysis of the discourse of witness examinations interpreted by Korean interpreters in Australian court proceedings, this paper argues that in the absence of cultural and/or linguistic explanations by the interpreter, evidence given by witnesses from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds may not be accurately or fully interpreted, and this can have potentially serious consequences for the witness in the adversarial context. The discussion highlights the significance of interpreters' disclosure of linguistic and cultural issues which are related to the accuracy of interpreting during court-room examination and suggests that 'conduit' interpreters may in fact adversely influence adversarial court proceedings.
... The training of court interpreters is also of utmost importance. Moeketsi (1999) mentions that the dismal performance of the interpreter is a result of poor training and the absence of a proper definition and protection of the interpreter's role by the law. ...
In South Africa, legislation that clearly defines the role of court interpreters does not exist. Court interpreters find themselves performing tasks which should be the responsibility of other legal officials. This study considers how the lack of a clearly defined role for court interpreters affects the very quality of their interpreting. The study takes both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. In the top-down approach, a sample of South African legislation and related texts is analysed to determine whether the role of court interpreters have been clearly defined. The bottom-up approach deals with abstracts of proceedings in the courtroom in English and Setswana, focusing on the role played by court interpreters during trials. This study aims to shed more light on the role of court interpreters and to show how a defined role could lead to better quality interpreting. The court cases used in the study were collected during 2010 from the Brits Magistrates’ Court in the North West province.
... Without rehashing the age-old debate between the traditionalists, who are of the opinion that legal language is of necessity complex to 'bring in precision, clarity and unambiguity and all-inclusiveness' and 'certainty of legal effect' (Bhatia, 1993: 102 and 206), and the reformists, who believe it is quite possible to use simpler, more accessible language to convey legal content, which is more understandable to the public (Moeketsi, 1999), it is suggested here that it may be advisable to provide particular pieces of legislation in simpler formats, especially those laws which apply to society at large (Daniels, 2001). 2 It is quite understandable that in the process of legislative drafting it is not possible to write for all audiences and readerships simultaneously -the notion of the competing audience, or two-audience, dilemma (Gibbons, 2003). Sullivan (2001) describes the divergent audiences of legislation, ranging from 'everyone' through 'the audience targeted by Parliament' through 'the least experienced' to 'actual readers of legislation'. ...
Plain language is a form of intra-lingual translation, a process during which particular interventions are brought to bear on a complex text, such as an act, in order to fit the linguistic competence of a particular target audience (Bhatia, 1983; 1993). In this way, complicated content is unlocked and meaning mediated. The aim is to cut down on the cognitive processing difficulties experienced by the reader. Careful consideration must therefore be given to the linguistic features used in this alternative text. In South Africa, plain language received its first exposure during the 1990s, in a particular political context in which a human rights culture took centre stage. It is important, in a democracy, to inform ordinary citizens of their basic rights, and to do so in understandable language. In this study, a lexico-grammatical analysis is undertaken of a booklet, Equality for All, which is based on an act of parliament. Following a text-based approach, the linguistic features are measured against the principles of plain language, specifically focusing on the grammatical constructions and lexical items that have been proven to obscure meaning and impede understanding. The principal aim of this article is to assess whether the language employed in this simplified text is accessible to non-mother tongue speakers with no formal training in, and limited knowledge of, the law.
... Consequently, legal and educational guidelines for court interpreters often emphasize the use of first person to refer to the person for whom they are translating. For example, the directive is included in the interpreting norms established by the Canadian Supreme Court (Bergeron 2002: 228), and can be found in interpreting guidelines from South Africa (Moeketsi 1999: 174), Sweden (Wadensjö 2004: 120), and Great Britain (Colin and Morris 1996, as quoted in Wadensjö 1998: 241). In the United States, the practice is prescribed in professional codes for court interpreters in several states (see Berk-Seligson 1990: 232, 237), and it is also explicitly required in the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibilities of the National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), a code that is binding upon all its members. ...
This paper investigates the translation styles of court interpreters in New York City and the styles' social and pragmatic implications for multilingual interactions in court. Interpreters are found to vary between using first or third person to represent the voice of a translated source speaker, thereby varying between adherence to explicit institutional norms that require first person and accommodation to non-professional interpreting practices that favor the use of reported speech. In a quantitative and qualitative analysis, this variation is shown to be influenced by several pragmatic and social factors, and to index the interpreters' stances towards source speakers and towards the immigrant court users who are the recipients of translations from English. It is argued that translation styles have profound consequences for limited English speakers, as the insistence on institutional norms in translating to them is viewed as a gatekeeping behavior that may impede their full participation in the proceedings.
... The training of court interpreters is also of utmost importance. Moeketsi (1999) mentions that the dismal performance of the interpreter is a result of poor training and the absence of a proper definition and protection of the interpreter's role by the law. ...
In South Africa, legislation that clearly defines the role of court interpreters does not exist. Court interpreters find themselves performing tasks which should be the responsibility of other legal officials. This study considers how the lack of a clearly defined role for court interpreters affects the very quality of their interpreting. The study takes both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. In a top-down appraoch, a sample of South African legislation and related texts is analysed to determine whether the role of court interpreters have been clearly defined. The bottom-up approach deals with abstracts of proceedings in the courtroom in English and Setswana, focusing on the role played by court interpreters during trials. This study aims to shed more light on the role of court interpreters and to show how a defined role could lead to better quality interpreting. The court cases used in the study were collected during 2010 from the Brits Magistrates' Court in the North West Province.
Bu çalışma, savaş tercümanlarını özellikle olağanüstü durumlardaki aktif konumlarına, kültürel köprü niteliklerine ve sınırları aşma stratejilerine odaklanarak ele almaktadır. Çalışma İkinci Çin-Japon Savaşı (1931–1945) dönemi ile sınırlandırılmış olup, bu savaşta tercüman olarak görevlendirilmiş Xia Wenyun’un (夏文运/ 1906-1978) vaka incelemesi ile örneklendirilmiştir. Çalışmada özellikle Marx’ın sermaye kavramından farklı olarak tercümanın sosyal ve politik sermaye birikimini vurgulayan Pierre Bourdieu’nun “sembolik sermaye” kavramından yararlanılmıştır. Bourdieu’nun sembolik sermayesi, insanların sermaye olarak algılamadıkları belirli bir sermaye biçiminin etkisini anlatmaktadır. Bourdieu’ya göre sembolik sermaye biraz da habitus ile alakalı olup, bireyin kendisi ile alakalı olan görünüş, duruş ve konuşma gibi özelliklerini kapsamaktadır. Onun sembolik sermaye kavramı, İkinci Çin-Japon Savaşı’nda hem ajan hem de Çinli tercüman olarak görev yapan Xia Wenyun üzerinden ele alınmıştır. Çalışmada veri toplamak amacıyla China Academic Journals (CNKI) veri tabanı ve açık kaynaklardan elde edilen bilgiler ve bu alanda yazılmış kitaplar kullanılarak İkinci Çin-Japon Savaşı içerisinde tercümanların rolü incelenmiştir. Sonuç olarak tercümanların, olağanüstü durumlarla karşı karşıya kaldıklarında birikmiş sermayelerini hem kendilerini korumak hem de çıkarlarını müzakere etmek için çekinmeden kullanabildikleri sonucuna varılmıştır.
It has already been affirmed that power and control embedded in questions varies according to question type (Luchjenbroers 1999, Rigney 1999 etc). The paper ranges question types according to their degree of control and observes that those with high degree of control lost their power and control through the process of interpreting. It is further observed that since lawyers always maintain power and control through the type of questions they ask (such as declarative, yes/no, alternative questions) they are at the losing end whenever there is the need for court interpreter. Similarly, the use of discourse markers in the court (such as now, so, and, ok), also signifies lawyer’s power and control over the witnesses and defendants and these are always used to further enhance the power, coercion and challenging nature of the lawyers (see Hale 1999). The study further notes that the power and control of questions coating discourse markers are always reducing through the process of interpreting. The paper opines that the presence of courtroom interpreters in court reduces the power and control of lawyers in court.
Currently, we find ourselves in the era of Web 3.0 (Semantic Web) and Web 4.0 (Symbiotic Web). Not only are people now able to share content with each other, but they can also create the content themselves. The mobile nature of Web 3.0 and 4.0, that is, the manner in which users have access to the internet via various devices (users are no longer solely dependent on a computer to use the internet), has resulted in a change in social interaction and communication.
People are moving away from the more traditional communication mediums and they are finding news, information, and companionship online. It, therefore, appears to be evident that the role of the user has changed and should now be viewed as an online profile through which newsworthy occurrences can be shared in no time. Communication now also has to be short, the reader wants to know what is happening at a glance.
The development of these new technologies is consequently not only changing the ways in which communication takes place or the ways in which language is used to convey the message, but also creates an ideal opportunity for negative communication (slander and bullying or trolling) and fake profiles. In view of the increasing amount of anonymous profiles, one has to ask who is truly speaking and can the author of a short electronic text (in Afrikaans) be identified?
This Chapter explores a variety of systemic issues, such as fatigue and poor working conditions, that negatively affect court interpreter performance. Furthermore, the book surveys the general practices used by criminal justice systems when appointing court interpreters, as well as the economic pressures involved in the court interpreting market, and comes to the conclusion that the overall level of competence exhibited by most appointed interpreters is dangerously low. Building upon Gile’s Effort Model, the Chapter theorizes that many of the interpreting errors previously discussed in the work may arise from a combination of systemic and environmental issues negatively impacting the cognitive abilities of already limited interpreters.
The final Chapter sets out several detailed proposals to revise the usage of court interpreters in criminal proceedings in order to minimize the risks to a fair trial. Among these suggestions is the employment of better interpreters in criminal proceedings. While this may sound obvious, it actually involves the detailed exploration of several different concepts, such as mandatory certification requirements, the usage of remote video interpreting, and the establishment of training programs specifically tailored to court interpretation (as opposed to general interpretation techniques). Other proposals examined at length in the Chapter are the improvement of oversight procedures and the improved education of other courtroom actors concerning court interpretation.
This Chapter catalogues a vast array of interpreter errors that are known to exist, as well as their potential implications with respect to the various fair trial rights. This discussion is divided into two sections: those errors related to the interpreters themselves and their conscious choices (interpreter-based problems) and those mistakes that arise mainly from the inherent complexity and difficulty of the interpreting process (language-based problems). Looking at interpreter-based problems reveals a number of issues (such as stepping outside of the interpreter’s neutral role) that occur at problematic levels of frequency. Likewise, examining language-based problems associated with content (such as difficulties with legal language and the general lack of linguistic equivalents) reveals a similar trend. Finally, an evaluation of those language-based problems involving speech style choices (such as register, politeness, and hedges) shows that evidentiary fact-finders base their assessments of witness credibility and believability on the interpreter’s style of speech (as opposed to the style of speech used by the witness in the original language). Since studies have shown that speech style has an enormous impact on the actual acceptance of witness testimony, this is a troubling finding. After the examination of highlighted interpreter errors, an in-depth discussion of the potential impact of these specific issues on the various fair trial rights occurs.
The choice of language to use in South African courts is still a subject which gives rise to emotional debates in the public domain. In the Vhembe District Courts of Law, it is found that English is used as a language for case trials at the expense of African languages. Interpreting is a challenging activity because some languages do not always have words that allow a direct interpreting. The present research seeks to investigate interpreting or misinterpreting activities in courts of law in the Vhembe District. The conclusion of the case may completely change the verdict of guilty or not guilty. An interpreter should know both the source and target languages fluently and must make sure that the information is translated correctly and precisely. This research will be accomplished by analyzing interpretation in the courts of law in the Vhembe District.
The article deals with the speaker‘s lexicon features during court interpretation. The study is based on the transcripts of the authentic interpreter mediated court investigations and analyzed using a corpus analytical approach. The analysis of the data shows, that interpreters strive to be loyal to the juristic macrocontext and the situation in which conversation takes place. That might lead to the wrong understanding of the identity (personality) of the speaker by the recipient. The overemphasizing of the features of speakers idiolect might lead to major misrepresentation of the information that was in the source message. The interpreter's endeavor of using special juristic terms might also complicate communication process.
In this article, certain translative communication problems associated with the linguistic and stylistic differences between English and Sesotho are identified and discussed. With a view to help improve translation between the two languages where inaccurate and stilted communication frequently occurs, issues of equivalence, fidelity/faithfulness and the purpose of translation are delved into. It is furthermore argued that in South African multilingual contexts, like legal courts, criminal cases/hearings and hospitals clinics and similar health establishments, inaccurate translation and/or misinterpreting can lead to serious miscarriages of justice and poor service delivery. The reasons for such unfortunate eventualities sometimes relate to the translator-interpreter’s poor understanding of the cultural factors behind the English or Sesotho message. As such, emphasis is lain on the need for a translator-interpreter’s cultural understanding of the source language/text (SL/T) and target language/text (TL/T) to deliver an accurate version (in the target language or text – TL/T) of the original message. It is furthermore shown that one cause of social and legal injustice is closely related to the translator- interpreter’s insufficient knowledge of both the English and Sesotho culture as it exists in grammatical forms, idiomatic structures, collocation patterns and stylistic patterns of the SL/T and the TL/T.
Despite the escalation of domestic violence, sexual abuse against females, and the prevalence of HIV/Aids in South Africa, women — usually the most affected group — often seem reluctant to enter into public discussions on matters pertaining to sexuality (including sex crimes). Central to this problem is the culture of secrecy that surrounds sexuality in many African communities, and, in particular, cultural constraints on women’s speech behaviour that weaken or ‘silence’ their voices. Furthermore, virtually no research has been done on discourse and gender in South Africa, let alone on the notion of voices and silence.
IntroductionSecond-Language SpeakersSpeakers of Creole LanguagesDeaf Sign Language UsersSecond-Language Speakers without InterpretersSecond-dialect speakersCultural Presuppositions about Communicative StyleCultural Presuppositions about Actions outside Legal ContextsThe Politics of Intercultural Communication in the Legal ProcessThe Culture of the Law: Worldview, Language Ideologies, and Linguistic PracticesConclusion
Bibliography
Like most African countries, postcolonial Zimbabwe is multilingual with more than 15 indigenous languages. Since Zimbabwe was a British colony, colonial policies ensured the entrenchment of English as the language of sports, education, records and law. English is spoken mainly as a second or even third language by the majority of Zimbabweans. Even for those who speak English fluently, or with near fluency, the technical vocabulary of legal English, and the specialised use of ordinary terms, often results in miscommunication in the courts of law. This complex sociolinguistic situation requires the services of interpreters to bridge the communication gap between the custodians of the law like magistrates, prosecutors and judges and ordinary people who do not speak the language of the court, particularly in difficult, sensitive and complex cases such as rape trials which normally invoke cultural, psychological and emotional responses for all courtroom players. This article investigates the interplay between language and society by examining the quality of the interpreting in cases involving alleged rape in Zimbabwean courtrooms. We analyse interpreter renditions during open court sessions and examine transcriptions of trials obtained in courtrooms. Our findings suggest that there are chances of miscommunication in courtrooms due to hitches in the interpreting process which have adverse effects on the rights of the accused and/or witnesses to a free and fair trial. Although the findings are based on Zimbabwean data, we believe that many of the issues that are raised in this article could be applicable to other countries with similar sociolinguistic profiles.
In contrast to other (mainly European countries) where liaison interpreters act as intercultural brokers and interlingual facilitators between state service providers and immigrant communities, the South African situation calls for interpreting between service providers and citizens. This form of interpreting however mainly takes place within an unregulated and informal setting. Since 2004 the larger financial sector had to put measures in place to ensure that all relevant documentation were available in the 11 official languages of the country. However, due to inter alia high levels of illiteracy, it was found that the bottom end of the banking population still employ the services of bank security staff to act as interpreters on their behalf. This paper reports on this well-established form of liaison interpreting in the financial sector. It is argued that the nonprovision of trained interpreters who are also bound to a code of ethics leads to the exploitation of linguistic marginalised groupings and thus perpetuates asymmetrical power relations in financial discourse.
This article explores the institutional policies and practices concerning multilingualism in small claims courts in New York City. Building on prior work that has investigated the language use of court interpreters and of the litigants for whom they translate, this study focuses on the analysis of institutional interactions in which all participants, including the arbitrators who decide the cases, are speakers of Spanish. Court interpreters are routinely used in such cases, though some hearings were conducted without them in Spanish. Comparing these two scenarios and analysing the participants' metalinguistic comments, this study explores the language ideologies that underlie the institutional policies about language choice and interpreter use and how they relate to broader issues about Spanish–English bilingualism in the USA more generally.
This article deals with court interpretation and the function of interpretation in particular. The con-clusions are based on observations made in court proceedings across Finland. The article addresses the main phases of criminal court proceedings in Finland, with the aim of describing the purpose of interpretation in each phase. The starting point in this review is the fact that interpretation – as all activities – relies on its purpose, function. The function of interpretation determines the priorities of interpretation, the accuracy requirements and the selection of interpretation methods. The function of interpretation is situational. From the communication perspective, court proceedings form a het-erogenic, dynamic event in which the participants have different, even opposite objectives. The proceedings are regulated and each phase of the process has a purpose. The function of court inter-pretation changes continuously during the trial and it does not always coincide with the function of the communication in the original language. In order to succeed in his/her task, the court interpreter must know the rules of the court proceedings, recognise the main phases of the communication event and the objectives of the participants, and adjust the interpretation function to correspond to the communication needs in an optimal manner.
From a vision of language as representation, both translation and legal studies have undergone significant changes in recent years which have allowed them to question core concepts like neutrality and universality. Increasing attention has been paid to the influence of ideology, position, gender, race, hegemony and marginalization in the understanding, reading and rendering of a text. This paper focuses on some of the problems and ethical dilemmas inherent to and often hidden in legal translation, drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and capital and on his understanding of legal texts as signs of authority aimed at being believed and obeyed. It contributes to the articulation of the tenets of a new concept of responsibility which arises from an awareness of the ideological intricacies of meaning and the influence of power relations in the understanding of texts.
Earlier ethnographic investigations which studied language in relation to ethnic types and behaviour, seemingly paid little attention, if at all, to discourse participation in the courtroom, where there is, in South Africa at least, an overwhelming overlap of cultures and behavioral patterns.
The first crop of sociolinguists applied the term “the ethnography of communication” to sociolinguistics in order to refer to the study of language in relation to “the entire range of extra- linguistic variables which identify the social basis of communication” (Crystal, 1985: 113). This article attempts to discuss the “extra-linguistic variables” identified by Dell Hymes (1974) and to explore their relevance using the courtroom as the speech situation and court interpreting as the speech event. The aim is to establish the influence of such variables on the communicative competence of the court interpreter.
In the past, court interpreters in the South African courts were compelled to serve under judges and magistrates, most of whom were agents of the apartheid system and who were therefore not concerned with the proper training of court interpreters nor encouraged any improvement in their working conditions. The meagre six-week orientation provided by the justice College, historically the only attempt made to provide any sort of training for court interpreters, has always been ridiculed by court interpreters as a 'sphaza training', meaning insignificant and superficial. The inefficiency of the course can be attributed partly to its brevity, and partly to the lack of insight into the interpreting process which led to the service being misunderstood as a mere process of linguistic transfer from one language to another. Consequently, some interpreters feel justified in declining to take responsibility for poor performance, claiming 'garbage in, garbage out', meaning that poor training begets poorly qualified, incompetent and unprofessional linguistic service providers. This article is an explication of how the University of South Africa addresses this situation by providing training in court interpreting. This training, embraced by most court interpreters as the makoya, 'the real thing', will hopefully improve the status of the service, renew the self-worth of practitioners and enhance their performance.
Recent observations of criminal trials still disclose, albeit in some cases only, inconsistencies, irregularities and many sorts of court interpreter misdemeanours. Instances of inaccuracy, lack of proficiency and general incompetence pervade the service. The misunderstanding of the role of the court interpreter by the practitioners themselves, the other court personnel, as well as accused persons and witnesses is the main reason for the inefficient service. State intervention is long overdue. This article, therefore, proposes suggestions in the development of a code of professional conduct for the service of court interpreting in South Africa. The author has examined various codes used by established court interpreter associations far and wide as invaluable sources of reference. The co-operation of several experienced senior court interpreters, to whom I am indebted, as well as the discussions with some of the students registered for the BA degree in Court Interpreting at Unisa has also been invaluable in drafting these suggestions.
The article reports on a study of the feasibility of the simultaneous interpreting of lectures at the Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir Christelike Hoër Onderwys (now the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University). An experiment was set up to determine if learners who are not fully proficient in Afrikaans, the medium of instruction, will benefit from simultaneous interpreting into English. The results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference between students who receive interpreting into English and tuition in English directly, while students who receive instruction in Afrikaans perform significantly more poorly than those in the English-medium lecture. A further finding of the experiment is that Afrikaans-speaking students perform significantly better when instructed in Afrikaans rather than in English. On the basis of the results, it is recommended that simultaneous interpreting be implemented as an alternative to a monolingual Afrikaans or English instructional policy or a parallel medium of instruction policy.
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