The importance of prosodic elements in simultaneous interpreting

Gastó Jiménez, Mariona

The importance of prosodic elements in simultaneous interpreting

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Citation

Gastó Jiménez, M. The importance of prosodic elements in simultaneous interpreting. 2018. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10230/36093

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Abstract

Prosody is one of the most important features of any speech and, therefore, of the interpretation of speeches. However, very little literature has been dedicated to the research of this field. This research project aims at analysing and defining the real importance of prosody in simultaneous interpreting and, more specifically, that of other elements belonging to the global section of prosody: voice, rhythm, enunciation, intonation, breathing and pauses, punctuation and fillers. Owing to it being a scantly explored field, the project starts by defining criteria to explain the importance of these prosodic elements in simultaneous interpreting. It then goes on to analyse some interpretations (carried out by fourth-year undergraduate students), which resulted in very different outcomes, each characterized by the use of voice and each student’s awareness regarding prosody. Such analysis demonstrates that extralinguistic factors are as important as linguistic elements, as well as how much language proficiency influences the outcome of interpretations not only through language itself but also through prosody.