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The current study investigated how the processing of triple cognates (words sharing form and meaning across three languages) is modulated by the semantic bias of sentence context in a reading task. In the study, Polish–German–English trilinguals read English sentences while their eye movements were monitored. The sentences were either semantically biased (high-context) or neutral (low-context) towards target words. The targets were either Polish–German–English cognates whose cross-language form overlap was incomplete (e.g. DIAMENT–DIAMANT–DIAMOND) or English-only controls (e.g. KURCZAK–HÄHNCHEN–CHICKEN). The results revealed a significant effect of context in gaze durations and in total reading time. Importantly, no cognate facilitation effect was identified in any reading measure. The gaze duration data additionally revealed that English-only controls were read slower in low-context sentences than in high-context sentences but gaze durations for cognates were not affected by the sentence context. Thus, prior bilingual findings were only partially replicated in the current study with trilinguals. This suggests that bilingual models of language processing should be carefully adapted to trilinguals. The current data may also mean that non-identical cognates (even those shared across three languages) induce relatively small effects and large samples of participants and items may be needed to detect such effects across reading measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined how a required reformulation of a source text affects reading patterns in sight translation. We also tested how interpreters regulated their eye-voice span (IVS, understood as the delay between viewing the source language word and speaking it in the target language) in the task. Twenty-four professional conference interpreters sight translated (from Polish into English) a text with syntactically symmetrical sentences (that could be copied in the target language) or asymmetrical ones (that required reformulation). The participants' output and eye movements were recorded. Mean IVS turned out to exceed 8s. Text viewing durations and IVS did not differ between symmetrical and asymmetrical sentences. In contrast, reformulated output structures generated larger IVS than the retained ones. Also, words appearing later in the text on the screen were associated with longer IVS. This shows that IVS is a complex construct and that reformulation affects reading patterns in sight translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to investigate the coordination of source text comprehension and translation in a sight translation task. The study also sought to determine whether translation strategies influence sight translation performance. Two groups of conference interpreters—professionals and trainees—sight translated English sentences into Polish while their eye movements and performance were monitored. Translation demands were manipulated by the use of either high- or low-frequency critical words in the sentences. Translation experience had no effect on first-pass viewing durations, but experts used shorter re-view durations than trainees (especially in the low-frequency condition). Professionals translated more accurately and with less pausing than trainees. Translation in the high-frequency condition was more accurate and had shorter pauses than in the low-frequency condition. Critical word translation accuracy increased with the translation onset latency (TOL) for individual sentences, and pause durations were relatively short when TOLs were either relatively short or long. Together, these findings indicate that, in sight translation, the initial phase of normal reading for comprehension is followed by phases in which reading and translation co-occur, and that translation strategy and translation performance are linked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines how professional and trainee interpreters process syntax in sight translation. We asked 24 professionals and 15 trainees to sight translate sentences with subject-relative clauses and more difficult object-relative clauses while measuring translation accuracy, eye movements and translation durations. We found that trainees took longer to achieve similar translation accuracy as professionals and viewed the source text less than professionals to avoid interference, especially when reading more difficult object-relative sentences. Syntactic manipulation modulated translation and viewing times: participants took longer to translate object-relative sentences but viewed them less in order to avoid interference in target language reformulations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show that reading measures in sight translation should be analysed together with translation times to explain complex reading patterns. It also proposes a new measure, percentage of dwell time, as an index of interference avoidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]