A Look at Simultaneous Interpretation. Working Papers on Bilingualism, No. 4.

This paper summarizes the findings of an exploratory study concerned with certain temporal and qualitative aspects of simultaneous interpretation. Six French-English interpreters (2 professionals, 2 students and 2 amateurs) translated tape-recorded passages representing different types of materials from their weaker into their dominant language or vice-versa. As analyzed by computer, the translator's (T's) utterance generally shows the same pattern of temporal relationships as natural speech (by speaker S) but is less rhythmical. T speaks for a greater proportion of time than S and his speech rate vis-a-vis S's is greater in relation to prepared than to spontaneous texts. The synchronization of the 2 speech patterns suggests that T makes good use of S's pauses to deliver his version. Characteristically, T lags behind S by 2 to 3 seconds. Various types of translation departures occur (examples are given), and extent of omission is related to input factors such as S speech rate. A number of other observations are noted. (Author)