Porto 2001: Paper: "The place of Grammar (Syntax and Vrbal Government) within a self-training interpreting course"

last updated: 17 June, 2001

Peter Kornakov (Dr)
University Teacher in Conference Interpreting
University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK

PAPER:

THE PLACE OF GRAMMAR (SYNTAX and VERBAL GOVERNMENT) WITHIN A SELF-TRAINING INTERPRETING COURSE.
PILOT MANUAL "THE GRAMMAR OF INTERPRETATION".

Abstract
Training interpreters for the 21^st century, who are well educated, well informed linguists with a narrow specialisation, poses many practical problems both for teaching institutions and future interpreters themselves.

For the teaching institution it is a matter of designing programmes and finding an adequate balance between theoretical knowledge and the practical skills to be offered to the students. For any student it is a matter of developing all the necessary skills, it is a matter of hard work, of establishing priorities, and indeed, it is a matter of discipline. Discipline implies a lot of self-training outside the laboratory, the ability to listen to oneself critically but impartially, finding difficulties and problems, and designing specific training in order to overcome them.

One of the fundamental aspects of any language learning is grammar in any of its applied aspects: either Morphology or Syntax. With reference to European languages, interpreting from Russian and German into other European languages presents an extra difficulty because of differences, for example between Spanish and Russian or German and English Grammar systems, and broadly speaking, between their syntactical systems.

The syntax of a Russian sentence is a minefield, which the interpreter must hope to cross unscathed: "As you start a sentence you are taking a leap in the dark, you are mortgaging your grammatical future. Great nimbleness is called for to guide the mind through this syntactical maze". (John Glemet, quoted in David Gerver, Empirical Studies of SI: A Review and a Model, in: Translation: Applications and Research, ed. Richard W.Brislin, NY: Gardner Press, 1976: 168) - a very fare description, indeed…

As a professional Russian Grammar teacher with extensive experience of working as an interpreter and translator, I have designed a pilot manual for an interpreter's self-training course, based on specific grammar exercises aimed at improving interpreting skills or, less broadly speaking, those skills that any interpreter working from Russian have to develop.

"While the translator can calmly rearrange the components of a sentence, since the interpreter must start without knowing where the speaker's syntax may take him, he should exercise maximum restraint before jumping in. He needs to attempt to 'see ahead' and plan out the sentence insofar as possible". (Linn Visson, From Russian into English,1999: 89)

In my paper the Model Unit will be presented and its applicability for training interpreters in other languages will be discussed.

Before I present for the discussion the Model Unit, I would like to summarise the wide range of exercises, typically used for training interpreters, and present them in the form of tables grouped by their aim, their input and output, and the possible language combination in order to illustrate the importance of the placing of exercises aimed specifically at syntactical training.

Aim	Possible exercises
1) Warming up exercises (written, aural and oral)	Translation, shadowing in L2, L1, listening
2) Two way Vocabulary activation exercises	Two way vocabulary dictation
3) Building vocabulary on synonimical and antonymical level (chains and rows)	*"Net" exercise*
4) Training on numbers, names, acronyms	Dictations
5) Training paraphrasing skills 1	Key-words paraphrasing exercises
6) Training paraphrasing skills 2	Finish unfinished sentences exercises
7) Training paraphrasing skills 3	Taboo key-words exercise
8) Training predicting skills 1	Count Monte-Cristo ("scissors") exercise combined with Sight Interpretation)
9) Training predicting skills 2	Clozing
10) Training split attention skills	Shadowing with texts (scripts) Working with two texts
11) Training SI interpreting skills 1	*Frozen translation*
12) Training SI interpreting skills 2	*Frozen interpretation* *a) from printed text* *up – down* *down – up* *b) from audio tape*
13) PRACTICE of SI	SI + self-recording
14) ANALYSIS	(de)briefing

Aim	Possible exercises	input	output
1) Warming up	Translation, shadowing in L2, L1, listening	Texts, tapes, radio	Written, Oral
2) Two way Vocabulary activation exercises	Two way vocabulary dictation	Audio	Oral
3) Building vocabulary on synonimical and antonymical level (chains and rows)	"Net" exercise	Written	Written
4) Training on numbers, names, acronyms	Dictations	Aural	Oral
5) Training paraphrasing skills 1	Key-words paraphrasing exercises	Written	Oral
6) Training paraphrasing skills 2	Finish unfinished sentences exercises	Written	Oral
7) Training paraphrasing skills 3	Taboo key-words exercise	Written	Oral
8) Training predicting skills 1	Count Monte-Cristo ("scissors") exercise combined with sight interpretation)	Written	Oral
9) Training predicting skills 2	Clozing	Written	Written, Oral
10) Training split attention skills	Shadowing with texts (scripts) Working with two texts	Written Aural	Written, oral
11) Training SI interpreting skills 1	*Frozen translation*	Aural, written	written
12) Training SI interpreting skills 2	*Frozen interpretation* *a) from printed text* *b) from tape*	Written Aural	Oral
13) PRACTICE of SI	SI + self-recording	Aural	Oral
14) ANALYSIS	(de)briefing

Sample 6a Frozen Interpretation 1a (Sight Interpretation)
First of all, what do people mean when they use the term "euthanasia". The term was originally used to indicate that death was easy and painless. But in later times it was translated by most people as "mercy killing" and this has sparked a major controversy in the medical and legal world internationally and locally, of course.	*Instructions:* The source text is given to the trainee already divided by units of meaning, each UofM is uncovered at once still covering both the previous and the following one, and their task is to record the interpretation on the tape.

Sample 6b Delayed Frozen Interpretation
Does everyone understand the term "euthanasia" in the same way, or are there perhaps different interpretations of it? It is a bit of a technical term, so let me explain that we distinguish four different forms of euthanasia. We talk about "voluntary", "involuntary", "active" and "passive" euthanasia.	*Instructions:* The source text is given to the trainee already divided by units of meaning, each UofM is uncovered at once still covering both the previous and the following one, and their task is to retain in their short-term memory the previous UofM and start interpreting it while being exposed to the next one. The exercise is recorded on the tape.

Sample 6c Frozen Interpretation 1b
First of all, what do people mean when they use the term "euthanasia". The term was originally used to indicate that death was easy and painless. But in later times it was translated by most people as "mercy killing" and this has sparked a major controversy in the medical and legal world internationally and locally, of course.	*Instructions:* The source text is given to the trainee recorded on the tape, already divided by units of meaning leaving pauses between them, and their task is to record the interpretation on the tape. In the case when the trainee works on his/her own, the source text can be divided by UofM using the pause button.

*Sample: The "NET"* exercise Source text: If there is a lack of clear focus, it is because of these mandates, many of which the bank is expected to carry out without adequate funding…**
word	synonym	antonym
If	Should it be the case Where it is proven that In the event that	Although Despite the fact
there is	there exists a situation prevails a situation has come about	none exists there is an absence of no
a lack of	Insufficient inadequate a dearth of not enough less than a desirable amount of	too much an excess of a plethora an abundance of
clear	Precise well-defined obvious visible	Vague imprecise woolly lacking clarity
focus	concentration on essentials attention to detail goal-oriented targeting of effort	dissipation of effort wide range of preoccupations dissipated lacking concentration
because of	due to the result of a consequence of derives from flows from	independently of despite of unrelated to bearing no relationship with
these mandates	demands missions obligations terms of reference tasks
The bank	the World Bank the IBRD the institution the organisation the body
Is expected to	People expect to is supposed to is intended to was designed to should would be remiss not to do	Is not expected to should not does not have the mandate to outside it sphere of action does not correspond to its purpose
Carry out	Execute implement put into motion do ensure	Leave undone ignore fail to do renege on responsibilities
without	in the absence of should there not be	faced with having with with the existence of being endowed with having at one's disposal
adequate	sufficient enough the right amount of	inadequate insufficient not enough short of requirements
funding	budget money resources financing financial means support allocations
Instructions: To the given source text the trainee should find synonyms and antonyms to almost every word and present the "net" as given above.