Towards an Accurate Simultaneous Court Interpreting: A Communicative, Pragmatic and Semiotic Approach to English/Arabic Renditions

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate and evaluate the intricacies of accuracy in simultaneous court interpreting and challenges the view that accuracy is unattainable. It hypothesizes that there is an overlapping and vague understanding of the 'accuracy' of court interpreting; and by applying a multidisciplinary model, accuracy becomes attainable. The theoretical framework derives its concepts principally from models of error analysis in court interpreting and from a communicative, pragmatic and semiotic model. It applies a qualitative methodology to data collected from an open session of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon where a witness is cross-examined, and their simultaneous interpretation from/into English/Arabic. It concludes that there is vagueness in understanding what an 'accurate' court interpreting is and that accuracy is possible, but it is attainable neither through the interpreter's impartiality by sticking blindly to the code of ethics, nor through his blatant mediation.