When the speaker is a great performer

A case study on the role of the interpreter

in consecutive interpreting*
Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

Universit di Sassari / Independent researcher

This article analyzes an interpreter-mediated speech event from Spanish into

Italian. In the case study, the interactional dominance of the main speaker and
his communicative style repeatedly challenge the participatory status and the face
of the interpreter, who is constantly coping with the speakers attempts to involve
her in the interaction as an entertainment resource. Although the communicative
setting a book presentation is typical of conference interpreting events, this
encounter was structured unconventionally as an informal story-telling session
interspersed with several ad-libs and impromptu conversation exchanges with
other participants, all interpreted in the short consecutive mode. The high degree
of interactivity that emerged among the participants suggested the adoption of a
qualitative multidisciplinary approach which, in addition to conference interpreting research, also draws on dialogue and media interpreting, as well as sister disciplines such as social psychology and conversation analysis in intercultural settings.
Keywords: consecutive interpreting, Spanish-Italian language pair, role of the
interpreter, interpreters face
Este trabajo analiza un evento comunicativo interpretado del espaol al italiano.
En el estudio de caso, la dominancia interaccional del orador principal y su estilo
comunicativo ponen a prueba varias veces el estatus participativo y la imagen
social de la intrprete, que tiene que enfrentarse durante todo el acto a los intentos
del orador de implicarla en la interaccin como recurso de entretenimiento. A
pesar de que el marco comunicativo la presentacin de un libro es el tpico de
la interpretacin de conferencias, el encuentro fue estructurado de forma no convencional como narracin informal, intercalada con varios intercambios dialgicos
* Although this article is the result of joint design and discussion, Errico is the author of 1, 3
and 4, while 2 was drafted by both authors. Ballestrazzi is responsible for the transcription and
the interviews.
Revista Espaola de Lingstica Aplicada 27:2 (2014), 365381. doi 10.1075/resla.27.2.06err
issn 02132028 / e-issn 22546774 John Benjamins Publishing Company

366 Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

improvisados, todos interpretados en la modalidad consecutiva corta. Debido al

alto grado de interactividad de la comunicacin, hemos adoptado un enfoque cualitativo multidisciplinar que, adems de la investigacin en interpretacin de conferencias, se apoya en los estudios sobre interpretacin dialgica y en los medios
de comunicacin, as como en disciplinas afines tales como la psicologa social y el
anlisis de la conversacin en entornos comunicativos interculturales.
Palabrasclave: interpretacin consecutiva, par de lenguas espaol-italiano, papel
del intrprete, imagen social del intrprete

1. Introduction
In this paper we analyze the video recording of a consecutively-interpreted speech
event between Spanish and Italian in a naturalistic setting. In particular, we focus on the interpreters participatory role vis--vis the challenges posed by the
speaker, Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo, both on the textual-linguistic and on
the interactional level (Taibo, 2007). We look at how the interpreter manages her
participatory status (Goffman, 1981) when the main speaker involves her directly
in the interaction using her presence and her performance as a resource to stage
improvised vignettes and how she attends to her own and other participants faces
(Goffman, 1967) on these occasions. After providing a brief outline of the theoretical framework (Section2), which draws on dialogue and media interpreting,
as well as social psychology and conversation analysis in intercultural settings, we
describe the peculiar communicative setting of the case study which justifies the
qualitative multidisciplinary approach chosen and move on to analyze the participatory role and the face of the interpreter (Section3). Section4 provides a conclusion and argues for the need to seek a more flexible and integrated approach in the
research and pedagogy of conference and dialogue interpreting, especially when it
comes to highly interactive forms of consecutive interpreting.
2. Theoretical and conceptual framework
For the purpose of this paper, we have adopted an exploratory approach, as defined by Gile (1998, p.72), i.e., we did not make any specific initial hypothesis, but
observed the behavior of the interpreter and of the other players participating in
the event.
Since interactivity was central to achieving the entertainment goal of the encounter, we have adopted the conceptualization of interpreting as interaction, as

When the speaker is a great performer 367

applied by Cecilia Wadensj (e.g., Wadensj, 1998, 2006, 2008) and informed by
the tenets of conversation analysis (e.g., Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974) and
Erving Goffmans participation framework (Goffman, 1981). According to this
view, interpreting, meaning, and participatory roles are not something given, but
are negotiated among the participants, including the interpreter, who contributes
to the co-construction of meaning, but whose role is also shaped by the interaction,
i.e., it is dialogically organized (Wadensj, 2008, p.185). While this approach
was originally applied to community interpreting, we find it especially fruitful to
extend it to highly interactive and less-ritualized forms of conference interpreting, such as this specific case: here, although the communicative setting a book
presentation was typical of conference interpreting events, the encounter was
structured unconventionally as an informal story-telling session interspersed with
several ad-libs and impromptu conversation exchanges with other participants.
The (deliberately created) inconsistency between the formality of the setting
and the expectations it involved and the actual development of the situation
was one of the major factors that configured the entertaining tone of the speech
situation. Although the speech event we are analyzing was not broadcast, this very
register is what made the conference similar to interpreter-mediated media events
as described by Francesco Straniero Sergio (Straniero Sergio, 1999, 2007). Just
like in televised events such as talk shows (Straniero Sergio, 1999, pp.306307),
the leading speaker adopted audience-catching strategies which made the most
of genre hybridization, blending together information, entertainment, and promotion by means of a very effective narrative strategy. As we will see in Section3
below, in his performance, just as happens in media infotainment,
topics continuously shift, what counts is the development of the situation. Local
attention is focused not so much on propositional as on relational aspects: to cause
a reaction, to embarrass someone, etc. The same is true for unexpected events: the
more unexpected the occurrences [] the better the show. (emphasis in the original) 
(Straniero Sergio, 1999, p.308).

Finally, another factor to be taken into account in the analysis of the interpreters participation status and face-work has to do with the working language pair
(Italian and Spanish), genetically related and typologically similar. It has been
demonstrated that the problem-solving strategies the interpreter activates depend, amongst other factors, on the pair of languages involved (Riccardi, 1999).1
These strategies operate at a cognitive-linguistic level but may also concern non1. Directionality is also a conditioning factor in interpreting practice (see e.g., Kelly, Martin,
Nobs, Snchez, & Way 2003), but we will not discuss it here since it is not relevant to the analysis
of the interpreters behavior.

368 Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

linguistic levels of interpreter-mediated communication (Errico & Morelli, 2013).

Since Italian and Spanish are in part mutually intelligible, the interpreter has to
find a balance between translating, when she feels that participants need so, and
just providing support with very limited interventions or not translating at all,
when she realizes that participants understand one another. After all, the aim of
the interpreter is not necessarily to produce a text, but to facilitate communication (Wadensj, 1998). Moreover, as Calvi (2004, p.63) points out regarding the
attitude of Italian-speaking learners of Spanish as L2, perceived similarity between
the two linguistic systems favored by their almost overlapping 5-vowel systems
and lexical transparency, leads learners to underrate differences and difficulties.
The general perception that Spanish is easy to learn for Italian speakers (as is
Italian for Spanish speakers) also tends to produce the pre-conceived conviction
that interpreting between these two languages is effortless, to say the very least
(Morelli, 2010). While positive transfer can arguably be an advantage in the job
of an interpreter as it is for language learners, especially in terms of comprehension, formal similarity may very well become a complicating factor for the role
and credibility of the interpreter, since in the eyes of her recipients she can no
longer rely on the authoritativeness of being one of the few bilingual participants
with access to both linguistic codes. As a result, very often, she will find herself
more vulnerable to criticism, sometimes merely based on deceitful lexical similarity (Errico & Morelli, 2013).
3. The case study
3.1 Materials and methods
In this case study, the setting was that of a conference interpreting event, consisting
of the presentation of Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibos (hereafter PIT) thenlatest work, as part of a promotional tour all over Italy. The data was collected in
Sanremo (Italy) on November 14, 2007 on the occasion of the presentation of the
Italian translation of the book, Un rivoluzionario chiamato Pancho (Taibo, 2006).
The interpreter-mediated event (1h 30) was video-recorded by the organizers
with the consent of the interpreter.2 However, since the decision of analyzing her
task was made subsequently, at the time of the interpreting assignment her behavior was not affected by the awareness that her performance would be studied. This
allows us to conclude that the material being studied is fully naturalistic.
2. We would like to thank the organizer of the conference, Sergio Buonadonna, and the interpreter for authorizing us to use the recorded material for research purposes.

When the speaker is a great performer 369

Additional information was gained through two unstructured follow-up interviews conducted with the interpreter involved. The initial interview (Int. A)
was conducted two years after the event and was aimed mainly at eliciting the
interpreters general perception and self-assessment of the assignment. We also
asked her to provide details on its preliminary stages, such as research carried out
or briefing sessions that were held. More recently, the interpreter kindly granted us
a second interview and we asked her more specific questions to test our assumptions on her behavior and further explore issues that emerged as a result of the
analysis of the transcription. For the purposes of the second interview (Int. B), the
interpreter agreed to watch some excerpts of her video-recorded performance for
the first time and tried to account for the specific strategies, translation choices,
etc. she adopted. Quite predictably, considering that the interview took place five
years on from the event and that the interpreting process heavily relies on semiconscious automatisms (Gile, 1995), more often than not she admitted she could
not. Nevertheless, she did make useful comments by relating her performance at
this particular conference with the strategies she typically adopts in similar situations (see below).
The conference was transcribed in its entirety, with a particular focus on segments of speech revealing the interpreters behavior when she dealt with three
frequently recurring elements in the original discourse, i.e., the speakers extensive use of non-verbal and paralinguistic features of communication; the presence of taboo words as an expressive strategy; and finally, the establishment of
an entertaining framework within the institutional event, which often led to the
interpreters contributions being manipulated by the main speaker to stage improvised gags.
Before the author took the floor, the event was briefly introduced by the moderator (who was also the interpreters client), followed by institutional welcome
speeches on the part of the local authorities. As soon as PIT took the floor, his
overwhelming personality and formidable storytelling skills marked a sudden and
dramatic register shift. The main speaker deliberately broke all the rules of this
institutional encounter, to stage a one-person show. Yet, unlike conventional consecutively-interpreted conferences, the development of this presentation was far
from purely monologic: here PIT, whose communicative strategy heavily relies on
a carefully balanced mix of interactional dominance and humor, skillfully led and
manipulated multi-party interaction as a drama resource to capture audience attention. PIT took the moderators questions and comments as a hint to start telling
amusing anecdotes on Pancho Villas biography, without following a specific sequential development. Emphasis on the phatic dimension and the exploitation of
unexpectedness were also extensively employed by PIT: here recipient design, i.e.,
the speaker discourse choices according to what he or she assumes to be audience

370 Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

expectations (Goodwin, 1981), served the purpose of putting across a promotional message. This audience-oriented approach is all the more clear if we compare
parallel events in other parts of Italy regarding the presentation of the same book.
At a conference held at Universit di Roma 3 (Taibo, 2007) on exactly the same
topic, PITs theatrical communicative strategies appeared somewhat mitigated
compared to the speech event we analyze in this paper, and the speaker was more
concentrated on content and character analysis, possibly because he identified the
audience as more specialized. The encounter in question, on the other hand, sponsored by the local municipality, was targeted to local citizens, who presumably
made up a more heterogeneous and less specialized audience than, say, an academic setting. This is possibly the reason why PIT opted for a more popularized
version of his rich story-telling repertoire.
Considering the humorous nature of the content and the pressing rhythm
of PITs narrative style, the short consecutive mode was conveniently chosen for
translation. The interpreter reported that PIT himself demanded it when she was
briefed. This arrangement, which often amounted to sentence-by-sentence translation, was presumably preferred to monitor the translation more closely from
both a content and an expressive point of view, in order to retain the funny register
in the interpreters delivery and to prevent the time lag between the source performance and the target text from bombing the gags.
3.2 Results and discussion
From the interpreters point of view, coping with a multi-channel (linguistic, paralinguistic and bodily) source discourse in a situation of full visibility (she was sitting next to the speaker facing the audience) required the activation of specific
sociopragmatic skills, especially when she was involved in this playful drama,
sometimes even as the butt of the joke. As a result, she struggled to align to the
playful macro-framework of the event while trying to retain enough margin of
maneuver to protect her own and the other participants faces.3
This is also what emerges from the interpreters comments on what she could
remember of her performance two years after the assignment (Int. A):
3. According to Goffman (1967, pp.5, 12), face may be defined as the positive image a person
effectively claims for himself [sic] by the line others assume he has taken during a particular
contact. [] Face-work designates the actions taken by a person to make whatever he is doing
consistent with face. Face-work serves to counteract [] events whose effective symbolic implications threaten face. Brown and Levinson elaborate on the notion of face and further specify
that it consists of two related aspects: positive face, i.e., the positive self-image of an individual
and the desire that it is appreciated; and negative face, i.e., the claim to freedom of action and
freedom from imposition (Brown & Levinson, 1987, p.61).

When the speaker is a great performer 371

Indeed, this is not the assignment I am proudest of, although I think I got by
decently, all things considered. I still remember it as a rather stressful experience,
among other things because I had to substitute for a colleague on very short notice
and I wasnt able to prepare for the job as usual, i.e., reading the book through.
Another problem I remember was lexicon-related: Paco used a lot of Mexican
slang words I didnt know and he wanted them to be translated very accurately.
[] The briefing did not help me relax; quite the opposite. When I met Paco, a
few minutes before the conference, I immediately felt sort of uneasy about his
bursting and charismatic persona and feared that during the conference I would
have to cope with the unexpected, which was what actually happened: what I had
to interpret wasnt a speech, but a true performance. [] [So] my problem was to
help people understand what Paco said without spoiling the flavor of the show. I
was very much under pressure, not least because Paco followed my delivery very
closely and corrected and even played up my slips, however slight. That was extremely embarrassing for me, but I realized it was basically meant to make people
laugh, so eventually I got over it.4

Excerpt 1 provided below exemplifies the speakers use of bodily and paraverbal
features as an integral part of PITs story-telling strategy:
Excerpt (1)5
PIT les preguntaba a los nios, nio, qu ests haciendo?
I chiedeva ai bambini, cosa stai facendo?
PIT xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ((imita la risposta dei bambini con la bocca piena di pallottole e
sorride)) ((risate del pubblico))
I ehm:: beh (.) questi bofonchiavano.
Translation into English
PIT he asked the kids, hey kid, what are you doing?
I he asked the kids, what are you doing?
PIT xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ((imitates the childrens answer with their mouths full of bullets
and smiles)) ((audience laughs))
I ehm:: well (.) they mumbled.

This falls within the theatrical discursive style of the speaker, who dominated the
scene and established himself as the one character of a self-created play. In Excerpt
1 the interpreter tried to find a solution to maintain the intended expressive effect
of the original intervention conveyed by the speaker through distorted vocalizations by transferring it verbally for the audience with an onomatopoeic verb
(mumbled).

4. All the interpreters responses quoted here were translated from Italian by the authors.
5. See Appendix1 for transcription conventions. I stands for Interpreter.

372 Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

In Excerpt 2 the interpreter decided not only not to imitate the same vocal effects nor the same gestures as the speaker, but she opted for translating the sheer
verbal content in a neutral, unmarked tone of voice, eliminating most of the redundancies of the source utterance and skipping a Mexican slang word (pinche):
Excerpt (2)
PIT y no me dejaron ya decirles que me invitaran a cenar,
I e non sono neanche riuscito a dire che mi invitassero a cena,
PIT que empezaron a decir, el muerto, el muerto ((fa finta di piangere)) est el pinche
muerto, el muerto, y salieron corriendo, se fugaron todos.
I che sono scappati tutti dicendo il morto, il morto.
Translation into English
PIT and they didnt give me the time to tell them to invite me to dinner,
I and I didnt even manage to tell them to invite me to dinner,
PIT when they started to say, the dead man, the dead man ((pretends he is crying)) the
fucking dead mans here, the dead man, and they set off running, they all ran off.
I they all ran off saying the dead man, the dead man.

The fact that the interpreter was avoiding strictly mimetic strategies when translating may be due to two reasons: first of all, the expressive component could be
easily retrieved by the audience from visual and audio access to the original performance and the partial transparency of the words uttered (e.g., the key word of
the gag, muerto, is fully intelligible to an Italian-speaking audience). Moreover, the
quickness of sentence-by-sentence interpreting ensured that these effects were not
lost, whereas the decision to sacrifice redundancies helped the interpreter keep
up with the pressing rhythm of story-telling. The importance of timing was confirmed by the interpreter when she watched the excerpt:
I guess I kept my delivery as short as possible because PIT looked very eager and
impatient to go on with the story. You can see it clearly from the way he acts.
Probably I skipped pinche because either I didnt hear it properly or I didnt know
the word at that time. 
(Int. B)

This sense of communicative urgency on the part of the speaker is clear on a couple of occasions, when the interpreters attempts to reformulate parts of utterances
were stopped by the speaker who started his own turn as soon as the basic idea and
connotations had been put across, without waiting for the interpreter to complete
the sentence. The interpreter seemed to be aware that her job was intended only
as support in the comprehension of a very complex multi-channel and effective
communication strategy carefully designed to overcome language barriers relying
as little as possible on interfering factors, such as herself. So what she did was
put the propositional message across when she identified potential linguistic difficulties, leaving part of the responsibility for full comprehension to the powerful

When the speaker is a great performer 373

expressive charisma of PIT. From the very beginning of the event, after all, it was
clear that the main speaker wished to establish himself as the pivot of communication and to do so he minimized the status of the other participants, including the
interpreter.
PIT also reasserted his highest interactional status by taking liberties that,
again, would appear inappropriate in a standard conference setting. Let us consider the following example, when the moderator (M in the transcript) had just
introduced an actress who was about to read a passage from the book. Here the
interpreter skipped her translation turn:
Excerpt (3)
M e ora sapremo perch (1) con una variante rispetto al mito, che non il CAVALLO di
troia che permette una certa cosa, ma il TRENO di troia. (1) e ora sentiamo perch.
(2)
PIT ((rivolto a M, fuori microfono, prendendo la giacca e preparandosi per uscire)) puedo
fumar mientras tanto? yo ya lo le (.) retorno. ((risate del pubblico))
M ((rivolto a PIT)) bueno bueno. (.) ((risate del pubblico)) ((rivolto al pubblico)) allora,
vuelve, cio ritorna insomma, ecco.
PIT yo ya lo le.
M anche perch poi devi firmare i libri.
Translation into English
M and now well know why (1) with a variation of the myth, its not the trojan HORSE
which allows a certain thing, but the trojan TRAIN. (1) and now lets hear why. (2)
PIT ((turns to M, off mic, taking his jacket and preparing to go out)) can I smoke in the
meantime? Ive already read it (.) Ill be back. ((audience laughs))
M ((turning to PIT)) its all right, go ahead. (.) ((audience laughs)) ((turning to the audience)) so, vuelve, I mean, hes gonna come back.
PIT Ive already read it.
M because later on youre also gonna have to sign the books.

If we borrow the concept of positive face from Brown and Levinsons (1987) politeness theory, we might categorize this behavior as potentially positive face-threatening, since it may be interpreted as a sign of the speakers indifference towards an
audience who had come to the event to enjoy his presence and pay tribute to him.
However, as the extract suggests, the potential impoliteness of this unexpected behavior was countered by PITs witticism (yo ya lo le), also sustained by M, who
did not seem to be taken aback by this unconventional conduct which blatantly
infringed the rules of the institutional encounter it took place in. What makes the
dialogue even more hilarious is the contrast between the absolute prima donna
role PIT had played up to that point and his apologetic tone in requesting M for
permission; in fact, M added to the humor by replying with an almost indulgent
attitude (bueno, bueno). The cooperation of the two players turned the situation
into a successfully humorous gag. In this case, transgression had a dual purpose:

374 Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

it was both a pretext to create a deliberately incongruous situation and make the
audience laugh and a strategy to reaffirm PITs interactional leadership.
In this passage the interpreter refrained from translating, so we showed her
Excerpt 3 and asked her to explain the possible reason:
Maybe I thought it wasnt necessary, since M gave the audience an indirect explanation of what was going on by reassuring them [ritorna, insomma]. I could
have asked for the floor to provide the translation this is what I usually do when
the chairperson skips my turn and I assume somebody might need the translation. But I didnt even try to. Probably I was confident enough that the gag was
self-explanatory because I saw everybody laughing. 
(Int. B)

In this response the interpreter explained her behavior referring to her coordination function (Wadensj, 1998), that is to say, she decided not to translate the dialogue in order to let communication flow according to the primary participants
wishes.
The unconventional communicative framework we have described so far initially seemed to put the interpreters job at strain,6 and in fact it took some time
before she actually managed to align herself to PITs and Ms expectations, i.e., to
participate in the entertaining framework of the speech event.
The linguistic counterpart of PITs rule-breaking behavior is his abundant use
of explicit language. The following example occurred at the very beginning of the
conference:
Excerpt (4)
PIT villa dijo, ellos estn cagados (3)
I (3) ((sorridendo)) e villa ha detto, se la fanno sotto (1) se la
Translation into English
PIT villa said, they are shitting their pants (3)
I (3) ((smiling)) and villa said, they are scared out of their pants (1) they are

In Excerpt 4, the taboo expression estn cagados in the source discourse caused a
slight hesitation in the interpreter, who smiled before she provided the translation
into Italian and an interrupted attempt of reformulation. The taboo expression
was softened in the rendition, presumably in order to produce what the interpreter
understood to be a more appropriate utterance in a conference setting, although
the conceptual metaphor was fully retained. Mitigation is a very common politeness strategy interpreters tend to use to protect the audiences and their own positive face. Unlike in court interpreting, where the interpreter is usually required to
comply with a verbatim standard of performance, in settings where the point of
the message is not so much the propositional content, but, rather, a certain register
6. This is also what the interpreter affirmed in Int. A, quoted above.

When the speaker is a great performer 375

(e.g. in infotainment), mitigation is not only common, but also accepted and even
called for in some cases (Straniero Sergio, 2007). Interpreters, motivated by their
self-perception as mediators or gate-keepers who are to a certain extent though
not comparable to primary speakers co-responsible for flawless communication to occur, try to avoid possible adverse consequences of what they perceive to
be inappropriate usage.
In Int. A, however, the interpreter reported that when she had been briefed
for the conference both by her client and especially by PIT, she had been explicitly
instructed not to censor the speaker. The interpreter said that, in not censoring
the speaker, PIT meant that she had to select the verbatim translation of taboo
words, explicitly mentioning the cognate expressions hijo de puta (Sp.)/figlio di
puttana (It.). While formal similarity, even in this case, is by no means an a priori
guarantee of one-to-one equivalence in all contexts, what is relevant to note is the
implications that this rule-setting attitude had on the role of the interpreter. By
imposing a translation policy, the speaker further reaffirmed his position of power
in the interaction and left the interpreter with little control, even over translation
choices. The interpreter was placed in a difficult position where, in addition to linguistic difficulties (such as the translation of humor), she had to cope with a very
close monitoring of her job. The interpreter affirmed as much when we asked her
to watch Excerpt 4 and try to explain her toned-down rendition:
I dont know, maybe it just came out that way. I usually do try to follow the clients
guidelines once I have accepted them. The thing is, when I interpret I often tend
to soften strong expressions a little bit, just to avoid problems. I mean, somebody
from the audience might feel offended if you use them, you never know. (Int. B)

In other words, despite the speakers instructions, at first the interpreter seemed
unwilling or unable to discard her own understanding of social appropriateness
and her own conceptualization of her professional and social self, which required
her to act as a filter to pre-empt unwanted consequences of face-threatening acts.
This role conflict emerged when PIT made the following general meta-comment on translation strategies, indirectly referring to the interpreters performance up to that moment and perhaps alluding to his previous experiences with
interpreter-mediated conferences:
Excerpt (5)
PIT llamar a un canalla bobo es desafortunado.
I quindi chiamare un delinquente stupidino non VA bene, non una parola adeguata.
PIT no, no, y llamar a un hijo de puta canalla es muy suave, muy sua::ve, muy sua::ve.

((M ride))
I e chiamare un figlio di puttana canaglia, delinquente non lo stesso, non va bene.
PIT ese es un problema de uso del lenguaje.
I questo un problema delluso della lingua.

376 Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

PIT porque habra una gran discusin para decir quines son hijos de puta y quines no (.)
o sea que
I perch ci sarebbero grandi discussioni su chi sia un figlio di puttana e chi no.
M solo che cagados arrivato un pochino troppo presto, e quindi la nostra interprete si
trovata un momentino in imbarazzo, ma non so, se l cavata molto bene.
PIT estaban cagados.
M ((rivolgendosi a I) brava!
I la traduzione letterale , si cagavano sotto. ((ride))
M ma no, ma tu sei stata brava lo stesso, si capiva benissimo.
Translation into English
PIT calling a scoundrel a fool is unfortunate.
I so calling a delinquent a fool isnt OK, its not a suitable word.
PIT no, no and calling a son of a bitch a scoundrel is very mild. ((M laughs))
I and calling a son of a bitch a scoundrel or delinquent isnt the same, its inappropriate.
PIT its a problem of language use
I its a problem of language use
PIT because thered be a big discussion about who are sons of bitches and who arent (.) I
mean.
I because there would be big discussions about whos a son of a bitch and who isnt.
M the thing is, shitting their pants popped up a bit too early, and so our interpreter felt a
little bit embarrassed, but anyhow, she did very well.
PIT they were shitting their pants.
M ((turning to I)) well done!
I the literal translation is, they were shitting their pants. ((laughs))
M its all right, you did a good job anyway, it was very clear.

Here a register inaccuracy was turned into a resource to draw attention onto the
interpreter and make her the object of a playful exchange. The interpreter became
fully conspicuous as a resource in the communicative space, but certainly not as a
primary participant. In the dialogue, M played a mediating role, minimizing the
implicit criticism on the interpreters assumed inaccuracy with a positive facesaving move: he downplayed the negative remark by justifying the interpreters
translation choices and finally concluded by openly praising her job. The selection
of two diminutives in the same turn (un pochino troppo presto, un momentino)
is also in line with Ms tactful attitude.
The interpreter, on her part, proved increasingly responsive to the primary
participants observations and she eventually aligned her contribution to the
overall informal tone of the encounter. Her laughter in Extract 5 can be read as
evidence of this. In Extract 6, the interpreter shifted strategy again and started to
translate the speakers taboo language verbatim.
Extract (6)
PIT villa no los despide, no los manda a la mierda, no les dice, vaya a la:: , no. le
enCA::nta la historia (.) est feliz con una nueva versin que ha descubierto de s

When the speaker is a great performer 377

mismo. ((risate del pubblico))

I e (.) dunque (.) villa non li manda, traduco letteralmente, affanculo. ((allarga le braccia, alza le spalle, sorride)) (.) non li congeda, e anzi, gli piace moltissimo questa storia
ed molto felice di ascoltarla.
Translation into English
PIT villa doesnt dismiss them, he doesnt tell them to fuck off, he doesnt tell them, to
fuck , no. he LO::ves the story (.). hes happy with the new version of himself that
he has found out. ((audience laughs))
I and (.) so (.) villa doesnt tell them, Im translating literally, to fuck off.7 ((spreads
her arms, shrugs, smiles)) (.) he doesnt dismiss them, on the contrary, he enjoys this
story and is very happy to hear it.

However, the interpreter also introduced an objectifying phrase (traduco letteralmente) and sent a non-verbal message intended both as a disclaimer of responsibility and a further confirmation that she had eventually accepted that she was
part of the game.
The insistent use and repetition of taboo words, even out of context, as in
Extract 5, may be a deliberate strategy PIT used not only to be more expressive,
but also to play with the interpreters initially embarrassed reaction and watereddown rendition. This attitude is also documented in other conferences held by PIT
and covered by the media, e.g., [..] the Mexican writer is a ham, an over-the-top
actor, someone who expects to hear son of a bitch as a translation when he refers
to certain politicians as hijo de puta and the interpreter wriggles out with a politically correct scoundrel. Taibo is a great storyteller (our translation) (Quando
Hitler prov il peyote, [When Hitler tried the peyote], Mentelocale.it, 31 May 2002,
on-line at: http://www.mentelocale.it/5374-quando-hitler-provo-il-peyote (consulted 2 November 2013)). Further evidence of this can be found in the following
excerpt, where PIT teased the interpreter for a lexical slip:
Excerpt (7)
PIT entonces comision al coronel vargas para dirigir la carga de caballera, ((mette le mani
avanti)) UNA ((indica il numero 1 con il dito)) sola carga (2).
I e quindi ha incaricato il generale vargas
PIT coroNEL, coroNEL, no le subas de grado a vargas! ((ride e appoggia la mano sulla
spalla dellinterprete))
I ((sorridendo)) il colonnello, mi scuso se, ehm, per ehm per collocarsi alla testa di
questa carica.
Translation into English
PIT so he put colonel vargas at the head of the cavalry charge, ((stretches his hands forward)) only ONE ((indicates number 1 with his finger)) charge (2).
7. The original utterance in Spanish contains the word shit (mierda). The translation provided
is functionally equivalent to the source utterance.

378 Elena Errico and Elisa Ballestrazzi

I so he put general vargas

PIT COLOnel, COLOnel, dont increase vargass rank! ((laughs and puts his hand on the
interpreters shoulder))
I ((smiling)) colonel, sorry, ehm, at ehm the head of this charge.

PIT highlighted the interpreters inaccuracy by interrupting her for correction,

repeating the correct equivalence twice and addressing the interpreter with a humorous reproach. The softening effect of laughter and the gesture expressing support and solidarity served to minimize the negative impact of this intervention
on the face of the interpreter and of the audience (they might have felt disturbed
by what could be perceived as tactless behavior). The fact that the speaker did not
choose a more low-profile correction strategy such as a mere drive-through (i.e.,
avoiding the correction) or an embedded correction (by repeating the correct rank
during his turn without referring directly to the translation) may suggest that he
simply did not want to miss the chance of improvising another gag at the expense
of the interpreter. However, in other passages towards the end of the conference,
especially where propositional meaning prevailed, PIT proved far more cooperative: when he realized the interpreter was experiencing a comprehension problem
(e.g., due to a lexical gap), he provided her with a brief explanation, without making much of the impasse.
In addition to illustrating the speakers constant linguistic monitoring on the
work of the interpreter, this intervention is an example of what Straniero Sergio
(1999, p.314) calls in his study of interpreter-mediated TV shows a teasing activity, that is, the tendency of TV presenters to play jokes and to establish provoking
sequences around the figure of the interpreter. Here, as well, in a non-infotainment setting, the playful macro-function of communication was pursued by the
participant in the highest social and interactional position.
4. Conclusions
In this essay, the interpreters participation format has been observed in a highly
asymmetrical speech event characterized by a main speaker with a markedly dominant interactional status. As a result, in addition to coping with cognitive-linguistic difficulties associated with the conditions and performance of the interpreting
assignment (such as research, translation of humor), the interpreter had to adjust
her sociopragmatic skills in order to conform to these requirements.
The analysis of the video recording, confirmed by the interpreters responses,
revealed that she met the most serious difficulties when she had to understand
whether and how much she was expected to translate of the complex multichannel message of the speaker, which was often partially if not completely

When the speaker is a great performer 379

intelligible to the audience; in addition, similarity between the two languages

acted as a complicating factor, since she was being constantly monitored by the
other participants and especially PIT, who also felt entitled to set the rules of the
translation. As a result of this, the interpreter had to get over her personal inferences about appropriate language in institutional settings and gradually align herself with PITs instructions and expectations towards verbatim translation of original interventions; besides that, she had to comply with the teasing framework
(Straniero Sergio, 1999, p.314) and manipulations of her interventions, letting
herself be involved in the playful macro-framework that other people designed
around her, even at times accepting that she would become the butt of the joke.
In other words, the interpreter had to learn on-line to modulate her interventions within the communicative event, in order to alternate between low-profile
sequences and high-profile ones, disappearing or emerging during the event depending on the circumstances.
Although this is just a single case study involving one subject, which obviously
prevents us from venturing into generalizations, it is nonetheless a source of authentic data which allows us to investigate an interpreters situated behavior and to
help account for the extreme variability of communication dynamics interpreters
are faced with. In this sense, the case study reported here is in line with Wadensjs
(1998) observation that the dichotomy between conference and community interpreting (still very much in force on the Italian interpreting market, with significant
differences in terms of rates and prestige) is not viable when it comes to categorizing certain types of interpreter-mediated events, and that the theoretical and
analytical framework devised for the latter may be conveniently extended to better
describe non-prototypical assignments of conference interpreting characterized
by high interactivity. This is particularly the case for short consecutives in certain
not-so-ritualized settings such as the assignment discussed in this paper. From
a training point of view, this perspective could be applied to design syllabi that
privilege a more flexible and macro approach especially focused on interpreting
as the product and enabler of cross-cultural inter-activity.

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When the speaker is a great performer 381

Appendix
Transcription symbols (simplified after Hutchby & Wooffitt, 1998)
, Continuing intonation
. Terminating intonation
? Questioning intonation
! Exclaiming intonation
e:: Vowel lengthening/extension (example)
n:: Consonant lengthening/extension (example)
(.) Short silence (less than 1 second)
(3) Long silence (more than 1 second); it also indicates the number of seconds, when
worthy of note
CORRERE A section of speech noticeably louder than that surrounding it
Correre Emphatic pronunciation (1 or more letters in capitals) (example)
((laughs)) Non-verbal or paralinguistic features (example)
Truncated intonation unit

Authors addresses
Elena Errico
Universit di Sassari
Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e
Sociali
Piazza Conte di Moriana, 8
I-07100 Sassari

Elisa Ballestrazzi
Via Andreoli, 45
I-41043 Formigine (MO)
Italyeballestrazzi@yahoo.it

eerrico@uniss.it

About the authors

Elena Errico is Assistant Professor in Spanish & Translation Studies at the University of Sassari
(Italy). She is also a collaborator of ANLE (Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Espaola).
Her research interests cover interpreter training and contact linguistics between English and
Spanish.
Elisa Ballestrazzi holds an MA in Languages for the Promotion of Cultural Activities from the
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. She currently works as a TEFL teacher at Benedict
School, Modena. Her research interests include cross-cultural communication, Interpreting
Studies, and second language acquisition.

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