The paper applies cognitive theories of text and language processing, and in particular relevance theory, to the analysis of notes in consecutive interpreting. In contrast to the pre-cognitive view, in which note-taking is seen mainly as a memory-supporting technique, the process of note-taking is described as the reception and production of a notation text. Adding the relevance-theoretical constructs of explicature and implicature to the general account of cognitive text processing as coherence building and the construction of a mental representation at local and global levels, this approach allows for the comparison of source, notation and target texts with respect to the underlying propositional representation, and shows how the sense of highly fragmentary notation texts is recovered in consecutive interpreting. The paper is based on an empirical study involving consecutive interpretations (English-German) by five trainee interpreters. The analysis shows that the interpreters operate relatively closely along micropropositional lines when processing the source, notation and target texts, with the explicature regularly having the same propositional form as the corresponding proposition in the source text.A key feature of all forms of interpreting is that the interpreters try to understand the source text's sense by processing its conceptual content rather than the words as such. In consecutive interpreting, this raises the question as to how the information extracted in the process is transmitted via the interim phase of note-taking to target text production. In the pre-cognitive view, under which note-taking is some kind of memory-supporting technique, the answers remain inconclusive due to an unclear conception of the underlying relationship between sense and its linguistic representation. This is where the cognitive theory of text and language processing comes in. From this perspective, the process of understanding is described as

Many factors can affect the translation and interpreting process, but the quality of source texts has been explicitly identified as an issue in surveys of professional translators and interpreters as well as in recent workplace studies. If translators and interpreters encounter resistance in carrying out their tasks, for example by difficulties in extracting meaning from non-native English input, then flow can be interrupted and performance affected. In this paper, we explore how English as a lingua franca (ELF) input could potentially increase the cognitive load not only for translators and interpreters but also for other multilinguals. We describe the range of methods that can be used to measure the cognitive effort and stress associated with processing ELF input and explain the challenges that can be encountered when researchers are committed to using authentic ELF material to make comparisons under relatively controlled but ecologically valid conditions. One of the driving motivators for this type of research is to understand how interpreters and translators deploy their expertise to deal with ELF input in work settings in order to draw inferences about strategies for other segments of the population.

Abstract:In ELF research, ample evidence has been collected to show that communication in (dialogic) ELF interactions works and that it does so in intriguingly creative ways. In a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview study, simultaneous conference interpreters present a less optimistic view with regard to (monologic) mediated multilingual settings, which are increasingly shaped by a growing number of non-native English-speaking participants. Moreover, the interpreters put the adverse effects of ELF speaker output on their cognitive processing down to the speakers' restricted power of expression. This is paralleled by empirical evidence from ELF speakers in TELF (the Tübingen English as a Lingua Franca corpus and database), who put into perspective their general feeling that they can cope in ELF interactions (which is in line with the ELF study findings mentioned above) by voicing dissatisfaction with their restricted capacity of expressing what they want to convey with the required or desired degree of precision.In a theoretical discussion, the Express-ability Principle is introduced to capture the nature of the human effort for expression (complementary to Bartlett's effort after meaning). In the subsequent presentation, sociocultural and psycholinguistic research sheds light on express-ability in the context of ELF by applying Slobin's Thinking for Speaking (TFS) hypothesis to second-language contexts. It reveals the interface between verbal (L1) thinking and externalized (L2) speech and explains expression-related problems in terms of transfer effects in connection with age of acquisition and linguistic environment. This directs further ELF research into the nature of express-ability towards an examination of production processes, developmental and procedural aspects in early and late bilingual ELF speakers, a shared languages benefit to compensate for cross-linguistic transfer and the (relative) effectiveness of unmediated and mediated ELF communication.Keywords: English as a lingua franca (ELF); conference interpreters; expressability principle; Thinking-for-Speaking (TFS); early and late bilingual ELF speakers; shared languages benefit. * I should like to thank Robert DeKeyser, Kurt Kohn, Anna Mauranen, Tim McNamara, and Barbara Seidlhofer for mind-opening comments in personal communication and the two anonymous reviewers for comments that advanced my argument. Michaela Albl-Mikasa'Express-ability' in der ELF-Kommunikation Zusammenfassung: Eine Umfrage unter professionellen Konferenzdolmetschern sowie Interviews mit diesen Dolmetschern und mit ELF-Sprechern aus dem TELFKorpus verweisen auf einen Widerspruch zwischen dem allgemeinen Eindruck von ELF-Sprechern, dass sie in der Kommunikation zurechtkommen (was Forschungsergebnissen eines strategischen Funktionierens in ELF-Interaktionen entspricht) und ihrer Unzufriedenheit mit den eigenen eingeschränkten Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten (die Dolmetscher wiederum als Verarbeitungshindernisse erleben). Mit der Einführung des "express-ability principle" lässt s...

To facilitate the process of consecutive interpreting, professional interpreters typically use a special system of note-taking. In the approaches developed on the basis of practical interpreting experience, these notations are commonly regarded as a note-taking technique, and in relevant specialist literature they are often conceived as a language-independent instrument. Against the background of a cognitive approach, however, it can be shown that the so¬called note-taking TECHNIQUE can adequately be described by means of the theoretical constructs LANGUAGE and DISCOURSE. The language dimension is explored with regard to word meanings, word formation and inflection, semantic relations at sentence and text level as well as pragmatic functions. The discourse dimension is mainly discussed from the perspective of rele¬vance theory with a particular emphasis on the balance between the explicit and the implicit.