Linguistic Features of Interpretese: A Corpus-based Analysis of Chinese-English Interpreting Products

Interpreting is a complex bilingual cognitive processing activity and a special mode of communication. The interpreted language has unique features, reflecting the comprehensive, on-site, transient nature of the interpreting process. The concept “interpretese” was proposed by Shlesinger in 2008. It was later clarified that the features of interpreted outputs are different from the source texts, non-translated oral texts in the same target language and the written translations of the same texts (Shlesinger and Ordan, 2012). The term “interpretese” is often used interchangeably with “interpreted language” and “interpreting output”, and its definition and linguistic features have yet to be fully examined. This study will first examine the linguistic features of Chinese-to-English SI interpretese through exploration of the Chinese/English Political Interpreting Corpus (CEPIC) which includes speeches and their translation/interpretations given by senior politicians in Hong Kong, Beijing, Washington, D.C. and London. Second, the study will compare the interpretese under examination with its non-interpreted counterparts, spoken discourse in the target language. Third, the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) will be used for cross-referencing. Last, the possible reasons for generating interpretese will be discussed, such as the particularities of the source language (text). It is hoped that the study will contribute to research on interpreting output and that the findings will shed light on the properties of constrained spoken discourse and the complex nature of interpreting discourse.