Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting
The paper deals with the degree to which interpreters incorporate visible behaviors from the people they are interpreting into their own practice. Since metaphoric gestures objectify abstract concepts in visible form, it is worth exploring the degree to which interpreters replicate such gestures of...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Russian Journal of Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/viewFile/37232/22904 |
| _version_ | 1827386626666397696 |
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| author | Anna V. Leonteva Alan Cienki Olga V. Agafonova |
| author_facet | Anna V. Leonteva Alan Cienki Olga V. Agafonova |
| author_sort | Anna V. Leonteva |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper deals with the degree to which interpreters incorporate visible behaviors from the people they are interpreting into their own practice. Since metaphoric gestures objectify abstract concepts in visible form, it is worth exploring the degree to which interpreters replicate such gestures of those whose speech they are interpreting; this can indicate how much they are employing the original speakers’ mental imagery connected with those abstract concepts. This imagery for the source domain of the metaphor ranges from highly iconic (high metaphoric) to low in iconicity (low metaphoric). The hypothesis is that interpreters use low metaphoric gestures rather than high metaphoric ones, due to the discourse type (interpreted speech). We performed formal visual and semantic analyses of ten-minute videos of interpreting a scientific lecture for the general public on a psychological topic from English into Russian. First, we analyzed the functions of the gestures in the source videos to identify metaphorically used gestures (e.g., depicting abstract ideas); then we studied the functions of the interpreters’ gestures. The results indicate a predominance of low-level, schematic metaphoricity in the interpreters’ gestures (e.g., simple ontological metaphors, as if presenting ideas on the open hand). Such results might be explained by the time pressure which leads to a decrease in mental imagery of the interpreters. We see a difference between the known role of gestures when speakers are formulating their own ideas (in thinking for speaking) and their role in simultaneous interpreting (when speakers are rendering others’ ideas, rather than forming their own ones). |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T15:49:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e0a20a771e3d4047a7b7a6f6a243fb05 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2687-0088 2686-8024 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T15:49:16Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Russian Journal of Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-e0a20a771e3d4047a7b7a6f6a243fb052024-01-09T08:45:19ZengPeoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)Russian Journal of Linguistics2687-00882686-80242023-12-0127482084210.22363/2687-0088-3618920874Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpretingAnna V. Leonteva0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7234-2999Alan Cienki1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2951-9722Olga V. Agafonova2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8460-8555Moscow State Linguistic UniversityVrije Universiteit AmsterdamMoscow State Linguistic UniversityThe paper deals with the degree to which interpreters incorporate visible behaviors from the people they are interpreting into their own practice. Since metaphoric gestures objectify abstract concepts in visible form, it is worth exploring the degree to which interpreters replicate such gestures of those whose speech they are interpreting; this can indicate how much they are employing the original speakers’ mental imagery connected with those abstract concepts. This imagery for the source domain of the metaphor ranges from highly iconic (high metaphoric) to low in iconicity (low metaphoric). The hypothesis is that interpreters use low metaphoric gestures rather than high metaphoric ones, due to the discourse type (interpreted speech). We performed formal visual and semantic analyses of ten-minute videos of interpreting a scientific lecture for the general public on a psychological topic from English into Russian. First, we analyzed the functions of the gestures in the source videos to identify metaphorically used gestures (e.g., depicting abstract ideas); then we studied the functions of the interpreters’ gestures. The results indicate a predominance of low-level, schematic metaphoricity in the interpreters’ gestures (e.g., simple ontological metaphors, as if presenting ideas on the open hand). Such results might be explained by the time pressure which leads to a decrease in mental imagery of the interpreters. We see a difference between the known role of gestures when speakers are formulating their own ideas (in thinking for speaking) and their role in simultaneous interpreting (when speakers are rendering others’ ideas, rather than forming their own ones).https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/viewFile/37232/22904simultaneous interpretinggesturethinking-for-speakingmental imageryiconicity |
| spellingShingle | Anna V. Leonteva Alan Cienki Olga V. Agafonova Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting Russian Journal of Linguistics simultaneous interpreting gesture thinking-for-speaking mental imagery iconicity |
| title | Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting |
| title_full | Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting |
| title_fullStr | Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting |
| title_full_unstemmed | Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting |
| title_short | Metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting |
| title_sort | metaphoric gestures in simultaneous interpreting |
| topic | simultaneous interpreting gesture thinking-for-speaking mental imagery iconicity |
| url | https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/viewFile/37232/22904 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT annavleonteva metaphoricgesturesinsimultaneousinterpreting AT alancienki metaphoricgesturesinsimultaneousinterpreting AT olgavagafonova metaphoricgesturesinsimultaneousinterpreting |