Review article

Zouhair Maalej, University of Manouba, Tunisia

(E-mail: zmaalej@gnet.tn)

Citation information:
Maalej, Zouhair (2001). Review of Simultaneous Interpretation: A Cognitive-pragmatic
Analysis (1999), by Robin Setton. Journal of Literary Semantics, 30: 3, 210-214. [Also
available online at http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/10/10-1951.html]

Setton, Robin (1999). Simultaneous Interpretation. A Cognitive-pragmatic Analysis.

Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 399 pp.
(Another review appeared in Target, 13: 1 (2002).
In the Preface (xiii), the author writes about his own work: One avowed aim of this work is
to encourage mainstream linguists and translation (interpretation) researchers to take a greater
interest in each others work. This extract is reminiscent of a similar call made four decades
earlier by Roman Jakobson (1964) at Indiana University, where he exhorted linguists and
literary critics to co-operate. History repeats itself, and this book attempts to conciliate
translators with linguists and the linguistics of translation. This book about conference
interpretation includes eight balanced chapters, Introduction and Conclusions inclusive. It
also includes, apart from the Bibliography and the End notes, Appendices (samples of data), a
Glossary, a Subject index, and a Names Index. The book should be accessible to the student
specialising in SI, to SI linguistically-minded (simultaneous) interpreters, and to the
researcher in language processing, translating, and interpreting. Although the different
chapters make up a coherent whole, they could safely be read separately. The book is written
in clear English, and the author has included recapitulative paragraphs at the beginning of
each chapter to refresh the readers mind, with each chapter ending in a summary of the main
points, making passage into the next one smooth.

SYNOPSIS

Chapter 1: Introduction

In the first section of the Introduction, the objectives of the book are at different places
briefly stated, and features of SI are contrasted with those of general speech or conversation.
In the rest of the Introduction, the pragmatic-cum-cognitive framework adopted is justified by
invoking the challenge SI constitutes to models of language use. The framework combines
two pragmatic schools (namely, Sperber & Wilsons Relevance Theory and Speech Act
Theory as represented by Austin and Searle) and two cognitive linguistics schools (namely,
Fillmores Frame Theory and Johnson-Lairds Mental Model Theory). From Relevance
Theory as a theory of cognition and communication is borrowed its ostensive-inferential
dimension, i.e. the intention to make something manifest (Sperber & Wilson, 1995: 49),
whose recognition by the interpreter invites inferencing and processing. Speech Act Theory is
drawn upon as to the concept of intentional states (Searle, 1983) and illocutionary force.
From Fillmores cognitive semantics is borrowed the concept of frame, where frames are
seen either a source of evocation or invocation for the interpreter. Last, the concept of
economy of intermediate representation is borrowed from Johnson-Lairds (1983) Mental
Model Theory of cognition.

Chapter 2: SI Research

This chapter is a review of the literature on SI, therefore it is fairly technical. No less than six
trends have been inventoried, namely, the temporal and surface variables, computational
linguistics approach, Information-processing models, the Effort Model, the French
Interpretative Theory of translation, the German General Translation Theory. The author
systematically gives an expository account of the theory, following it up with critical
remarks. From among these trends, the author is slightly more favourable to the Effort Model
(presumably because it includes an important cognitive component) and the French
Interpretative Theory of translation (again because it includes a pragmatic-cognitive
component having to do with speakers vouloir-dire or intentions), with the other trends
being in disfavour owing to their not being abreast with developments in linguistics and
cognitive psychology. In his evaluation of SI research methodology, the author points out that
consensus seems to have been reached as to the need for more corpora, observational and
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experimental studies, and feedback from practising interpreters. However, competing

theories, we are told, do not seem to agree on cognitive function and language, psychological
mechanisms of SI, and the ease-difficulty of SI in language pairs (due mainly to word order
differences, among other things).

Chapter 3: An Outline Model for SI

This chapter offers a hybrid corpus-based processing and production model of analysis for SI
based on the relationship between perception, cognition, and action in speech. At the
processing input level, audio-visual input from the Speaker is perceived (phonetically and
prosodically), recognised, and interpreted (parsed and disambiguated). At the production
output level, the interpreted data is conceptualised, encoded, and articulated through the
sensorimotor system. In between, a major module includes sub-modules: (1) stores, including
(i) linguistic knowledge (lexicon/grammar), (ii) immediate situation knowledge, and (iii)
world knowledge; and (2) processes, including the (i) mental model, for semantic and
contextual (primary pragmatic) integration, and (ii) the Executive, for secondary pragmatic
processes, judgment (involving theory of mind), and macro-coordination. In the second part
of the chapter, the workings of the model as represented by its various components are
convincingly elaborated and explicated through illustrative examples. The chapter emerges as
fairly technical, but technicality is toned down by tables and charts.

Chapter 4: Research Issues, Corpus, and Methodology

This chapter begins with a survey of some research issues such as determining the cues used
by interpreters, the extent to which word order claims affect SI, the sources of errors in SI,
etc. The second section deals with the corpus (chosen for its representativity and other
technical matters), which consists of tape-recording from real world and simulated
conference sessions in German-English, and Chinese-English pairs. The methodology used
with the data is abductive, a strategy combining hypothesis-testing with relevance and
economy, and consisting in leaving the data speak for itself rather than imposing parameters
on the data.

Chapter 5: Structures and Strategies

Discussing obstacles to SI, the chapter posits that, contrary to common beliefs, word order
asymmetry between a SL and a TL is not the real challenge to SI. More real challenges to SI
are logical scope, suprasegmentals, tense, aspect, modalities, illocutionary force, and the way
meanings are packaged in lexical items in different languages. As a result of structural
asymmetries and performance variables, processes of paraphrasing, reordering, and
simplification are at work in SI, which are then informed by contextual features. The strategy
suggested to deal with these structural asymmetries is, therefore, a pragmatic-cognitive
framework.

Chapter 6: The Pragmatics of Interpretation

Relying on Relevance Theory, the first part of this chapter documents the role of contexts
(linguistic and extralinguistic), and traces their function in disambiguating and enriching
propositional content. It is argued quite convincingly that in practice SI interpreters rely on
frames, scripts, and the context of situation to recall, anticipate, and infer information. As an
important SI strategy, anticipation is argued to draw upon propositional attitudes, general
pragmatic principles, and long-range deduction. Drawing on Searles Intentional States of
Belief and Desire (1983), the rest of the chapter is devoted to the way intentionality crosses
over from a SL to a TL. It is claimed that propositional attitudes are conveyed either via (i)
overt expressions of belief or desire, (ii) expressions which imply such beliefs and desires,
or (iii) features which assign relative importance to propositions or their parts (199).
Attitudes are also recovered from procedural and non-truth-conditional devices (e.g. modals
and connectives) and prosodic features (e.g. contrastive stress). To show lack of
correspondence in encoding attitudes, the chapter offers comparative illustrative examples from
the pairs of languages studied.

Chapter 7: Judgment, Compensation and Coordination

To resolve lack of correspondence, which may be at the origin of simplification or dilution of

meaning (illocutionary force, speakers attitudes, etc.), the chapter focuses on judgment,
compensation, and coordination. The role of judgment in SI is at least threefold: bringing
correctives to the Speakers ungrammatical statements, merging semantically similar
statements, and correcting or even rejecting grammatically well formed statements in the
light of pragmatic knowledge (at the relevance and coherence levels). The interpreter may
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also have recourse to elaboration and embellishment (when time allows) in accordance with
the Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975). Compensation, on the other hand, is a result of the
interpreters failure to control rhetorical impact and lack of direct access to the Speakers
communicative intentions. It acts as adjustments for resolving the interpreters lack of time
for correcting, invalidating, or modifying a previously unclear or linguistically implicit
intention. Compensations goal is to restore focus and perspective, and may be achieved by
skewing between linguistic levels of lexis and syntax, for instance, when a lexical item is
used to compensate the affective use of word order. Last, coordination between input and
output is biased toward judgment on input and clear and fluent output. Coordination of the
input-output also takes place between mental modelling and pragmatic processing. Failures to
co-ordinate originate in lack of competence or pragmatic breakdown.

Chapter 8: Summary and Conclusions

The chapter assesses SIs contribution to the understanding of the relation between language
and mind. SI is said to afford the one important achievement that has to do with combining in
one intensive act three dimensions: language, subject-matter (or content), and communicative
intentions, which necessitate a cognitive-pragmatic account. The chapter also points to the
implications of the model of SI presented for cognitive modelling, and ends with suggestions
for future potential alleys of research to enrich both cognitive science and SI.

CRITICAL EVALUATION
In the very last sentence of the book, the author, referring to himself, writes: This researcher
is more enthusiastic about what SI can teach us about human psychology for its own sake,
through a better understanding of the relationship between thought and language (284). This
enthusiasm is greater than that about developing translation algorithms to be implemented by
computers. It is undeniably true that the book under review has contributed greatly to
enriching research in cognitive science. However, the book offering a model of how sense is
made of SI raises a few thoughts in the researchers mind:

(i) without in the least trying to lessen the importance of the insights of the model of
interpreting offered, more corpus-based cognitive and psycholinguistic research is needed to
validate the models theoretical assumptions together with whether or not the models claims
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coincide with SI interpreters cognitive and pragmatic strategies (as the author himself
acknowledged);
(ii) assuming the accuracy of the model (both theoretically and empirically), it is not clear
how it can be used to improve the interpreters skill or performance (which is not one of the
objectives of the author behind writing the book), although it is insightful in terms of how the
factors surrounding the SI task may be coped with to improve the interpreters yield;
(iii) the model investigates a restricted set of pairs of languages representing the IndoEuropean and Sinitic families; therefore, more research about other families is needed to
corroborate or invalidate the foundations of the model both at the cognitive and pragmatic
levels.

It is hoped that this review has done justice to the richness of this book as represented by the
amount of linguistic knowledge included (two sub-theories of pragmatics and two subtheories of cognitive linguistics), the review of the literature on SI (ranging over no less than
seven major trends), the coherence of the model, the balanced alternation between theory and
practice, and the horizons the book opens up for further research in cognitive science and SI.
The book is, thus, for many of us invaluable reading on the cognitive-cum-pragmatic
dimensions of SI.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grice, Paul (1975). Logic and Conversation. In: P. Cole & J. Morgan (eds.), Syntax
and Semantics. Speech Acts (Vol. 3). London: Academic Press, 41-58.
Jakobson, Roman (1964). Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics. In: T.A.
Sebeok (ed.), Style in Language. Mass.: The M.I.T., 350-377.
Johnson-Laird, Philip (1983). Mental Models. Cambridge: CUP.
Searle, John R. (1983). Intentionality. An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind.
London/New York: CUP.
Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson (1995). Relevance Theory. Communication and
Cognition (second edition). Oxford: Blackwell.

ZOUHAIR MAALEJ
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Manouba
University of Manouba
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REVIEWER

Zouhair Maalej, Assistant professor of Linguistics (University of Tunis I). My doctorate is

about *Metaphor in Political and Economic Texts (a cognitive-pragmatic perspective)*
(1990). I am currently chair of the Department of English Language and Literature, Manouba
(University of Tunis I). My research interests include: cognitive linguistics, the cognitionculture interface, pragmatics, stylistics, critical discourse analysis, systemic linguistics,
translation studies. I have published on machine translation, modality, voice, and metaphor. I
have participated in a number of international conferences. I teach two undergraduate courses
on translation studies and comparative stylistics (English/Arabic), and two postgraduate
courses on pragmatics and stylistic theory.