ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the interpreter's performance in an interpreter-mediated political interview. Taking the case of an interview with Boris Yeltsin broadcast live on Swedish radio, the study examines the apparent difference between Yeltsin in the original Russian and the interpreter's Swedish version of him. The analysis explores a variety of divergences which can be seen in the discourse. It suggests that the interpreter's performance is affected first and foremost by the nature of the assignment and the communicative genre; by the conventions of 'news interview talk', by the journalist's way of asking questions and by conditions connected specifically to broadcast talk, which is characterized by being designed to be 'talk for absent overhearers' (see Heritage 1985, Hutchby 1995 for examples). The chapter demonstrates some analytical possibilities offered by an interactionistic approach to interpreter-mediated encounters, seeing the interpreter's efforts as related to a twofold task – that of translating and coordinating the others' talk in interaction ( Wadensjö 1992 and 1998). The investigation involves a detailed transcription of the radio interview and an examination of this text from the point of view of linguistic features and the sequential organization of interaction.