Professor As-Safi gave the third presentation which was attended by most faculty members from the English Department on Monday 16th of December from 11:00 to 12:30.
Topic
Translating vs Interpreting: Interface and Divergence
Despite the translating/interpreting interface where both are concerned with rendering a message in the source language (SL) into an equivalent message in the target language (TL), the two greatly diverge.
Findings
The constraints imposed on the SL and the TL and the skills required for both vary in many respects. Apparently, a translator performs his task in a written, hence visible, text, with reference sources accessible to him, with the possibility of revising, altering, modifying, editing and polishing the TL version and in an atmosphere of little stress and relatively fewer constraints.
On the other hand, an interpreter, whether consecutive or simultaneous, is deprived of all the above facilities, works under very stressful conditions and deals with an oral, hence an invisible, text, in addition to a plethora of other constraints.
Outcome
The corollary is that the interpreter is in a dire need to extra, i.e. compensatory, strategies such as the exegetic or paraphrase strategy, segmenting and chunking, queuing, calquing, approximation, borrowing and ellipsis to enable him/her accomplish his/her arduous feat.
Discussion
Professor Khafagi asked about the meaning and importance of accuracy within interpreting.
Abdulhadi brought up the question of ethics within interpreting.
Professor Attari discussed the difference between major and significant points vs minor points in relation to omitting during interpreting.
