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Interpreters are being increasingly used to bridge the language barrier between investigators and interviewees. The effect that interpreters have on investigative interviews has been neglected in both the investigative interviewing and deception detection literature. Chapter 1 introduces the topics of interpreters, deception, and rapport and emphasises the importance of studying them in investigative settings. Chapter 2 describes the first experiment, which explored the effect of interpreters on eliciting information, cues to deceit and rapport. Truth tellers and liars spoke about their real or pretend job. Interviewees either spoke in their native language (English), a non-native language (English), or through an interpreter in their native language (in Korean, Chinese, Hispanic, Arabic, or Urdu). The interpreter interpreted the interviewee’s answers by short consecutive interpretation (when the interpreter translates all turns of talk sentence by sentence) or long consecutive interpretation (when the interpreter translates segments of talk which may vary considerably in length). Findings indicated that interviewees who spoke through an interpreter provided less detail than interviewees who spoke in their first language and interviewees who spoke a foreign language without an interpreter. The latter two groups did not differ from each other. Additionally, cues to deceit occurred more frequently when interviewees spoke without an interpreter. Rapport was not affected by the presence of an interpreter, veracity, or the mode of translation (short or long consecutive). Chapter 3, the second experiment, examines the effect of the interpreter’s seating position (behind the interviewee, next to the interviewer facing the interviewee, or outside the room with a telephone) on eliciting information, cues to deceit, and rapport. It also investigated the reasons why those who speak in their native language through an interpreter say less than those who speak in their native language without an interpreter. The interpreter used the long consecutive interpretation method. Interviewees either lied or told the truth about a mock secret meeting they watched, and either spoke in their native language (English), a non-native language (English), or through an interpreter in their native language (in Korean, Chinese, or Hispanic). Interviewees who spoke in their native language provided more detail than interviewees who spoke in their native language through an interpreter or interviewees who spoke in a non-native language without an interpreter. The latter groups did not differ from each other. Additionally, the amount of detail differentiated truth tellers from liars in all interview conditions and interviewees found the presence of an interpreter to be a largely positive experience. No difference was found between the three seating positions in terms of the elicitation of information, cues to deceit, and in interviewees’ self-reported experiences with the interpreter. The presence of an interpreter had no effect on rapport but liars experienced lower levels of rapport with the interviewer than truth tellers. Chapter 4, the third experiment, introduces a model statement (MS) to the interview. This is a detailed statement unrelated to the interview topic which indicates the level of detail that is required by the interviewees in their responses. The study further investigated whether the level of English proficiency of those who were speaking through an interpreter had an effect on eliciting information, cues to deceit and rapport. Level of English was split into either high level of English proficiency or low level of English proficiency. As with the study outlined in Chapter 3, interviewees either lied or told the truth about a mock secret meeting they watched, but this time they reported that meeting twice, once before the MS and then, again, after the MS. They either spoke in their native language (English), a non-native language (English), or through an interpreter in their native language (in Korean, Hispanic, or Russian). The interpreter used the long consecutive interpretation method and sat next to the interviewer facing the interviewee. The findings revealed that before the MS interviewees who spoke in their native language provided more detail than interviewees who spoke in their native language through an interpreter or in a non-native language without an interpreter. The latter groups did not differ from each other. After the MS interviewees who spoke in their native language and interviewees who were interviewed with an interpreter provided more commissions (additional detail) than the non-native speakers. Additionally, the native speakers provided more total detail than those who were interviewed through an interpreter who, in turn, provided more detail than the non-native English speakers. No difference was found in the amount of commissions provided by liars and truth tellers. Furthermore, no difference was found in the interpreter condition between the non-native low English proficiency participants speaking through an interpreter and the non-native high English proficiency participants speaking through an interpreter in terms of providing detail and commissions. Finally, the presence of an interpreter had no effect on rapport. No differences in rapport emerged between liars and truth tellers and between the non-native low English proficiency participants speaking through an interpreter and the non-native high English proficiency participants speaking through an interpreter. Chapter 5 describes a questionnaire study that explores the perceptions of UK police investigators with regard to using interpreters. The questionnaire focuses on the procedural aspects of interviews with interpreters, participants’ perceptions of the impact that interpreters have on interviews, and their feelings about using interpreters. Findings revealed an inconsistency in procedures used in terms of modes of interpretation and positioning of the interpreter; a limited awareness of the impact that interpreters may have on interviews but an overall generally positive view regarding working with interpreters. Chapter 6 summarises the main findings of this thesis along with a discussion about implications, future research and limitations.

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This thesis is a generative-based investigation of second language (L2) attrition. L2 attrition research to now has measured the loss of lexical items, morphology, word order, and so on. However, none to my knowledge has examined attrition from within an established theoretical framework such as Chomsky's theory of Government and Binding (GB). In particular, this study considers the loss of reflexive binding in proficient L2 English speakers. Informants are six Japanese university students who spent their junior (third) years abroad in the United States. These six informants consisted of two groups: three who had childhood exposure to English, and three whose first exposure to English in the L2 environment was as adults during their university stay overseas. In order to observe attrition which might occur shortly after exposure to the L2 ceased, an important aspect of this research was to begin data collection as soon as possible after the informants' returns to Japan from studying abroad. Data collections occurred at various intervals for each informant and lasted up to 16 months. Data for this longitudinal study were collected via two tests: a truth value judgment test and a grammaticality judgement test. This study is unique in that it uses generative-based SLA research tools and methods to investigate L2 attrition. Furthermore, the truth value judgment test and the grammaticality judgment test provide results which support the hypothesis that principles of reflexive binding attrite in a manner not inconsistent with UG constraints. The general pattern exhibited by all six test subjects initially shows varying but high levels of knowledge of reflexive binding. Over the course of their data collection periods, the informants' knowledge of reflexive binding in English becomes unstable in the face of zero exposure to the target language. In particular, reflexives in finite subordinate clauses tend to remain bound grammatically to local antecedents to a greater degree than in nonfinite clauses. Reflexive binding in tensed clauses thus appears more resistant to attrition. Age at first exposure to the L2 was also considered as a factor in determining ultimate level of attrition. Evidence was found of a sensitive period up to age eight for the successful acquisition and long-term maintenance of knowledge of the principles of reflexive binding, even upon loss of exposure to the L2.

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With the development of Descriptive Translation Studies (e.g. Even-Zohar, 1978; Toury, 1995), and more importantly, with the ‘cultural turn’ and the subsequent ‘power turn’ in Translation Studies (e.g. Bassnett and Lefevere, 1990; Tymoczko and Gentzler, 2002), it is now generally recognized that translation is not a mere linguistic phenomenon, but a complex social and political process involving competing values and ideologies. This thesis aims at presenting a manifold and multifaceted vision of literary translation in contemporary China, while at the same time, remaining critically aware of our own positions and perspectives. Derived from the researcher’s personal experiences in and observation of China’s highly politicised literary milieu, the current study of literary translation is carried out from two different perspectives. The first is related to the social and political dimension of translation, which is concerned with the general context of translation, translation practices, literary norms as well as the structures that support them. The second perspective focuses on the more personal dimension, which is influenced by personalities and dispositions of the individuals involved in translation. Moving along the spectrum with political coercion and pressure on one end and personal decisions and responsibilities on the other, this thesis asserts that the political and the personal are two sharply different yet intimately intertwined domains of translation. In conclusion, it is recommended that future research should place greater emphasis on the dialectical relationship between lived personal experience and structural power relations in translation. This emphasis, as is demonstrated in this thesis, will provide a base for us to recognize the centrality of human agency and the possibility of resistance through translation, to understand translation as a site of power struggle and potential change, and finally, to strive for translation research and practice that is more socially relevant and personally meaningful.

This thesis presents a theoretical attempt to look into the process of political translation in China and the textual products from a functional-cognitive perspective by combining the CDA models of Fairclough and van Dijk. The functional linguistic parameters parallel to Fairclough’s functional forms of textual analysis serve as a micro-level device for the close examination of texts. At the macro-level, van Dijk’s direction of CDA from a socio-cognitive perspective accounts for the core relation between the power enactment and discourse production in a more profound manner. Meanwhile, anchored in the Chesterman’s model of translation norms, it sets out to argue that political translation in China is both an institutional operation and a reciprocal process of norm-reformation practice in specific context models. The theoretical propositions are instantiated by comprehensive text analysis from a functional perspective. The corpus of data is formed by five sets of Chinese political speeches and their English translations delivered by the state leaders in each of their periods of leadership. The focus is on presenting a holistic picture of the translation of Chinese political discourse through a spectrum of political genres. The thesis is concluded with the theoretical insights that the roles translation intends to play in mediating between the source and target communities manifest themselves as the power-mediated knowledge transfer between the source group and the target group depending on which group holds more discursive power in specific context models. Practically, it is observed that translation, as a form of political engagement in an era when China is governed under a more open and settled leadership, demonstrates a growing tendency to interact with the target readership and engages in the negotiation with the orthodox norms.

This thesis aims at developing an analytical model for differentiation of translation correspondences and for grouping lexical items according to their semantic similarities. The model combines the language in use theory of meaning with the distributional corpus linguistics method. The identification of translation correspondences derives from the exploration of the occurrence of lexical items in the parallel corpus. The classification of translation correspondences into groups is based on the substitution principle, whereas the distinguishing features used to differentiate between lexical items emerge as a result of the study of local contexts in which these lexical items occur. The distinguishing features are analysed with the help of various statistical measurements. The results obtained indicate that the proposed model has advantages over the traditional approaches that rely on the referential theory of meaning. In addition to contributing to lexicology the model also has its applications in practical lexicography and in language teaching.

The area of audiovisual translation indisputably awakens a growing interest amongst scholars. However, the study of the translation of songs in an audiovisual context (AVC) has not been thoroughly explored. The purpose of this research is to offer a descriptive analysis on the area of translating songs (from English into Spanish) in an AVC. In particular, the research focuses on the translation of the songs included in nine animated Disney films from the Disney Renaissance Period (1989-1999). The study assesses how non-linguistic elements such as rhyme, rhythm, images or lip synchrony affect the task of translating songs by observing specific practical examples. Both subtitling and dubbing are analysed as translation practices. The different constraints involving each form of translation are assessed. Furthermore, the thesis offers a descriptive analysis of strategies used in the translation of songs in AVCs. This study highlights the importance of assessing the impact of non-linguistic elements in future studies on the translation of vocal music in AVCs and aims to provide a model for the contrastive analysis of song lyrics between the ST and the TT.