Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-168).

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that communication involves more than just language. Culture is central in the process and must be taken into account in order for effective communication to be achieved. The emphasis is on translation and how it is actually a form of intercultural communication. A host of examples are provided to show how translation is severely limited and at times nonsensical when cultural factors are ignored. / Intercultural communications is also discussed in detail to shed light on what is involved. The resulting arguments pertaining to the limitations inherent in translation and intercultural communication are then put into the context of refugee hearings in order to provide some practical applications and point to areas where communication may be deficient.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Michael K. Kauner, Florida State University, College of Social Sciences, Program in Russian and Eastern European Studies. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan, 27, 2005). Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master’s Degree in Translation (in the field of Interpreting) in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Witwatersrand, 2016 / The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that lead to the scarcity of foreign language court interpreters in South African courts. The study seeks to unpack the history of court interpreting in South Africa, the importance and the use of indigenous languages and foreign languages in South African courts and clearly explain the underlying message found in the Section 35 (k) of the Constitution of South Africa which states that all citizens have the right to be tried in the language of their choice. South Africa has witnessed its population being ravaged by heinous crimes and atrocities committed by south Africans and foreign nationals alike. This certainly poses a challenge to the entire legal system in South Africa and particularly the execution of language skills particularly foreign language interpreting in the various courts of law. / MT2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Translation/Interpreting, 2017 / This is a linguistic investigation of English and Shona consecutively-interpreted rape trials heard in selected Regional Magistrates’ courts in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean magistrates’ courts can be regarded as a special context because, in most trials, the court officials in an English-medium trial also speak the language(s) of the accused/witness, although they conduct the trial in the language of the court, i.e. English. In such a unique context, the interpreter is not the only bilingual participant. This is unlike many other bilingual settings where court officials do not speak the language of the accused/witness. Specifically, the study investigates the contention between, on the one hand, the impression of the role of the interpreter as a translating device, reflected in court interpreters’ guidelines in Zimbabwe and, on the other hand, the reality of the interpreting situation. Focusing on the effect of additions and omissions on source language utterances, the study employs an interdisciplinary approach which draws from interpreting studies approaches, discourse analytic approaches and corpus-based interpreting studies to investigate interpreted courtroom discourse. The main source of data is question/answer transcripts of consecutively-interpreted rape trials heard at two regional magistrates’ courts in Zimbabwe, making the study principally linguistic although it employs aspects of ethnography. Data from transcripts were supplemented by 92 hours of observation of open court proceedings and structured and semi-structured interviews with court interpreters, magistrates and public prosecutors. The findings presented in this study reveal that, because court interpreters are mindful that their primary goal is to ensure that participants fully understand each other’s communicative intentions, they adopt a strategy for conveying renditions which would ensure that a speaker’s communicative motive, and not only his/her actual words, is available to an end receipient. The resultant interpreted discourse thus reveals some additions and omissions which may impact on the propositional content and style of the source language message. It is possible to argue that the interpreters included these elements based on their intuitive reasoning. The study therefore argues that the presence of additions and omissions in the interpreters’ renditions could be explained in terms of court interpreters’ awareness of the importance of pragmatics and context. In this way, the interpreters’ renditions, as confirmed by my findings, support the expectation that court interpreters are always mindful of the need to convey the speakers’ meaning in full. The study therefore makes a special contribution, from an African point of view, to the debate on interpreters’ role perception by advocating a move towards a more holistic account of dialogue interpreting encounters in which all features are taken into account so that the interpreter’s role is better appreciated. The recommendations the study makes on how various stakeholders can work with interpreters will ultimately enhance the quality of interpreting service provision to ensure that the rights of the people for whom they interpret are safeguarded. Although the findings of this study are based on data from Zimbabwean courtrooms, many of the issues raised in this study would be of interest to other interpreter-mediated courtrooms. / XL2018

Through interviews, observation of refugee hearings, the analysis of negative decisions rendered by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), and the application of communication, and social work theories, as well as discourse analysis, this study explores the effects of intercultural communication on the outcome of the refugee determination hearing. It is argued that a gap exists between the principle of cultural receptiveness at the IRB, and that which occurs in the hearing. This paradox is testimony to the difficulties of applying the international definition of a Convention Refugee to a socially and culturally-constructed refugee determination process. The political, social, and cultural context in which the IRB functions, the Board's institutional culture, which mirrors the social discourse on refugees, and the way individuals ascribe meaning to information in a culturally-defined manner, all have an impact on the outcome of the hearing, and in turn on refugee protection in Canada.

No description available.

Thesis (MPhil) -- Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the interpreting services in the Parliament of South Africa (POSA). The impetus to embark on such an investigation arose after Members of Parliament claimed that the interpreting service in the Parliament of South Africa (POSA) is poor. In seeking to determine why Members of Parliament made such claims, I therefore investigated the interpreting service rendered by staff of Parliament’s Interpreting Unit. Consequently, an investigation to whether the simultaneous interpreters currently employed by Parliament of South Africa possess the amalgam of skills attributes and qualifications necessary for them to render an interpreting service of good quality. Questionnaires were distributed to Members of Parliament and to interpreters, interviews were conducted with Control Language Practitioners (CLPs), observation of recruitment panels for interpreters also followed, and interpreters were recorded during the sitting of Parliament House in an attempt to check whether interpreters do deliver an interpreting service that is up to standard. The results of this study show that Members of Parliament have a valid claim as 65% of the sample of interpreters had joined Parliament without interpreting skills and had, to date, never been sent for interpreting training and most interpreters are demoralised by the working conditions of the Language Services Section at the Parliament of South Africa.