Chapter 11 : Meaning Making

The interpreter carries out a transfer practice which is a crucial part of the communication and upon which the meaning shared between speaker and audience ultimately depends.

Strictly speaking the interpreter is not a listener but a 2 co-speaker who must appropriate the oral message in its entirety, picking up on all the aspects of the speaker's message, comprehending the content of the discourse and the meaning behind the act of speech, and also remaining receptive to any indications which may be spontaneously produced.

The interpretation process: From speaker to interpreter, or active comprehension During the act of interpreting, these pre-existing circumstances offer resources which the interpreter calls upon and applies to the utterance in context, combining his/her comprehension of the discourse with his/her assessment of the relevance of the codified or spontaneous non-verbal components which appear alongside it.

As Chernov has it, the interpreter's anticipation is based on "The redundancy of discourse, both objective and subjective and the inferencing ability of the simultaneous interpreter".

In the process of drawing as close as possible to the meaning of the speaker's message, the interpreter takes advantage of anything which may allow him/her to construct a specific type of mental image which is to an extent detached from the words of any specific language.