Orality and gender: a corpus-based study on lexical patterns in simultaneous interpreting

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Published: Feb 14, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2016.ne3.11
Keywords:
lexical density, lexical variety, source speech, target speech, gender

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Mariachiara Russo
University of Bologna at Forlì

Abstract

Corpus-based Translation and Interpreting Studies so far explored several phenomena pertaining to different dimensions of language production. In particular, Laviosa (1998) investigated lexical variety (LV), i.e. linguistic richness, and lexical density (LD), i.e. prevalence of content words, in English original and translated texts and reported a higher degree of both features in the former vs. the latter. Inspired by these results, another study analysed the European Parliament Interpreting Corpus (EPIC) to verify Laviosa’s results comparing English, Italian and Spanish source and target speeches in these three languages; this study obtained less clear-cut and language-dependent results (Russo et al. 2006). LV and LD in either original or interpreted speeches could be not only language- but also gender-dependent. The present quantitative study showed mixed results depending on the language. Yet, some statistically significant trends emerged, among them higher LD in the speeches produced by Italian female vs. male Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), and higher LV in English and Spanish female vs. male interpreted speeches.

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How to Cite
Russo, M. (2018). Orality and gender: a corpus-based study on lexical patterns in simultaneous interpreting. MonTI. Monographs in Translation and Interpreting, 307–322. https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2016.ne3.11
Issue
2016: Special Issue 3. Translating Orality
Section
Articles

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Author Biography

Mariachiara Russo, University of Bologna at Forlì

Mariachiara russo graduated in Conference interpreting from the Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators (SSLMIT) of the University of Trieste in 1987 and has been a freelance conference interpreter ever since. In 1993 she became Associate Professor at the SSLMIT of Trieste, where she taught simultaneous and consecutive interpreting from Spanish into Italian. In 2001 she moved to the SSLMIT (now Department of Interpretation and Translation, DIT) of the University of Bologna at Forlì, where she also teaches Interpreting Theory. In 2005-2012 she directed the Post Graduate Degree Program in Conference Interpreting. She coordinated the EPIC (European Parliament Interpreting Corpus) project, which is an on-line resource freely available at http://sslmitdev-online.sslmit.unibo.it/corpora/corpora.php. She is on the Scientific Board of Puentes (Univ. Granada), Trans (Univ. Malaga) and Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts (John Benjamins), and is a referee for many T&I Journals. Main research fields: aptitude testing for simultaneous interpreting; corpus-based interpreting studies; public service interpreting; effects of morpho-syntactic asymmetries from Spanish into Italian; simultaneous interpretation of films. In 2014 she received the national habilitation for Full Professorship.

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