Interpreter mediated court discourse: Revisiting court interpreter's role based on the communication theories

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H06598
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Juntendo University
• Principal Investigator: YOSHIDA Rika 順天堂大学, 国際教養学部, 講師 (20761951)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-08-28 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 法廷通訳 / 談話分析 / 異文化 / 言語弱者 / 言語イデオロギー / 言語人類学 / 社会言語学 / ウェルフェア・リングイスティックス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, I collected interpreter mediated court discourse taking notes from the audience seat and some interview discourses of the court participants such as lawyers and an interpreter to analyze them in the framework of communication theories such as Linguistic Anthropology, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, etc. This research had an aim to contribute to create a fair trial without producing "linguistic vulnerable person".

Through this research I found out that not all interactions in the courtroom were interpreted, for instance, when the interpreter tries to clarify the meaning of the original utterance to the speaker, when the lawyer expresses an objection or when the judge explains the procedure of the court trial, there was no interpreting offered to the foreign person accused.

Free Research Field

言語人類学