Chapter 7

Going video: Understanding interpreter-mediated clinical communication through the video lens

Most of the research on dialogue interpreting has been conducted by taking only verbal interaction into account. Although the existing research has managed to shed some light on the complexity of interpreter-mediated interaction, there is still a lot to be unravelled by adopting a multimodal stance and including non-verbal cues in the analysis of verbal interaction. This study builds on the findings of recent research by Davitti (2013); Davitti & Pasquandrea (2017); Krystallidou (2013, 2014, 2016); Pasquandrea (2011, 2012). In this study, I draw on data taken from a corpus of authentic video-recorded interpreter-mediated consultations at a large urban hospital in Belgium. By applying multimodal analysis to data and comparing it to analysis based on transcripts alone, I highlight a set of interactional dynamics that touch upon new aspects of the complexity of interpreter-mediated interaction and which a transcript-based analysis alone would have failed to capture. It will be shown that participants’ gaze, gestures and body orientation, along with verbal interaction, are used by the interpreter as semiotic resources that do affect the doctor’s and the patient’s participation in interaction. However, the weight the interpreter seems to attach to the primary participants’ semiotic resources seems to be subject to the participation status of each participant.