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Article published In: Developments in Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies
Edited by Kairong Xiao and Sandra L. Halverson
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 8:2] 2021
► pp. 277–306

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Embodied cognition in the booth

Referential and pragmatic gestures in simultaneous interpreting

ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Published online: 22 November 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00079.mar
Abstract
From an enactivist perspective, cognition can be described as embodied, since it is determined by our bodily, multisensory, affective interaction with the environment, in particular by our social interaction. In recent years, interpreting has been defined as a multimodal, embodied cognitive activity of inter-lingual mediation, and research on gestures in conference interpreting has found that simultaneous interpreters, although not visible for their audience, do gesture in the booth. However, gestures in interpreting are yet understudied. This paper presents an exploratory, in-depth descriptive study with the aim of generating hypotheses about the cognitive functions of gestures in simultaneous interpreting. To this end, we investigate the different types of gesture that emerge throughout a whole process of simultaneous interpreting, in conjunction with the concurrent speech, the interpreter’s interaction with her environment and her own description of her production of mental images and gestures. The research question guiding our investigation is: What functions do the different types of gestures play in the interpreting process? The results suggest that, in the analyzed material, referential gestures tend to support the construction of meanings, while the main role of pragmatic gestures consists in helping to manage the progress of the interpreting process.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Enactive cognition
    • 2.1Embodied language
    • 2.2Co-speech gesture as embodied cognition
      • 2.2.1Types and functions of gesture
      • 2.2.2Gesture and mental simulation
      • 2.2.3Gesture as external support to cognition
  • 3.Gestures in simultaneous interpreting
  • 4.The study
    • 4.1Objective and research question
    • 4.2Data collection
    • 4.3Analysis of the data
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1Overall picture
    • 5.2Referential gestures
      • 5.2.1Iconic gestures: Drawing contents in the air
      • 5.2.2Deictic gestures: Organizing ideas metaphorically in the booth
    • 5.3Pragmatic gestures: Managing speech production
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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