A Study on How Critical Discourse Analysis Improves Simultaneous Interpreting Quality

Simultaneous interpreting is widely used in political speeches and meetings in which a certain kind of persuasion and effectiveness is intended. Politicians apply different strategies including rhetoric, populism, polarization etc. to obtain the desired persuasion and mind control. In the case of a speech or interview translated by an interpreter, a faithful, accurate and acceptable interpretation of the speaker’s speech is the one which achieves the equivalent effect. And the equivalent effect is obtained where the relationship between the receptor and the message is substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message.In the present study 5 examples extracted from the Iranian former president; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speeches and interviews and their interpretations are studied to investigate the hypothesis if Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can play a significant role in helping the interpreter obtain the equivalent effect by uncovering what is hidden and implicit in speeches.The result of the study showed that critical discourse analysis can be a helpful aid for the interpreter to obtain the equivalent effect and improve the quality of the interpretation.

Keywords:

Critical Discourse Analysis , Simultaneous Interpreting , Equivalent effect