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Applied Linguistics Advance Access originally published online on January 29, 2009
Applied Linguistics 2009 30(1):93-114; doi:10.1093/applin/amn050
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© Oxford University Press 2009

Interpreting Inexplicit Language during Courtroom Examination

Jieun Lee

Macquarie University, Australia


  Abstract

Court interpreters are required to provide accurate renditions of witnesses’ utterances during courtroom examinations, but the accuracy of interpreting may be compromised for a number of reasons, among which is the effect on interpretation of the limited contextual information available to court interpreters. Based on the analysis of the discourse of Korean–English interpreting in Australian courtrooms, this article examines how inexplicit language used by Korean-speaking witnesses affects the accuracy of court interpreting. Such use of inexplicit language is a consequence of differences between the lexico-grammatical system of the witnesses’ language (Korean) and that of the court (English), as well as being due to the witnesses’ lack of familiarity with the courtroom discourse. This study demonstrates that the way the court interpreters cope with inexplicit language may result in inaccurate rendition of the evidence, and thus have legal implications for court proceedings.


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