Study of language personality of a conference interpreter in a moment of interpretation

Abstract

The study of the phenomenon of linguistic personality (LP) is currently central in the modern field of linguistic science since the object of the research - a human being - is at the center of the linguistic paradigm. The study of LP of a conference interpreter is extremely challenging as it contributes to self-knowledge and self-improvement. Studying linguistic and communicative consciousness of a person in a moment of interpreting allows expanding the framework of the perception of the world, knowledge about the manifestations of linguistic and non-linguistic phenomena. The paper describes the concept of LP, sufficiently developed by Yu.N. Karaulov, which seems representative for the purposes of the above. The urgency of the research lies in the direct consideration of LP from the standpoint of anthropocentric linguistics, viewing the interpreter’s activities directly in the heat moment of the situation, taking into account nonliguistic «unnoticed background» of discursive representations and new meanings of the context. The result of the overview of the analysis was the creation of a LP map of interaction, as well as a linguistic description of linguistic units and structures in the form in which they are present in the consciousness of the LP subject. After analyzing two text-interviews of conference interpreters, we identified and described features of the representation of LP. The practical advantages of the presented research describe individual fragments of adequate and inadequate translation choice, specifics of interpreters’ speech behavior, and the translation techniques and approaches used. In general, the analysis showed consistently objective results reflecting the actual manifestations of the LP of a simultaneous interpreter.