A critical investigation of Deaf comprehension of signed TV news interpretation
Temas
Detalles
This study investigates factors hampering comprehension of sign language interpretations rendered on South African TV news bulletins in terms of Deaf viewers’ expectancy norms and corpus analysis of authentic interpretations. The research fills a gap in the emergingdiscipline of Sign Language Interpreting Studies, specifically with reference to corpus studies.The study presents a new model for translation/interpretation evaluation based on theintroduction of Grounded Theory (GT) into a reception-oriented model. The research questionis addressed holistically in terms of target audience competencies and expectations, aspects of the physical setting, interpreters’ use of language and interpreting choices. The South African Deaf community are incorporated as experts into the assessment process, thereby empiricallygrounding the research within the socio-dynamic context of the target audience. Triangulationin data collection and analysis was provided by applying multiple mixed data collectionmethods, namely questionnaires, interviews, eye-tracking and corpus tools. The primaryvariables identified by the study are the small picture size and use of dialect. Secondaryvariables identified include inconsistent or inadequate use of non-manual features, incoherentor non-simultaneous mouthing, careless or incorrect sign execution, too fast signing, loss of visibility against skin or clothing, omission of vital elements of sentence structure, adherenceto source language structures, meaningless additions, incorrect referencing, oversimplificationand violations of Deaf norms of restructuring, information transfer, gatekeeping and third person interpreting. The identification of these factors allows the construction of a series of testable hypotheses, thereby providing a broad platform for further research. Apart from pioneering corpus-driven sign language interpreting research, the study makes significantcontributions to present knowledge of evaluative models, interpreting strategies and normsand systems of transcription and annotation.