Der Simultandolmetscher als Textproduzent

The simultaneous interpreter is a secondary text producer in the sense that s/he is not responsible for the contents of the text to be transferred to the target language. In this paper it is assumed 1) that this lack of autonomy results in the construction of a discourse model which differs from the speaker’s discourse model and 2) that this difference is reflected in different referential expressions used by the speaker and the interpreter respectively. Based on Mira Ariel’s Accessibility Theory, referential expressions are regarded as accessibility markers, by means of which the text producer signals to the hearer whether the mental representation of the referent in question has a high or low degree of accessibility in his/her memory. It is claimed that, whenever text production is difficult due to special conditions of the simultaneous mode, the interpreter tends to choose referential expressions which indicate that a particular referent has a lower state of activation in his/her discourse model as compared with the speaker’s. If a higher accessibility marker is used in such a case this can be explained as a misunderstanding, comprehension deficit or loss of information.