Methodological explorations of interpreter-mediated interaction: novel insights from multimodal analysis

Abstract

Research in Dialogue Interpreting (DI) has traditionally drawn on qualitative analysis of verbal behaviour to explore the complex dynamics of these ‘triadic’ exchanges. Less attention has been paid to interpreter-mediated interaction as a situated, embodied activity where resources other than talk (such as gaze, gestures, head and body movement, proxemics) play a central role in the co-construction of the communicative event. This article argues that understanding the complexity of DI requires careful investigation of the interplay between multiple interactional resources, i.e. verbal in conjunction with visual, aural, embodied and spatial meaning-making resources. This call for methodological innovation is strengthened by the emergence of video-mediated interpreting, where interacting via screens without sharing the same physical space adds a further layer of complexity to interactional dynamics. Drawing on authentic extracts from interpreter-mediated interaction, both face-to-face and video-mediated, this article problematizes how the integration of a multimodal perspective into qualitative investigation of interpreter-mediated interaction can contribute to the advancement of our understanding of key interactional dynamics in DI and, in turn, broaden the scope of multimodality to include new, uncharted territory.