Chapter 2. Exploring the potential of implicatures for assessing interpreting quality in the Swiss asylum procedure

Abstract

Devoting more attention to a cognitive approach in Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) may not only be useful for exploring translation and interpreting processes per se but also when facing real-life challenges such as hiring qualified interpreters. This chapter first introduces how communicative principles found in pragmatics can help define a common theoretical framework in TIS and how this would benefit the quality of Public Service Interpreting (PSI) more globally. It goes on to map PSI in the Swiss context and present preliminary findings from an exploratory study analyzing the assessment of aspiring interpreters for the Swiss asylum system. First results show how communicative principles as found e.g. in Relevance Theory appear to inform evaluators when judging interpreting quality.