A Dutch discourse marker in interpreter-mediated police interviewing with drafting: A corpus-based approach to dialogue interpreting

Abstract

This study systematically analyses the use of a Dutch discourse marker (dus) by nine interpreters assisting in 12 police interviews. It is an attempt to approach dialogue interpreting with the analytical framework of corpus-based linguistics and a data collection that can stand the comparison with existing corpora of mostly simultaneous interpreting. In terms of frequencies, the results show that interpreters do not seem to divert from general usage patterns for spoken Dutch. However, their use of dus is mostly disconnected from the speech they are interpreting. While explicitation seems to be at play in a certain number of cases, the bulk of instances serves interaction coordination purposes. A substantial number of instances with a filler function are also found, where interpreters struggle to understand the source speech or to articulate their interpretation. Finally, some interesting cases of so-called discursive control enforced by dus are observed, further confirming the special relationship interpreting holds with drafting of written records during the interview.