Accounting for shifts in SI

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show that shifts in simultaneous interpreting should not be seen as shortfalls of the simultaneous interpreter. Rather, it is argued that shifts may occur as a result of the interpreter's strategic decision-making to deliver the speaker's message in the most suitable form to the target audience while at the same time overcome the constraints inherent in this mode of communication. This study uses the outputs of three professional simultaneous interpreters in actual international conferences to discern patterns in shifts and what trigger such shifts. According to the analysis, shifts may be categorized into five different types: ellipsis, deletion, addition, substitution and errors. In a total of 30 minutes speeches, there were 136 occurrences of shifts including 5 occurrences of errors. The largest number of shifts were in the form of substitution (51 occurrences) followed by deletion(39 times), addition (22 times) and ellipsis (19 times). The findings showed that the interpreter substituted own outputs or added information to deliver the message in the most easily understandable form to the target audience while deleted or omitted expressions to reduce time constraints. Thus, the empirical findings were evidence that shifts are not always errors but strategic choices on the part of the interpreter.