Abstract
In this paper, we discuss what information a simultaneous interpreter adds by inserting Japanese demonstrative pronoun “souiu”, and claim that its fundamental function is to mark the following noun (phrase) as reformulation of its antecedent. Although most existing accounts of demonstratives in interpreting and translation only deal with the case in which antecedents are identified by the degree of cohesion and talk about the equivalent to be achieved between SL and TL, some demonstratives, like bridging reference in English, do not contribute to cohesion in the source language. In our theory the notion of securing meaningfulness (Funayama 2000) plays a crucial role. Furthermore, using, as a point of departure, Gutt’s definition of translation as interpretation of interpretation, we will define simultaneous interpreting as a kind of metarepresentation from a Relevance-theoretic viewpoint. We will argue that the kind of “souiu” inserted by the interpreter is better analyzed as encoding procedural information, guiding his/her hearer to identify the antecedent.
