Abstract
It has been known that one of the factors that affects the comprehension of Japanese Sign Language
simultaneously interpreted from (spoken) Japanese is the way compound words are translated. However, there
has been no linguistic analysis focusing on this topic. In this paper, analyzing recorded interpretation of a 13
minute academic presentation by five interpreters (meeting two different interpreting skill levels), we will show
that there are linguistic factors that interfere with the comprehension of compound words. These include: i)
components of compound words separated in signing space; ii) distorted signing rhythm affected by mouthing;
iii) head-nodding within a compound; iv) non-occurrence of reduction and/or loss of the hand movements. We
believe that showing these specific cases will contribute to the knowledge of JSL and will help interpreters
improve their performance.
