Abstract
By examining superficial differences between SL and TL, we can explore cognitive processing
of simultaneous interpreting. In some cases, apparently noncorresponding expressions in TL
preserve the message the original speaker intends to convey. Thus, superficial linguistic
differences are not always just accidental errors or failed attempts of an interpreter, but show
essential cognitive processes of utterance comprehension and enable stable and efficient
performance of interpreting. In this paper, we will examine characteristic examples taken
from a record of genuine simultaneous interpreting and analyse them in terms of vocabulary,
word selection, textual cohesion and syntactic structures in SL/TL in order to probe mental
processes bridging SL and TL. We will examine conditions of “deverbalisation” and
“conceptualisation” in context and show how they work in simultaneous interpreting and
general discourse processing.
