This paper discusses corpus-based analyses of English-Japanese simultaneous interpreters’ speech rates. We used the Simultaneous Interpretation Database of Nagoya University in order to conduct the quantitative analyses that require a large scale corpus. We analyzed a total of 88 sets of simultaneous interpretations by 17 interpreters covering 22 different lectures given in English. As a result, we confirmed that the lecturers' speech rates had little relevance to the interpreters' speech rates. Moreover, it became clear that the interpreters' average speech rate was faster after each source utterance was finished than before it was finished. We also confirmed that the interpreters' average speech rate was faster while the lecturers were not speaking than while the lecturers were speaking.

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As a part of the reform of its legal system, Japan introduced the citizen-judge system in May 2009. In order to identify possible impacts of interpreter intervention on lay judges, the legal discourse analysis team of the Japan Association of Interpreting and Translation Studies conducted the second mock trial based on a scenario involving a typical injury case. The mock trial focused on an interpreter-mediated prosecutor questioning session, inviting mock lay judges and two interpreters. This paper picks up some key expressions used in the mock trial to which two interpreters rendered decisively different English translations, such as ‘naguru’ and ‘(kane wo) yokyu suru’, and examines problems concerning the choice of lexis and its legal consequences.

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The present study examines the identification of English consonants (i.e. /l/, /r/, /s/ and /θ/) by interpreting students and professional interpreters. The participants (both interpreting students and professional interpreters) were asked to listen to English words and to identify a consonant included in the word for each trial. The results show that professional interpreters identified better than the interpreting students. However, there was no significant difference between the results of these two groups. Few empirical studies on perception of consonants aiming at comparison between interpreting students and professional interpreters have been carried out. In this regard, the present study explores a new area.

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This article explores the scope of the interpreter’s role as perceived by interpreters and other participants in interpreter-mediated communication. Traditionally, viewed as “a mere machine or conduit”, interpreters have been expected to translate word for word. However, new studies are revealing that in practice, some translators are trying to narrow cultural and linguistic gaps between monolingual speakers to facilitate smoother communication. Factors defining the roles of interpreters vary greatly, depending on the field, occasion and mode of interpretation in which they are set to work. In this study, interview data were analyzed by means of the ALSCAL (Alternating Lease Squares Multidimensional Scaling) method, and the results suggest there are six styles and two functions in the roles of interpreters. These results will help interpreters have more flexible views on their roles and shift their roles more flexibly according to the setting.

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This paper focuses on issues surrounding the interpretation from Japanese to English of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s apology statement concerning “comfort women” on April 27, 2007. At that time, U.S. House Resolution 121, which demands that the Japanese Government apologize for war crimes, was about to be adopted, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan was trying to prevent its passage. Prime Minister Abe, who had a considerable nationalist support base, used the phrase “moushi wake nai,” which was interpreted as “to express apology.” An experimental survey the author conducted with Japanese-English translators demonstrated that this translation amplified a tone of regret, and reactions on the part of the Japanese, U.S., Chinese and Korean media were clearly affected by it. Studying apology communication in multilateral diplomacy from the perspective of the translator is likely to contribute to successful diplomacy and it is the author’s hope that this paper paves the way for more comprehensive studies regarding apology translations in diplomacy.

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According to a survey conducted by Tanaka and others in 2007 regarding the needs and wants of students in interpreting classes, 80% of the students surveyed cited acquiring proficiency in English as the primary reason for choosing the class. This fact indicates that these students are seeking for new ways to further develop their foreign language skills via interpreter training methods. While traditional EFL instruction and experimental studies offer us a variety of insights into the mechanisms of second language acquisition, enough research has yet to be done on interpreter training with regard to second language acquisition. Therefore this paper first investigates current SLA research that deals with interpreter training, clarifies what effects are brought about, then explores the possibilities of effective English teaching methods from an interdisciplinary perspective.

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This study argues for use of learners’ first language (L1) to facilitate learners’ second language (L2) output in the classroom by students through Interpreting Training Methods (ITM). The activity of producing the target language may raise learners’ consciousness and improve performance on the target language. In particular, the positive use of L1 through ITM may bring to their attention what they need to do to enable successful L2 output and also lower learning anxiety to increase their motivation for L2 output. To test student performance in the target language and investigate the effectiveness of ITM in English education, thirty-three Japanese high school students participated in this research project through output task activities and follow-up interviews. The result shows that L1 task comprehension seems to facilitate L2 output removing learning anxiety that often arises when students try to communicate in the L2.

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An increasing number of Japanese deaf or hard of hearing students who will attend universities heightened the need for a PC-based speech-to-text service which provides the transcription of instructors’ speech into text. In our study seven Japanese university students evaluated to what extent the service reflects the original speech. This paper reports the factors that influence their evaluations and identifies the matters that demand special attention on the part of the service providers. It suggests that priority should be given to the subject of the sentence and keywords, followed by facts, attitude of the speaker, and the development of the sentence.

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The Monitor Model (Tirkkonen-Condit, 2005; Tirkkonen-Condit, Mäkisalo, & Immonen, 2008) shows that, translations and translators are highly restricted by linguistic constraints of the source language in the course of the translation process. The translator’s first attempt is to copy the syntactic pattern of the source text, i.e. to produce a literal translation, and then the translator immediately revises the emerging syntactic pattern so that the result is a participial pre-modification (ibid.). This assertion can potentially be applied to broader processes of translation, including its drafting and revision stages (cf. Jakobsen, 2002). This study will elucidate dynamic aspects of the translation process, by analyzing data obtained from an experiment with 4 translators. The detailed account of the interim process was made possible by the use of a computer screen recording technology. The result will demonstrate that the way target texts are formed is shaped by the order in the source language syntax and that translator's interim product that emerges in the drafting stage is also much more faithful to the source language.

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This paper refers to the translation theory of Walter Benjamin’s ”The Task of Translator” (1923), focusing on main concepts of the “life” of Artwork (Kunstwerk) and the pure language (die reine Sprache). His concept of “Kunstwerk”, which is effective also to modern translation studies, was formed under the influence of George Kreis's art theory. On the other hand, his concept of “die reine Sprache”, a kind of working hypothesis, is influenced by a German poet Holderlin's artistic discussion. By these two main concepts, Benjamin's translation theory turned into a metaphysical translation theory, and turned into a theory of translation art.

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According to Gideon Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies, this paper based on society and literature system of target culture focuses on translation strategies and translation norms explored in two different Chinese versions of Tanizaki Junichiro’s Syunkinsyo. One of them is Mu rugai’s work (1939) published in the Manchuria which was occupied and controlled in Japanese Assimilationism Policies and Thought. Another was translated by Zheng minqin (2007) under the background of globalization including well-balanced development in society, culture and economy, and frequent intercourse between China and Japan. In conclusion, different translation strategies and translation norms have used in two Chinese versions through comparing Chinese characters and locutions. Mu rugai’s work employs literal translation and accord with source norms. Zheng minqin’s translation makes use of free translation which is subscription to norms originating in the target culture.

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This paper focuses on translators ‘Cultural Pre-Structure’ to discuss the reformulation process of original texts into target texts. ‘Cultural Pre-Structure’ is in the subconscious of the people and affecting the action of them, and it is one of the factors that affect the translation acts as intercultural communication. We can say ‘Cultural Pre-Structure’ is ‘filter of the subconscious’ which is the inner world of the translator, and affecting the actions of their translations. Specifically, this paper analyzes two texts translated by different translators to illustrate a fact that translations vary depending on their cultural backgrounds of translators. This paper makes a comparative study of two translations of Murakami Haruki’s ‘Kafka on the shore’. In comparison the two Chinese translators works , both Lin Shao Hua and Lai Ming Zhu, this paper verify the two linguistic background, ideology, and the purpose of translation, which is based on the hypothesis of ‘Cultural Pre-Structure’ produce a different style of the translation.

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This study aims to describe students’ battles in the poetry translation. In the study, six university students were asked to translate Byron’s poem “When we two parted”. Their retrospective verbal reports were collected through the interview and then analyzed. The result shows that the participants stopped at the first two lines of the poem, where some remarkable parallelisms of the rhythm, rhyme, and sentence structure are salient, and struggled to translate the forms of the source text. Also some distinctive features of the poetry translation, such as source text orientation and conscious awareness of the genre and style, are revealed. These struggles and battles during poetry translation will contribute to enhance students’ language awareness.

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Translated movie subtitles must be short and concise while retaining the original meaning, because they are flashed across the screen only briefly. Because of this time limitation, expressions that are not directly related to the propositional meaning of the original lines such as those expressing politeness may be omitted or changed. Complementing our previous study (Ushie and Nishio (2009)), this paper explores, based on the framework of Brown and Levinson (1987), if politeness expressions in Japanese movies are changed in the English subtitles and, if changes are made, how they are changed. We argue that the politeness expressions in the original, Japanese, tend to reflect interpersonal distance or power relations but that in the English subtitles, they tend to reflect impositions of individual utterances although in the “mid-Distance” range there are some variations in Japanese politeness expressions.

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On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of CETRA and Target, an international conference titled The Known Unknowns of Translation Studies was held at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium on August 28-29, 2009. This conference review presents a summary of the talks given by the keynote speakers (past CETRA professors) and brief comments by the author.

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