Fluency of Delivery

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delivery.

Table 10: Frequent turn example 2 Segment

# Starting

time Time length Speaker Interpreter Language direction

82 0:49:06 0:00:43 4-F-C Male C→E

83 0:49:49 0:00:13 5-F-E Male E→C

84 0:50:02 0:00:10 Sandel Male E→C

85 0:50:12 0:00:04 5-F-E Male E→C

86 0:50:16 0:00:09 Sandel Male E→C

87 0:50:25 0:00:03 5-F-E Male E→C

88 0:50:28 0:00:05 Sandel Male E→C

89 0:50:33 0:00:10 5-F-E Male E→C

90 0:50:43 0:00:07 Sandel Male E→C

91 0:50:50 0:00:10 5-F-E Male E→C

92 0:51:00 0:00:18 Sandel Male E→C

93 0:51:18 0:00:05 5-F-E Male E→C

94 0:51:23 0:00:37 Sandel Male E→C

4.4.2 Fluency of Delivery

As Pöchhacker’s (1997) adequately described, “fluency of delivery is actually a

very complex paralinguistic phenomenon which relates to such interdependent features

as pauses, speaking speed, voiced hesitation, false starts, slips and repairs” (p. 210).

This argument is reflected in many of the YouTube comments analyzed below.

The quality criterion of fluency of delivery received seven comments from the

YouTube users (Table 11). Some concrete attributes expressed by the users regarding

the criterion fluency of delivery included Chinese or English fluency, pauses, whether

the delivery sounded choppy, or whether the interpreters provided fluid rendition

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without segmenting the delivery at odd places or in the middle of the sentences. The

male interpreter was praised for his ability to segment sentences properly (Comment

#143: “男生翻譯斷句段的比較好”[The male interpreter did a better job segmenting

the sentences.]) and for his English fluency (Comment #86: “男口譯講英文簡直活過

來了！”[The male interpreter came to life when speaking in English!] ). One comment

thought the female interpreter sounded less fluent when speaking Chinese (Comment

#140: “女口譯翻中文明顯比較不流暢”[It is obvious that the female interpreter’s

Chinese was less fluent.] ). Meanwhile, there was one user who seemed to have some

understanding about simultaneous interpretation, and criticized the Chinese proficiency

of the two interpreters (Comment #131: “其實，同步翻譯的品質，除了英文聽力之外，

中文語文能力也很關鍵-，這兩位口譯，很明顯的不是英文不好，而是中文不好。”[In

fact, when assessing the quality of simultaneous interpretation, besides English listening

comprehension, Chinese is also key. It’s very obvious that the two interpreters’ problem

is their Chinese proficiency, not English.]). Finally, two users seemed to have noticed

pauses in the interpreters’ rendition (Comment #180: “翻譯去上廁所了”[The

interpreter has gone to the rest room.]; Comment #189: “翻譯應該在喝水或是在吃巧

克力,辛苦了”[The interpreter is probably drinking water or eating chocolate. Kudos to

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you.]), therefore they came up with reasons to explain the absence of the interpreters.

Table 11: Quality criteria- fluency of delivery

Comment# Commenter# YouTube comment (7 comments) 86 C48 男口譯講英文簡直活過來了！

131 C71 其實，同步翻譯的品質，除了英文聽力之外，中文語 文能力也很關鍵，這兩位口譯，很明顯的不是英文不 好，而是中文不好。

140 C57 女口譯翻中文明顯比較不流暢 143 C76 男生翻譯斷句段的比較好 180 C86 翻譯去上廁所了

189 C24 翻譯應該在喝水或是在吃巧克力 辛苦了 197 C53 可不可以把一整句話聽到一段落在翻阿

The transcription data also offered a number of concrete examples that elaborated

on the issue of fluency of delivery. There seemed to be three major characteristics of the

interpretation delivery that undermines the fluency criterion, as listed below.

4.4.2.1 Supplement information in the end with awkward Chinese word order Sometimes the interpreters took a short EVS strategy and followed closely the

English word order, thus at times producing Chinese output with awkward word order.

For instance, the following examples (Table 12) illustrated the misplacement of a direct

verb object, adjective clause, and subject. If the interpreters waited a bit longer, he or

she might have been able to deliver more completed and clarifying sentences.

Table 12: Awkward word order

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Segment# Speaker Interpreter

Source text Target text Suggested version 1 Sandel MAnd yet, philosophy is also

inescapable because these big like to pose is the subject of my new book What Money Can't Buy; and the question is this, what should be the role of money and markets in a

97 Sandel MI think I might rather be like the train tickets.

Repairing sentences and wording is another example that might hinder the fluency

of delivery. If the interpreters keep on repeating and correcting themselves, the

messages would not move forward as quickly as desired. The following examples

(Table 13) showed how the interpreters repeatedly used two or three words to repeat the

same word, sentence or concept, resulting into lengthier and more confusing renditions.

Table 13: Sentence repair

Segment# Speaker Interpreter

Source text Target text Suggested version 1 Sandel M Over the last few decades,

must be we regard health a different kind of good from

119 Sandel M But they tested that hypothesis (#1). And it turns out the estimate of the risk before and after the

Among the seven comments on the fluency of delivery criterion, two were

specifically about sentence segmentation. In the following examples from the

transcription, the researcher also observed similar problems. In the following Table 14,

Segment #114 is a shorter yet fragmented sentence. Segment #151 was a longer

paragraph filled with strange pauses and segmentation at unnatural points in sentences.

Table 14: Sentence segmentation

Segment# Speaker Interpreter

Source text Target text Suggested version 114 Sandel F So what do you think

Through the formal feature of lively intonation has been regarded as less essential

in previous quality studies, there were seven comments related to the intonation issue

(Table 15). These comments did not necessarily carry a positive or negative connotation,

but they showed that users noticed the changes in the interpreters’ tone of voice and

volume. Another possible reason why intonation garnered users’ attention might

attribute to the distinctive intonation between the male and female interpreters.

Table 15: Quality criteria- lively intonation

Comment# Commenter# YouTube comment (7 comments)

44 C21 口譯人員不能挑 口條音調相似的人來交替嗎 QQ 50 C2 其實 翻譯 並不一定找同口氣的 而是找默契好的 79 C9 口譯翻的很有情緒起伏 XD

95 C53 女口譯太緊張了吧