臺灣手語翻譯：邁向職業平等之路

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(1)Taiwan Sign Language Interpreting: towards Professional Equality. Riccardo Moratto National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation. GITI Supervisor: Professor Jung-hsing Chang. This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation GITI National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) December 2012. i.

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(3) TABLE OF CONTENTS. Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………... III. List of Tables, Figures and Appendices …………………………………………. VII. Abstract ………………………………………………………………………….. VIII. Abstract in Chinese …………………………………………………………….... X 8. Statement of Candidate ………………………………………………………….. XIII. Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………….. XIV 14. Chapter One Introduction 1.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 1. 1.2 Research Hypothesis ……………………………………………………….... 5. 1.3 Background and Rationale for the Study…………………………………….. 6. 1.4 General Method …………………………………………………………….... 8. 1.5 The Anticipated Contribution of the Study ………………………………….. 9. 1.6 Organization of the Thesis …………………………………………………... 10. Chapter Two Taiwan Sign Language 2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 16. 2.2 A Diachronic Analysis of Taiwan Sign Language (TSL): A Historical Excursus of TSL ………………………………………………………………….. 18. 2.3 Diatopic and diachronic variation ………………………………………….... 22. 2.4 A Historical Journey Towards Dignity ………………………………………. 29. 2.4.1 Language “Evolution”: from Hands to Mouth ………………………….. 29. 2.5 Cued Speech …………………………………………………………………. 35. 2.6 Manually Coded Language ………………………………………………….. 38. 2.7 Lip Reading ………………………………………………………………….. 41. iii.

(4) 2.8 Oralism ………………………………………………………………………. 44. 2.9 Signed Chinese Vs. Natural Sign Language ……………………………….... 45. 2.10 Concluding remarks ………………………………………………………... 49. Chapter Three TSL Interpreting 3.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 51. 3.2 TSL Interpreting History …………………………………………………….. 51. 3.3 Status quo of TSL interpreters ………………………………………………. 59. 3.4 Professional volunteers …………………………………………………….... 61. 3.5 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………... 63. Chapter Four Challenging areas in TSL Interpreting 4.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 65. 4.2 The Importance of Metaphors and Figurative Speech ………………………. 67. 4.3 Diachronic Literature Review ……………………………………………….. 70. 4.4 Iconicity in Sign Languages …………………………………………………. 77. 4.5 Metaphors in Sign Languages ……………………………………………….. 79. 4.6 Examples from TSL …………………………………………………………. 81. 4.7 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………... 94. Chapter Five Experiments 5.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 96. 5.1.1 Sign languages are real languages: neurolinguistics evidence ……….. 100. 5.1.2 A review of neurolinguistics research in simultaneous interpreting …. 114. 5.2 Qualitative and quantitative experiments ……………………………………. 129. 5.2.1 Qualitative pilot study: quality assessment …………………………... 129. 5.2.2 Quantitative pilot study ………………………………………………. 139. 5.2.2.1 Participants…………………………………………………….. 139. iv.

(5) 5.2.2.2 Materials ………………………………………………………. 139. 5.2.2.3 Tasks …………………………………………………………... 140. 5.2.2.4 Results ……………………………………………………….... 141. 5.2.2.5 Discussion ……………………………………. 144. 5.3 Concluding remarks …………………………………………………………. 146. Chapter Six Assessment and Evaluation in TSL Interpreting 6.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 151. 6.2 Assessment and Evaluation Literature Review …………………………….... 156. 6.3 The Issue of Interpreting Quality ……………………………………………. 158. 6.4 Taiwan Sign Language Interpreting Assessment and Evaluation (TSLI), with an Emphasis on the Naturality Issue ……………………………………….. 165. 6.4.1 EIPA ………………………………………………………………….... 166. 6.4.2 TSLIAE ………………………………………………………………... 175. 6.4.3 The Issue of “Naturality”: Natural Sign Language (NSL) vs. Manual Sign Language (MSL) ………………………………………………………….... 185. 6.5 Tentative New TSLIAE (nTSLIAE) Model …………………………………. 190. 6.6 Conclusion and limitations of this chapter …………………………………... 194. Chapter Seven Conclusion 7.1 A Review of the Chapters ……………………………………………………. 199. 7.2 Concluding Remarks and Future Research …………………………….......... 203. 7.3 Limitations of the Study ……………………………………………………... 205. References ……………………………………………………………………….. 207. Appendix I ……………………………………………………………………….. 241 v.

(6) Appendix II …………………………………………………………………….... 251. Appendix III ……………………………………………………………………... 268. vi.

(7) LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND APPENDICES. Table Number 1 ………………………………………………………………... 2. Table Number 2 ………………………………………………………………... 72. Table Number 3 ………………………………………………………………... 143. Table Number 4 ……………………………………………………………..…. 168. Table Number 5……………………………………………………………….... 175. Table Number 6 ……………………………………………………………..…. 177. Table Number 7 ………………………………………………………….…….. 178. Table Number 8 …………………………………………………………..……. 180. Table Number 9 ………………………………………………………………... 181. Table Number 10 ………………………………………………………….….... 182. Table Number 11 ………………………………………………………………. 183. Table Number 12 ………………………………………………………………. 191. Figure Number 1…………………………………………………………….….. 34. Figure Number 2…………………………………………………………….….. 36. Figure Number 3………………………………………………………………... 98. Figure Number 4…………………………………………………………..……. 104. Figure Number 5………………………………………………………………... 105. Figure Number 6………………………………………………………..………. 106. Figure Number 7………………………………………………………….…….. 110. Figure Number 8………………………………………………………..………. 122. Figure Number 9………………………………………………………………... 164. Appendix I ……………………………………………………………….…….... 241. Appendix II …………………………………………………………………...…. 251. Appendix III …………………………………………………………………..…. 268. vii.

(8) ABSTRACT This thesis was originally motivated from discussions with fellow Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) interpreters, from insights into some government documents regulating the profession of sign language interpreters in Taiwan and from my interest as a conference interpreter to explore other fields of the same profession, which are yet to be explored from an academic point of view. According to the TSL professional interpreters interviewed in the process of writing this thesis, their professional status seems to be treated differently from fellow oral interpreters. First of all, they are not paid by working day but rather by the hour and their retribution is considerably much lower than oral interpreters, for various reasons. This is due to budget issues but also to a deep-rooted attitude towards sign language interpreting, which had never before been explored in any publication in Taiwan. This study attempts at investigating general issues concerning the profession of sign language interpreters and focuses on some challenging areas, furthermore it provides a scientifically-based academic structure to recognize the equal professional status of sign interpreters and oral interpreters, not only in theoria but also de facto. The hypothesis underlying one of the chapters of the study, namely chapter six, is that if TSL is indeed a language and if the neurobiological efforts required to carry out the interpreting task, both oral and signed, are the same, then there is no reason for the two modally different categories of interpreters to be treated unequally. In the thesis, there is a complete literature review of the most representative neurobiological studies aimed at proving that sign languages are natural languages at all effects. Furthermore, chapter five is dedicated to an experiment aimed at proving viii.

(9) the intrinsic difficulty of sign language interpreting and the fact that the efforts underlying the modally different sign interpreting tasks are by no means inferior. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. Each chapter is divided into different paragraphs and some paragraphs are further divided into subparagraphs. The data gathered from this research, both in terms of literature review and in terms of experiments and interviews, will contribute to enhancing interpreters’ knowledge about their own profession and their professional figure. This study is also the first dissertation ever on Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) interpreting-related issues. There have been theses and publications on TSL, per se, but never on TSL interpreting. This is also one of the main contributions in a Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation (GITI). We also hope that this study will spur the government and the ad hoc institutional bodies to recognize the fact that sign language interpreters should have the same rights as oral language interpreters, for instance the co-presence on stage of two colleagues shifting every twenty to thirty minutes, which is the ideal situation, yet not always the case for sign language interpreters. The results of the study have implications for sign language interpreting field in regard to research, pedagogy and practice insofar as they raise the awareness of one’s own professional figure, with all the rights attached. This seems to be a crucial deontological factor in interpreting-related rights discussions. Key words: Taiwan sign language (TSL), interpreter, professional status, equality, assessment.. ix.

(10) 摘要. 本文的撰寫動機來自於與臺灣手語傳譯人員之討論，亦來自於本人身爲口譯員對翻譯學的高度興趣，進而以本身對於翻譯的專業認知來探討翻譯學的相關領域：翻譯學有很多不同的類別，手語翻譯學為其中一種。據筆者所知，目前臺灣學術界尚未出版任何與手語翻譯學有關之論文。從筆者撰寫論文的過程當中所訪談過的專業手語傳譯人員得知，他們與口譯翻譯人員的待遇並非相同。首先，手語傳譯人員的薪資不是以工作日而是以工時來計算；再者，手語傳譯人員的薪資比口譯人員低的很多。這可能牽涉到經費的問題，然而，台灣長久以來將手語傳譯者視為次等翻譯人員的這個情況則尚未在任何文獻裡面被討論過。本研究從不同方面來探討手語翻譯員所遇到的問題，並著重在幾個具有挑戰性的領域。除此之外，本文提供以科學方法為根基的學術研究結構來分析並舉例說明，手語翻譯員該享有口譯翻譯人員所享有的尊重以及專業上的平等對待--理論上與實際上都應如此。本論文第五章中的假設指出，若台灣手語是一種自然的語言，以及神經語言學認為不同的語言系統之間的翻譯行為所需要用到的腦部理解組織與解構的生物機能是相同的，則口譯與手譯的專業翻譯行為不應有差別的待遇。筆者試圖於本論文中囊括最具有代表性的神經語言學研究來證明手語確實是自然的語言，並且在第五章中提出假設，試圖用神經語言學的實驗來證明，從事手譯翻譯的過程所運用到的腦部解構與重組機能並非低於一般口譯的行爲。本研究所蒐集的資料及數據，無論是在文獻綜述方面或是訪談方面都有助於提高手譯員對自己的專業形象。此外，本研究也是第一篇關於臺灣手語翻譯學相關研究的論文，其在台灣師大翻譯研究所亦可視爲主要貢獻之一。作者也希望政府和特教機構正視本論文所提出的重要議題和建議，讓手語翻譯人員在各種條件上享有與一般口譯員同樣的權利與待遇，例如每隔二十到三十分鐘有不同手語翻譯人員輪替進行翻譯。最後希望本論文對手語翻譯界的學術研究、教學領域與實務均能帶來具體的影響，並有效地提升手語翻譯員專業的地位與形象。 x.

(11) 關鍵詞:‬臺灣手語(TSL)、手語傳譯人員、專業身份、職業平等、翻譯品質評估。. xi.

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(13) STATEMENT OF CANDIDATE. I certify that the work in this thesis entitled “Taiwan Sign Language Interpreting: towards Professional Equality” has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree to any other university or institution other than Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation (GITI), National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU).. I also certify that the thesis is an original piece of research and it has been written by me. Any help and assistance that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself have been appropriately acknowledged.. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis.. Riccardo Moratto Student ID: 899250042 December 2012. xiii.

(14) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my most profound feelings of gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Chang Jung-hsing, who has always been very supportive and helpful every step of the way.. My sincere appreciation goes out to all those who have contributed to the realization of this thesis and to the oral defense committee members: James H-Y. Tai, Shiaohui Chan, Antonella Tulli, and Tze-wei Chen.. I am infinitely indebted to all my Taiwanese and Italian Deaf friends who have, directly or indirectly, proved to be a priceless source of information. I thank all of you for your generous assistance, for your sense of humor, for your intelligence and for your direction. This would have truly been impossible without your help.. I am also sincerely indebted towards my fellow colleagues, professional Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) interpreters. Given my background as an oral interpreter, I couldn’t have gone without their insights in the fruitful conversations that we have had in the past months. Thanks to each and every one of you, and most especially a heart-felt thank you to professional sign language interpreter Ginger Hsu for being available to always answer my questions, day and night.. I am extremely grateful to Professor Antonella Tulli for her constant support and to Shiaohui Chan, professor of neuro-linguistics, for her unconditional support and for her time in reviewing some of the chapters and her willingness to aid me in my exhaustive review of neurobiological studies.. xiv.

(15) It seems opportune to thank all the international scholars who have contributed, direcly or indirectly, to enhancing the content of some the chapters herein included. Last but not least, I would like to thank Professor Tai for his inspiring and enlightening advice during the oral exam. Notwithstanding everybody’s help, feedback and/or reviewing, I alone am responsible for any inaccuracies, omissions or shortcomings in the present dissertation.. Once again, I would like to sincerely acknowledge the help provided by the many interpreters and interpreter educators, both Taiwanese and overseas, especially in Italy, whose enthusiastic contribution made me gain further insight in sign language interpreting and in some of the issues discussed herein.. Finally, I am deeply grateful and indebted to my family and friends, who have been a milestone in this Ph.D. journey. Without their encouragement, love and support, I probably wouldn’t have made it till the end.. xv.

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(17) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1. Introduction. Taiwan Sign Language (TSL), abbreviated as TSL, is the language used amongst deaf communities in Taiwan. The origins of TSL developed from Japanese Sign Language during Japanese rule, which is why TSL is considered part of the Japanese Sign Language family and has no direct relations with Chinese Sign Language (CSL), although there are loan words from CSL, as will be mentioned later. TSL has some mutual intelligibility with both Japanese Sign Language (JSL) and Korean Sign Language (KSL); it has about a 60% lexical similarity with JSL (Fischer et al. 2010).1 There are many issues concerning TSL interpreters. Generally speaking, there are problems and inadequacies for TSL interpretation system and research on this issue is important because it aims at raising the dignity of TSL interpreters and the quality of the interpretation itself. The Labor Affairs Department of the New Taipei City government regulates the services, requirements and retribution of sign language interpreters.2. 1. For detailed descriptive information on TSL, the reader can refer to the relevant literature (Ann et. al. (to appear), 2000, 2007; Brentari 2010; Chan and Wang, 2009; Chang 2009; Chang et al. 2005; Chang and Ke 2009; Chen and Tai 2009; Chen and Tai, 2009a, 2009b; Chiu et al. 2005; Duncan 2005; Huteson 2003; Jean 2005; Lee et al. 2001; Myers et al. 2005, 2006; Myers and Tsay 2004; Myers and Tai 2005; Sasaki 2007; Shih and Ting 1999; Smith 2005; Su and Tai 2007, 2006, 2009; Tai 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008; Tai and Tsay 2009, 2010; Tai and Chen 2010; Tsai and Myers 2009; Tsay 2007, 2010; Wilbur 1987; Zhang 2007). 2. The document in question can be freely downloaded from the following address:. www.labor.taichung.gov.tw by inserting the words 提供手語翻譯及視力協助服務人員資格及補助標準表. 1.

(18) For the benefit of the reader, here is the table which regulates the afore-mentioned services.3 Table 1 Category. Services provided. Qualification. First type: if one of the 1. classes: following qualifications 1.Conferences or symposia are met, documents can 2.Work training be provided: 3.Complex interviews 1. Sign Language involving technical Interpreting Certificate or operation or technical license for Sign 2. testing Language Interpreter, 4.Other must have fulfilled 200 hours of service. 2. 200 hours of professional training approved or subsidized by the government and more than 200 hours of experience as Sign Language Interpreter. 3. More than 400 hours as sign language interpreter. 4. In possession of technical certificate or license but the interpreting hours have not surpassed 200 hours. 1. Easy interviews Second type: if one of the following qualifications are met, documents can 2. Communication and be provided: counseling on the 1. 200 hours of professional workplace training approved or subsidized by the government and more than 100 hours of experience as Sign Language Interpreter. General conferences or. TSL interpreting 3. The English translation is mine. The bold is also mine.. 4. New Taiwanese Dollar.. 2. Subsidy Standards For those who compile with the first type, they hourly subsidy is 1000 NTD 4 , for the second type the hourly subsidy is 500 NTD. Individual cases applying for. sign. language. interpreting services, the highest monthly subsidy for every person is ten hours, and it cannot be over than 120 hours per year. For any special needs or requirements, subsidy increases can be considered..

(19) 2. 200 hours of sign language interpreting service.. Vocational training. In line with the first and second Public and private training type qualifications. institutions. or. commissioned government vocational classes. to. units by. the. carry. out. training of. speech-impaired. recruit. Deaf. and. students.. Each class will provide one sign. language. interpreter,. whose daily retribution will be at the very most 1500 NTD.. After reading this table, I decided to interview my fellow sign language interpreters, to inquire on the reality of the market. For someone with a background in simultaneous conference (oral) interpreting, I actually discovered a different situation as far as sign language interpreters are concerned. According to one of my sources, sign language interpreters, unlike oral interpreters, are paid by the hour and not per working day. She says that every sign language interpreter approximately receives, at the very most, 1600 NTD per hour (anonymous interpreter A, personal communication 2012), which is line with the data presented in Table 1. In some rare occasions, sign language interpreters are not paid by the hour, according to the importance of the event. For instance, in the interview, she said that once she was paid 5000 NTD for a whole session (two hours) because the event was considered of the utmost importance, otherwise the pay is usually hourly, and most of the time it is only 1000 NTD per hour. (interpreter A, 3.

(20) personal communication, 2012). At other times, low pay is not even the only problem because in different cities, most TSL interpreters cannot find the interpretation jobs easily even if they have the professional license; this is due to governmental budget restrictions. When I heard this, I was quite surprised considering the fact that according to the official website of WASLI (World Association of Sign Language Interpreters), the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) has decided, by an overwhelming majority at the AIIC general assembly held in Buenos Aires in 2012, to open its doors to sign language conference interpreters, as a result of the close cooperation and fruitful discussions between AIIC and the World Association and the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters. AIIC represents more than 3000 conference interpreters worldwide. On the other hand, WASLI and EFSLI promote the professional interests of sign language interpreters. The three associations share professional concerns such as ethics, advocacy, working conditions, and recognition, training and professional development. The main goal is to put sign languages on an equal footing with oral languages within the world of conference interpreting, including working hours, working condition and retribution, which is not respected yet in the world of TSL interpreting (Taiwan). Simultaneous interpreting, irrespective of the modality is a very complex skill that requires intensive and appropriate training and practice. Successful interpreters rely on many skills in their everyday work. The development of these skills is not intuitive or automatic, nor is it modality-dependent. Simultaneous interpreting must be developed through a careful sequence of learning activities, which starts off from a perfect inter-lingual and intra-lingual command of both working languages. Isolating specific skills and learning them one at a time is the best approach to learning complex new skills, which one at a time allows mastery of individual skills 4.

(21) and a feeling of success. Gaining control over components of the interpretation process can assist in developing simultaneous interpreting skills because appropriate practice helps to “routinize” and “automatize” these complex skills. The skills that make up the simultaneous interpreting processes are generally not used in isolation and must be synthesized correctly in order to render an interpretation. These general observations are the same for oral language and signed language interpreting, because neurobiological mechanisms and efforts underlying these processes are modality independent. Sign interpreters in different countries may be treated and paid differently, and there are also governmental budget restrictions to be taken into consideration; however, sign language interpreters should be treated au par with their fellow oral interpreters, all the more now that sign language has officially entered to be a part of AIIC official languages.The afore-mentioned observations, along with the fruitful discussions with professional interpreters, will be further investigated in the course of the thesis along with other problems and inadequacies related to sign language interpreting in order to raise the dignity of professional sign language interpreters and the quality of the interpretation itself. The underlying hypothesis, rationale, organization and anticipated contribution of the research will be underlined in the following paragraphs.. 1.2 Research hypotheses. This research study hypothesizes that the efforts which underlie bimodal interpreting, that is to say, oral to sign and sign to oral interpreting, are not inferior than unimodal interpreting, i.e. oral to oral interpreting. Each chapter in this thesis addresses different aspects of TSL and TSL 5.

(22) interpreting. Broadly, it is hypothesized that the same neurobiological mechanisms activate during oral to oral and during oral to sign interpreting and therefore, Taiwan Sign Language interpreters (TSLIs) should be treated equally as other oral interpreters, in terms of working conditions and retribution. It will be possible to apply this information in governmental guidelines and regulations stipulating the deontological code and the general code of conduct of Taiwan Sign Language interpreters (TSLIs).. 1.3 Background and rationale for the study The International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC - Association internationale des interprètes de conférence) has a very rigid code of ethics and a set of professional standards that interpreters should abide by. AIIC liaises with a number of international organizations (e.g., the EU and the United Nations) and negotiates the working conditions for all of their interpreters, including non-members. The goals of the AIIC are to secure acceptable working conditions for interpreters, to ensure professional interpretation, and to raise public awareness of the interpreting profession, including sign language interpreting which is being increasingly used in many fields. Frishberg (1986) reports that sign-language interpreters are called upon to interpret with increasing frequency in commercial settings, whether for employers and employees or for interlocutors who are on a more equal footing. Given these premises, it seems opportune to raise the public awareness of the importance of interpreters irrespective of the modality. Some people might take the importance of interpreters as cultural mediators for granted, but in many fields, like the sign language interpreting, it is far from being so.. 6.

(23) Many people have to strive to receive subsidies by the government on something which should be rightfully theirs, irrespective of the budget restrictions. Also, TSL interpreters are treated in different ways in different cities. This is an issue which deserves to be mentioned. For example, different cities might have different budget restrictions or even different pay (personal communication 2012); it also depends how close Deaf5 people are with signers, at times just for the sake of maintaining their personal relationship on good terms, and in the hope of having more interpreting tasks assigned in the future. Some signers might even decide to do their job for free. It seems opportune to handle the issues related to sign interpreting the way they are herein presented because different points of view are needed, both the Deaf people’s point of view and that of interpreters’. From the perspective of the Deaf community, we will analyze issues directly linked with TSL, such as the diachronic variety or the diatopic differences. From the perspective of the interpreters, they should become more and more specialized, that is why the issue of quality and of performance evaluation seems to be crucial and will be further investigated in the present dissertation; this in turn will also raise the dignity of interpreters both from a professional point of view and from a behavioral-empirical point of view, as demonstrated in chapter five. This research therefore aims to lay the groundwork for a scientifically-based academic discussion not only on the importance of sign language interpreters but also on their professional status which should be on the par with oral language interpreters, both in terms of working conditions and retribution, because according to Holly Mikkelson “analysis of the different types of interpreting shows that 5. Throughout the whole thesis, the word Deaf is capitalized whenever it refers to a specific,. self-defined cultural group, with a common history and language. 7.

(24) regardless of the adjective preceding the word "interpreter," practitioners of this profession the world over perform the same service and should meet the same standards of competence. ”6 The issue of interpreting fees in the world of sign language has always been a vague and obscure issue. Even in the Code of Professional Conduct of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, which was established in 1964, under the tenet according to which interpreters are to maintain ethical business practices, we read that interpreters ought to charge fair and reasonable fees for the performance of interpreting services and arrange for payment in a professional and judicious manner, without further explicitating the issue and without operationalizing the definition of “fair and reasonable fees”. However, this year, 2012, the AIIC has decided to open its doors to sign languages, as previously mentioned. This has finally set some clear-cut professional standards for interpreters to follow. In Taiwan, however, this does not seem to be the case, since as we will delineate in the course of the thesis, working conditions (like the mandatory presence of a co-worker) or the fact that interpreters should be paid by working days or half-days, or even the interpreting professional fees per se are far from abiding to AIIC international standards.. 1.4 General method. This thesis is made up of research hypotheses and research questions which attempt at finding an answer both by qualitative and quantitative methods. By using qualitative methods, we aimed to gather an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon which is being studied, namely TSL interpreting. 6. 8. http://aiic.net/page/3356 (accessed in Sept, 2012)..

(25) The samples of interpreters and Deaf people used was in line with the principle according to which in qualitative research smaller but focused samples are more often needed than large samples (Denzin and Lincoln 2005). At the same time, quantitative methods were used to seek empirical support for such research hypotheses.. Broadly speaking, a number of research methodologies were used, such as data collection, interviews, surveys, and experiments. As far as the subjects are concerned, we invited a total of ten participants to take part in the study: Taiwanese-born Deaf people and professional sign language interpreters, native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, and professional oral interpreters as the control group, five for each category. The participants were duly paid for their willingness to contribute in the research. The materials used in the replication of Gile’s experiment in the fifth chapter are different than the ones used in the original experiment to adapt them to the target language and culture. As for the tasks in the experiment, they will be outlined in detail in paragraph 1.6, i.e. “Organization of the Thesis”.. 1.5 The anticipated contribution of the study This thesis is the first of its kind in Taiwan, insofar as it addresses interpreting issues related to TSL. In the past, there have been many theses on TSL, focusing on singular aspects such as TSL morphology, lexemes, semantics, syntax, etc. However, to the author’s best knowledge, no one has ever focused on issues concerning TSL interpreting, which is however pressing considering the increasing need of the market. In other words, this is the first dissertation ever on Taiwan Sign 9.

(26) Language (TSL) Interpreting-related issues. There have been theses on TSL, per se, but never on TSL interpreting. This seems to be the main contribution a Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation (GITI) can provide. Furthermore, we hope that the academic nature of the present study will encourage the government to revise the regulations stipulating the retribution and working conditions of sign language interpreters, which according to our research hypotheses do not differ from uni-modal interpreting, i.e. oral to oral interpreting.. 1.6 Organization of the thesis. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is a general introduction to the research questions, the hypotheses and the expected results. It is divided into six different paragraphs, namely introduction, research hypothesis, background and rationale for the study, the general method applied in the study, the anticipated contribution of the study and the organization of the thesis. The body of the thesis is conceptually divided into two main parts. The first part is made up of chapter one and chapter two which focus on Taiwan Sign Language (TSL), whilst chapters three through seven on TSL interpreting. The second chapter is an introduction to Taiwan Sign Language which has to be duly mentioned before talking about TSL interpreting issues. It can be perceived as a diachronic analysis of TSL, and one if its paragraphs is subtitled a historical journey towards dignity, because it emphasizes the efforts the Deaf community, along with linguists and international scholars, have made to recognize the linguistic dignity of sign languages around the world. This chapter covers a historical excursus of TSL, a delving into TSL diatopic and diachronic variation, including an interview with the older generation of signers vs. the younger one, plus the discussion on how 10.

(27) interpreters deal with the lexical items with different signings when they are doing the interpretation. Therefore, it is important for the interpreters to have a linguistic background. For example, it is essential for the interpreter to be aware of the different geographic variations so that s/he can not only understand different forms of signing but also adapt his or her own signing according to the interlocutor’s geographic and social background. The remainder of the chapter is dedicated to issues such as the question of language “evolution” (from hands to mouth), cued speech, manually coded language, lip reading, oralism, and grammar sign language vs. sign language, which are important and relevant to the present dissertation from the Deaf community point of view, as previously mentioned. These issues will be further emphasized in the TSL interpreting evaluation chapter by underlining the fact that sometimes the text that is used during the exams is Signed Chinese and not Natural Sign Language. Therefore, they complicate the TSL interpreting evaluation process. The second conceptual part of the thesis is more directly linked with interpreting issues. In the third chapter, the history of TSL interpreting is introduced. A corpus of TSL interpreters have been surveyed to ensure whether the precarious and unprofessional conditions dictated by the government are indeed so. Under the hypothesis that indeed they are so, the rest of the research is fully aimed at proving my thesis, i.e. bimodal interpreters should share the same professional dignity as oral interpreters. The second paragraph of the third chapter is an analysis of TSL interpreting history. The fourth paragraph is titled “professional volunteers”. This title is a pun. It reflects the almost volunteering nature of TSL professional sign language interpreters nowadays, considering the straitened conditions in which they work and it is also a window of reflection on many other sectors, where professionals are really volunteers, which I have personally come in contact with. 11.

(28) The final part of the third chapter underlines the importance that is given to professional evaluation after many years of sign language interpreting history, not only in Taiwan but also abroad (cf. Malcolm Williams, 2004) and will be further emphasized in the chapter dedicated to the issue of TSL interpreting assessment and evaluation. Chapter four further explores some challenging areas of TSL interpreting, namely challenging areas such as figurative speech and metaphors, which will have to be taken into consideration in the evaluation process. This chapter is aimed at proving that the efforts underlying sign language interpreting are at the basis of the necessity of turn-shifting on stage while interpreting at a sign language event. Chapter five covers an exhaustive literature review of all the neurobiological studies that are a proof of the fact that TSL is indeed a natural language and not a human construct. Furthremore, this chapter reunites two experiments, namely the qualitative pilot study and the quantitative pilot study, the latter proves the complicated nature of TSL interpreting process. This will have to be taken into consideration in the evaluation process which is in the following chapter. This chapter is focused on the tightrope hypothesis experiment along with the review of two neurobiological studies concerning the bilingual brain in bimodals, which can be applied also to sign language interpreters, seen as bimodal bilinguals. In the present chapter, I will reduplicate Daniel Gile's Effort Model Tightrope Hypothesis Experiment applied, this time, to TSL interpreting. According to Daniel Gile's Effort Model Tightrope Hypothesis, the so-called ‘competition hypothesis’ can be represented in the following way, with the total processing capacity consumption. TotC associated with interpreting at any time represented as a ‘sum’ (not in the pure arithmetic sense) of consumption for L(anguage), consumption for M(emory) and consumption for P(roduct), with further consumption for ‘coordination’ (C) between 12.

(29) the Efforts, that is, the management of capacity allocation between the Efforts:. (1) TotC = C(L) + C(M) + C(P) + C(C) and (2) C(i) ≥ 0 i = L, M, P (3) TotC ≥ C(i) i = L, M, P (4) TotC ≥ C(i) + C(j) i,j = L, M, P and i different from j (Where - equation (1) represents the total processing capacity consumptioninequality (2) means that each of the three Efforts requires some processing capacity.. Now, the idea that most of the time, interpreters, irrespective of the modality, work near saturation level is the so-called ‘tightrope hypothesis’, which this experiment aims to prove for sign language interpreters. This ‘tightrope hypothesis’ is crucial in explaining the high frequency of errors and omissions that can be observed in interpreting even when no particular technical or other difficulties can be identified in the source speech (Gile 1989). The precise aim of this investigation is to try to establish, in a sample of professionals interpreting a speech, whether there are indeed errors and omissions (e/o’s) affecting segments that present no evident intrinsic difficulty. If there are, it is likely that they can be explained in terms of processing capacity deficits such as predicted by the EM. The underlying rationale of this study is the following: One indication of the existence of such e/o’s would be the variability in the segments affected in the sample (at the level of words or propositions). If all subjects in the sample fail to reproduce adequately the same ideas or pieces of information, this would suggest the existence of an intrinsic ‘interpreting difficulty’ of the relevant segments (too specialized, poorly pronounced, delivered 13.

(30) too rapidly, too difficult to render in the target language, etc.) Another indication could come from an exercise in which each subject is asked to interpret the same speech twice in a row. Having become familiar with the source speech during their first interpretation, subjects can be expected to correct in their second version many e/o’s committed in their first version. If, notwithstanding this general improvement of interpreting performance from the first to the second target-language version, it were possible to find new e/o’s in the second version whereas the same speech segments were interpreted correctly the first time, this would be an even stronger indication that processing capacity deficits are involved. The method used will be the same used by Gile, namely target speeches will be videotaped, transcribed, and transcriptions will be scanned for errors and omissions. This method is not without pitfalls, both because of high inter-rater variability in the perception of what is and what is not an error or omission, so to avoid these pitfalls, only instances of what appeared to me as flagrant errors or omissions will be included in the analysis, and at least two further opinions from other sign language interpreters will be requested to confirm that the e/o’s I identified were also considered e/o’s by them, so to preserve validity by reducing the probability of ‘false positives’ (mistaking text manipulations considered acceptable by the subjects for e/o’s). The analysis then will proceed by trying to determine: (a) how many subjects in the sample made an e/o for each affected speech segment, and (b) what e/o’s were corrected in the second version of the target speech. Therefore, without recurring to fMRI or other neurolinguist technicques, the high detection threshold for e/o definition used here in order to reduce to the largest possible extent the number of ‘false positives’ means that other phenomena that could have been used to measure cognitive load were not exploited. In particular, no 14.

(31) attempt will be made to look at borderline cases, at the deterioration of linguistic output quality. If the low sensitivity of the tool will make it impossible to obtain convincing findings, more sensitive tools will have had to be designed, and reliability could have become a problem. The examples will be provided in the relevant chapters. The orginal idea was supposed to strengthen the case for the tightrope hypothesis and thus give some support to the Effort Models as a conceptual tool to explain not only oral interpreters’ cognitive-constraints-based limitations but also TSL interpreters, and in Gile's words may give some credibility to the idea that the usefulness of a concept or model in scientific exploration is not necessarily a function of its degree of sophistication. However, the findings of this study are very interesting because they do not necessarily and incofutably prove that the efforts of bimodal interpreting is superior to unimodal interpreting but they do prove the intrinsic difficulty of sign language interpreting. The due explanations will be provided in the relevant chapter. Chapter six is focused on the issues of assessment and evaluation parameters in Taiwan Sign Language Interpreting (TSLI), with an emphasis on the naturality issue. I want to propose how TSL interpreting should be assessed and evaluated, based on interpreting challenges, the experiments carried out and the other reflections. The seventh and final chapter is a conclusion, divided in the following parts: a review of the chapters, some final recommendations and further research suggestions along with some concluding remarks and an emphasis on the limitations of the study.. 15.

(32) CHAPTER TWO Taiwan Sign Language 2.1 Introduction Language is at the basis of human communication. Languages may be defined as natural outputs of socially constructed codes. According to emeritus professor of linguistics at Oxford University Roy Harris (Harris 1988), linguistics has taught us that language is no longer regarded as peripheral to our grasp of the world we live in, but as central to it. Words are not mere vocal labels or communicational adjuncts superimposed upon an already given order of things. They are collective products of social interaction, essential instruments through which human beings constitute and articulate their world. This typical twentieth-century view of language has profoundly influenced developments throughout the whole range of human sciences. It is particularly marked in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology. Irrespective of their modality, languages develop naturally within a community of users. Therefore, the notion of language, which in the past strictly referred only to oral languages, has duly been extended also to sign languages. Sign languages emerge spontaneously among their user, that’s why it is incorrect to perceive sign languages as oral languages spelled out in gestures, or to talk about the hearing pioneers in the education of the Deaf, like Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, as the “inventor” of sign languages, which are independent of oral languages and follow their own paths of development. This is also proven by the fact that British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL) are mutually. 16.

(33) unintelligible for historic reasons, and that ASL is much closer to French Sign Language (FSL or LSF in French) or that its syntax resembles more modern oral Japanese than spoken English. Taiwan Sign Language (TSL), which is the object of our research, is very similar to JSL, because its origins developed from it during Japanese rule in Taiwan. According to Fischer et al. (2010), TSL has some mutual intelligibility with both JSL and Korean Sign Language (KSL) and it has a 60 % lexical similarity with JSL. The reason underlying the lexical similarity with KSL is that Korea was also occupied by Japan from 1910 to 1945. This serves to say that the development of sign languages is separate from that of oral languages. Some countries, like South Africa for example, with up to eleven official languages, only have one official sign language with maybe a couple of variants (anonymous interpreter B, personal communication, 2012). Natural languages constantly change. Their phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic and other features of language may vary over time. Here, we will focus on the diachronic development, along with its changes, of TSL. According to Smith (2005), TSL is used by approximately thirty thousand signers on the island of Taiwan and although its lexicon and syntax closely resemble JSL and KSL, as previously mentioned, in the last few decades it has been influenced by Chinese Sign Language (CSL) and by Hong Kong Sign Langue (HKSL) because of the so-called language contact phenomenon. Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. According to Hadzibeganovic, et al. (2008), language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum languages 7 , or as the result of migration, with an 7. An adstratum or adstrate (plural: adstrata or adstrates) refers to a language which is equal in. prestige to another. 17.

(34) intrusive language acting as either a superstratum or a substratum.8. 2.2 A diachronic analysis of Taiwan Sign Language (TSL): a historical excursus of TSL The earliest information regarding TSL all date back to 1895-1945, which is when the first schools for the Deaf were founded, during the Japanese rule. Before that, there must have been a local variety of TSL that indigenous Deaf people used back then, but unfortunately not much is known of the pre-Japanese occupation period. The only remnants of this earlier variety can be found in some city names, like in the signs for TAINAN and KAOHSIUNG. 9 The sign TAINAN appears as a combination of the signs TAIWAN and PLACE. As Smith (2005:2) explains “originally, the name Taiwan referred only to the environs of the present-day city of Tainan, which literally means ‘Tai(wan)-south’. The name of the city was changed to Tainan in the 1800s, before the start of the Japanese occupation, so the sign may be a holdover from the signs of pre-occupation Taiwan”. Another example is the name of the city Kaohsiung which is a blend of the signs for DOG and HARBOR, because the city was then known with the name of Dakau (strike the dog). The aboriginal people used to call the city with the name of Takau. Later, the Japanese maintained the pronunciation but changed the characters, in other words by way of a lexical borrowing based on the sound in Japanese it became TAKA O, which was then transcribed by the Japanese with the characters 高雄, which in Mandarin Chinese are read as Kaohsiung, or Gāoxióng in pinyin10. 8. When one language succeeds another, the former is termed the superstratum and the latter the. substratum. 9. Signs are always capitalized.. 10. 18. The official system to transcribe Chinese characters into Latin script in the People's Republic of.

(35) During the Japanese rule, one school was founded in Taipei and the other in Tainan and there were not many exchanges between the two. This caused the development of two different topical varieties of TSL, which will be emphasized in the next paragraph. For historic and political reasons, after World War II, the two schools began to communicate more because they both came under the jurisdiction of the provincial government of Taiwan (Smith 2005). However, during the Japanese rule, teachers were mainly Japanese, who were invited to come from Japan and teach in the schools in Taiwan. Most of teachers at the Taipei school came from Tokyo and the ones in the Tainan area were from Osaka and they brought along the diatopic differences intrinsically present within the JSL. Later, in 1945, when Taiwan was turned over to the Republic of China, instruction in Mandarin began and the phenomenon of language contact began to sow its seeds. However, although most of the Japanese teachers were sent back home, some of the Taiwanese teachers remained in the two schools, along with the signs they had learned to use during the Japanese rule. This is important because the new generation of teachers, Mandarin-speaking, were instructed in JSL. Wensheng Lin was a deaf man educated in Tokyo, he became the new principal of the school for the Deaf in Taipei and “he passed on Taipei’s Tokyo signs to a new flock of Chinese teachers” (Smith 2005:3). The same thing happened in Tainan, where Tiantian Chen started training teachers in the Osaka signs that his school had been using thus far. In the late forties, people started to migrate from Mainland China to Taiwan to take refuge from the Communist Party. Amongst these refugees, there were several. China. 19.

(36) deaf people who were former teachers in the schools for the Deaf of Nanjing and Shanghai. Some of them were even hired to teach at the Taipei school for the Deaf, like Wang Zhenyin who was a deaf man from Nantong, Jiangsu and who started working at the Taipei school for the deaf in 1948, bringing along signs from CSL. However, as Smith (2005) duly points out, other CSL signs may have been introduced into TSL through another channel, namely by graduates of the Private Chiying Elementary School for the Deaf and Mute in Kaohsiung which originally used a dialect of CSL. The principal was from Nantong and he used a dialect of CSL. Therefore, when he established his school in Taiwan in 1950, he brought along his own idiolect. In the years, signers have coined new signs for scientific or academic purposes, to meet the instruction’s demands. It is also possible that some signers don’t sign well, for a plethora of reasons, maybe because they were not raised with sign language or because they did not receive a good instruction. It is interesting to see what interpreters do in these situations. Usually, no matter how good the performance and the interpretation skills are, an interpreter should always adjust his or her signing to the interlocutor, in other words interpreters provide a service and their ultimate goal if that the massage be conveyed. For this reason, it is important that interpreters talk with their deaf interlocutor before any interpretation task to understand what kind of signing the Deaf person is used to and also his or her linguistic level, because it would be useless to sign either too fast or too complicated if the Deaf person does not understand, the purpose of the service would fail. Another influential figure worth mentioning is Fang Bingmei, who was a graduate of the Nanjing School for the Blind and Mute. At first she was sent to work in the Tainan school but later transferred to Taipei. This means that not only did she bring her own CSL idiolect to Tainan, but also contributed to the signs exchange 20.

(37) between the two main diatopical varieties of TSL in Taiwan, which will be delved into in the next paragraph, along with the issue of diachronic variation (Smith 2005).. 21.

(38) 2.3 Diatopic and diachronic variation. In linguistics, variation is the term used to refer to the appearance of lexical units in different forms and is a phenomenon that exists in all languages, both oral and signed. There are four different types of variation:. diatopic variation, which is variation according to place or geographical variation, for example, the Taipei school vs. the Tainan school. diachronic variation, or variation through time, also called historic variation. In other words, how a language changes in time. diastratic variation, or variation according to social class or to the social group to which a speaker feels they belong. In diglossic situations. 11. , diastratic. variation often appears in the transition from the formal or higher level, to the socially more informal levels, like in the case of creoles. finally, diaphasic or ‘stylistic’ variation, or even individual variation (idiolect). This is more difficult to characterize clearly especially for those creoles that lack sharp description. Once again though, it would be necessary to carry out surveys in these cases to confirm that geographical or sociological factors are 11. In linguistics the term diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or usually closely related. languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled "L" or "low" variety), a second, highly codified variety (labeled "H" or "high") is used in certain situations such as literature, formal education, or other specific settings, but not used for ordinary conversation. In other words, DIGLOSSIA is a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standards), there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any section of the community for ordinary conversation (Ferguson 1959). 22.

(39) not contributing to one or other of these choices; this is known as variation analysis.. Obviously, this internal variation in a language or dialect, sometimes called intralinguistic variation, should not be confused with interlinguistic variation. In the present paragraph, we are going to closely examine the diatopic and diachronic variation within TSL. TSL can be divided into two main varieties, one centered on the Tainan school, which we could call the southern variety, and one centered on the Taipei school, which we are going to call the northern variety. As previously mentioned, the first school for the Deaf in Taiwan was established in 1915, in Tainan, and the second school in Taipei, two years later, in 1917 (Smith 2005). In the years of the Japanese rule, namely 1895-1945, there was not much communication going on between the two schools, which increased the crystallization of the two varieties. Later, after World War II, they both came under the jurisdiction of the provincial government of Taiwan. In this period, the two varieties started to enter in contact with each other. There is actually also a third variety which can be distinguished within TSL, which is the one centered on the Taichung school, however the sign language used by this school was essentially the same as the one used in the Tainan school (Fischer 2010). As for the diachronic variation, it is the variation through time, also called historic variation. In other words, how TSL has changed over time. To try to answer the question of how TSL individual use has been changing over time, we have carried out a behavorial study-experiment. We have recruited six deaf people and divided them into two different groups according to their age range. The elderly 23.

(40) group is made up of people whose ages range from 70 to 80 years. The younger group of people had an age which is up to 35 years of age, to ensure two completely different generations of signers. In recruiting these signers, we have been very careful in eliminating any independent variable which might influence the results, so we tried to control the variables related to diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic variation, by choosing people coming from the same socio-geographical background and with the same level of education. We asked our participants, who were all duly paid for their availability, to start signing to each other, as if we were not there. After about thirty minutes, which is a reasonable amount of time to eliminate all differences due to the signers’ idiolects, we proceeded with our interviews aimed at inquiring on the perceived differences in sign language use that signers have perceived in their counterpart. According to the results, most differences were at the semantic level and at the words choice. Although the gist of communication was not ruined, jeopardized or compromised, it was interesting to see how the elderly had more problems understanding some of the signs used by the younger generation, probably because of a lack of exposure. The elderly generation has been living in a linguistic shell compared to the younger generation, which directly or indirectly has entered in contact with a plethora of variety of signs. It was interesting to see that, in line with oral language, inter-generational changes regard not so much syntax, which takes longer periods of time to change, but lexemes, which are influenced by TV, the new media and by a form of hybridization. The most interesting aspect which emerged was the fact that the younger generation is used to chatting with foreign Deaf people by using Skype, via a webcam. Foreign Deaf people can’t obviously use TSL and Taiwanese Deaf people can’t necessarily use the sign language used in the country of their friends. So, usually what they do is they recur to the so-called International Sign Language (ISL) to communicate. Some ISL signs have already permeated 24.

(41) Taiwanese young deaf people’s slang, whilst they are still perceived as foreign signs by the elderly. After analyzing some of the differences due to the generation gap, we tried to investigate how sign language interpreters cope with lexical variety. Different people may sign the same lexeme differently according to different factors, namely their age, their education, the social and geographical extraction. A sign language interpreter, just like oral interpreters, is a professional and trained figure who knows most of the varieties of the same sign. It is inevitable, though, that on the spot some signs may either be forgotten or never previously encountered. For this reason, we interviewed three different interpreters to inquire on the different strategies used on the field to cope with lexical variety. In other words, how professional interpreters, like the ones we interviewed, deal with the lexical items with different signings when they are doing the interpretation. The results of all three interviews with professional interpreters can be summed up as follows.. Q: When you are carrying out the sign interpreting task, it is inevitable to encounter people who are used to signing with different signs compared to the ones used by the interpreter. This may be due to geographical reasons (northern variety vs. southern variety), generation gap (younger people vs. the elderly), etc. Generally speaking, how do you handle these lexical differences? (It goes without saying that if the interpreter knows the variant used by the signer, then no problem will arise. What we are interested in is to find out what strategies interpreters actually use when they have never encountered that variant before.) 25.

(42) Interpreter A: Well, things are much easier if the interpreter actually knows what a given sign means. If that is not the case, the interpreter should always accommodate the Deaf interlocutor, meaning s/he should always use the sign the Deaf interlocutor is more inclined to recognize or more accustomed to using, use the one he is used to signing. However, if the Deaf person uses a sign the interpreter has never seen before, the most ideal strategy would be to interact directly with your interlocutor and ask him or her to repeat or what that given sign means. After making sure there’s no lexical discrepancy, the interpreter should keep on using the sign the Deaf person is accustomed to using. If it is a context where it is basically impossible to interact with the Deaf signer, for example an international conference where the Deaf participant is signing on stage, then things might be a little more complicated. It can be summed up by saying that if the Deaf interlocutor does not understand, the interpreter should use the sign/s the Deaf participant is accustomed to, if it is the interpreter who doesn’t understand, the best thing is to ask directly and if it is not possible to ask the meaning should be inferred by the context. Usually, when Deaf people are onstage and sign to an audience of equally Deaf participants, they sign at a supersonic speed, so it is inevitable for the interpreter to miss out on something. Most of the times, the signer would take a look at the interpreter and see if s/he needs to slow down or not. If it is a lecture, it is mandatory for the interpreter to require the script of the lecture before the beginning of it, or if it is not available, the interpreter should at least communicate a bit with the Deaf signer to get used to his or her way of signing. Otherwise, it is a very risky situation, most sign interpreters would 26.

(43) never dare translate at a conference where they have to interpret a signer they have never seen or met before, because sign to oral interpreting is a very arduous task, and the diatopic differences of TSL are many, which means that it is very normal to encounter lexical varieties interpreters do not know how to sign. The important thing is to understand the gist, the core of the message. If that goes lost, the best thing is not to translate. Interpreters can always ask Deaf signers to sign more slowly, to repeat or honestly saying that they do not understand, which means that usually in sign interpreting there is more interaction amongst the participants then in oral interpreting. What Deaf people are mostly scared of is to find interpreters who translate according to their own mind because they do not have the courage to say that they have missed out on something. There is not a single interpreter who would have the courage to say that s/he perfectly understands each and every sign the Deaf participant signs on stage for all the factors listed so far. The main point is not to digress or to make up the whole speech, in a holistic-pragmatic approach. Interpreters should practice their interpreting skills, but also their guts. In this respect, it does not differ from oral interpreting and especially interpreters shouldn’t think that no one is ever going to find out about their mistakes, because this kind of behavior is not permitted by the deontological code of interpreters.. 2.4 A historical journey towards dignity. Sign languages are languages at all effects, as proven by a plethora of neurobiological studies. This statement almost sounds like a bromide. However, in the history of the development of sign languages around the world, it has taken a lot 27.