순차통역과 문맥 지식

Consecutive interpretation and Contexual Knowledge

In the discussion of the quality of interpretation, the interpreter s end product becomes the target of evaluation in many cases. However, such a method of study tends to be focused on the aspect of performance, and thus lacks in understanding how such a result was produced. Therefore, such an approach does not contribute to improving the overall quality of interpretation. In the process of message comprehension, the interpreter is required to have background knowledge regarding the speech or the text, contextual knowledge regarding the subject, and world knowledge as well as linguistic knowledge to understand the explicit meaning. Cognitive factors to understand the implicit meaning as well as short-term contextual knowledge play an important role for the interpreter to be able to comprehend the text segment that immediately follows. Of course, all the factors mentioned above may be closely related to the cognitive process for the interpreter s performance. But, contextual knowledge is stored and applied in particular situations, and therefore, the quality of interpretation will be greatly improved, depending on how well contextual knowledge is used. This paper attempts to examine the influence of contextual knowledge on the quality of consecutive interpretation and see if the topic is suitable for future research.