IUED: Institute for Translation and Interpreting Respeaking: Loss, Addition and Change of Information during the Transfer Process Susanne J. Jekat susanne.jekat@zhaw.ch This work was funded by Swiss TxT and ZHAW/IUED within the project Respeaking. Project members are Anne B. Darmstätter, Sandra Hanselmann, Susanne Jekat, Peter Jud, Gion Linder and Felix Steiner. 1
Contents Introduction Respeaking: definitions Specific Swiss situation Research questions Condensation matters Structures of information transfer 1 Structures of information transfer 2 Analysis Results Outlook 2
Introduction Swiss TxT AG is currently increasing its activities in the field of respeaking Gion Linder, National Coordinator Subtitling Swiss TxT, initiated scientific research together with ZHAW/IUED Project Respeaking, funded by Swiss TxT and ZHAW/IUED, was founded Research questions relate to: Satisfaction of recipients Quality management Standardization of respeakers training 3
Respeaking: definitions Lambourne (2006: o.s.) ACCURACY to dictate live subtitles to a speech recogniser in order to create prompt and accurate [emphasis SJ] subtitle texts for the hearing impaired viewers of live television programmes. 4
Respeaking: definitions Marsh (2006: o.s.) CHANGE (1) Repetition of what has been said (2) Addition of punctuation (3) Compression of information, at least in those live broadcasts where speakers speak very fast 5
Specific Swiss situation: multilinguality In Switzerland, respeaking covers 3 languages: German, French and Italian In the German part of Switzerland, various dialectal varieties of Swiss German have to be transferred to Standard German or Swiss Standard German Swiss respeaking processes often resemble simultaneous interpreting No respeaking for the Rhaeto-Romanic minority 6
Research questions In this presentation, we are going to analyse loss, addition or change of information by comparing the original text with the respeaking text. we are going to document mechanisms of transfer in the respeaking process. 7
Condensation matters 1 Reduction of performance phenomena Original text (German): Er will das Gespräch führen <euh> mit den Republikanern, das zeigt sich auch wenn man einen Blick wirft auf seine Liste <euh> auf seine mögliche Liste von <euh, euh> Mitgliedern <euh> des <euh> seines Kabinetts, da fallen nämlich auch Namen, auch von der republikanischen Seite so etwa <euh> Verteidigungsminister Robert Gate wird genannt. 8
Condensation matters 2 Compression of utterances or words (information transfer classified as OK) Original text (German): Barack Obama hat es geschafft mit seinem unglaublichen Charisma, mit seinem unglaublichen rednerischen Talent, aber er ist auch neue Wege gegangen Literal translation: Barack Obama made it with his unbelievable charisma, with his unbelievable oratorical talent, but he went also new ways Respeaking text: Obama hat das mit seinem Charisma und seinem rhetorischen Talent geschafft Literal translation: Obama made it with his charisma and his rhetorical talent 9
Condensation matters 3 Reduction of lexical item: unglaublich (unbelievable) Reduction and Variation : unglaublichen rednerischen Talent (unbelievable oratorical talent) to rhetorischem Talent (rhetorical talent) Reduction of part of sentence: (but he went also new ways ) 10
Structure of information transfer 1 Various segment sizes (text, part of text, sentence, part of sentence, lexical item, part of lexical item) Various linguistic areas (syntax, morphology, lexicon) Addition Reduction Variation abcd abcde abcd abc abcd acdb Contradiction abcd aefd 11
Structure of information transfer 2: addition Addition Original text (German): und dann auch der Wille (Literal translation: and then also the will) Respeaking text: und dann ein grosser Wille (Literal translation: and then a strong will) 12
Structure of information transfer 3: contradiction Contradiction Original text (German): dieser grenzenlose Konsum der muss aufhören (Literal translation: this boundless consumption, it must stop) Respeaking text: der grenzenlose Kondom muss aufhören (Literal translation: the boundless condom must stop) Contradiction is often caused by technical problems and can be corrected by the respeaker 13
Analysis database: 14 respoken broadcasts appr. 1100 segments analysed Structure of transfer / occurrences Addition / 102 Reduction / 333 Variation / 176 Contradiction / 30 Of these classified as change / loss of information 16 11 70 5 36 15-30 Of these classified as wrong 14
Results Sufficient quality of information transfer because of a relatively low rate of information change Structure of transfer Change / loss of information Addition 0.2647 Reduction 0.2252 Variation 0.2897 15
Outlook Information change classified by two hearing subjects only. This has been validated by hearing-impaired subjects in various tests (cf. Darmstätter, Jekat & Steiner 2010): 36. 6% of the subjects believe that 80% of the information of a contribution on TV is transferred by the respeaking text, 16% believe that 100% is transferred, 46% think that the speed of text transmission is comfortable. Current analysis of information transfer should be validated in bilingual contexts (Italian / French to German) The performance of subtitlers and interpreters should be compared 16
Outlook Baaring (2006, o.s.): The training of respeakers, in conclusion, seems to be a really interesting question, both from a research and a didactical point of view and one that should be investigated further. 17
References Baaring, Inge, 2006, Respeaking-based online subtitling in Denmark, intralinea online Translation Journal of SITLeC, Special Issues on Respeaking. http://www.intralinea.it/specials/respeaking/eng_more.php?id=446_0_41 _0_M, last visited 30.11.2010. Darmstätter, Anne, Jekat, Susanne & Steiner, Felix, 2010, Respeaking. ZHAW/IUED-Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen-Schriftenreihe Nr. 5. Lambourne, Andrew, 2006, Subtitle respeaking, A new skill for a new age, intralinea online Translation Journal of SITLeC, Special Issues on Respeaking. http://www.intralinea.it/specials/respeaking/eng_more.php?id=447_0_41 _0_M, last visited 30.11.2010. Marsh, Alison, 2006 Respeaking for the BBC intralinea online Translation Journal of SITLeC, Special Issues on Respeaking. http://www.intralinea.it/specials/respeaking/eng_more.php?id=484_0_41 _0_M, last visited 30.11.2010. 18