On the ways of expressing irony in simultaneous interpreting

Abstract

The paper deals with the ways of irony representation in simultaneous interpreting, which is regarded in a broader context with the notions of humour and alogism. The subject is interconnected with the translation quality issue determining the relevance of the research. It is based on the comparative analysis of speeches delivered by politicians, public figures and TV stars in English and their simultaneous interpreting in Russian provided by the second-year students of the corresponding master’s programme. The authors highlight various approaches to the notion irony, such as oppositions theory, The Direct Access Account, The Pretense Theory, Relevant Inappropriateness theory, Graded Salience Model, The Echoic Mention Theory. Kinds of irony and means of its production are reviewed including blame-by-praise, understatement, exaggeration, self-deprecation, creating the effect of surprise, ironic concession and defence. Considered from a cognitive-discursive perspective, the representation of irony in simultaneous interpreting is proved to be a difficulty of understanding the original and objectifying its idea by means of the target language. Irony is revealed to be completely or partially reduced due to the lack of background knowledge, in particular realia, and/or due to the interpreter’s inability to objectify ironic implications. The character of simultaneous interpreting is regarded as a factor complicating the task, because it limits time for comprehending irony and inventing ways to verbalize it. It is discovered that the main strategies of representing irony include exaggeration, understatement and the use of expressive lexicon.