Annotation of interpreters’ conversation management problems and strategies in a corpus of criminal proceedings in Spain

This article reviews the design and methodology developed for compiling and analyzing corpora that can inform corpus-based studies involving public service interpreting discourses. The corpus was transcribed and annotated using the EXMARaLDA software tools designed for working with oral corpora. The annotation system accounts for Wadensjö’s (1998) distinction between “talk-as-text” and “talk-as-activity” in order to classify interpreters’ various problems when working in criminal proceedings and the strategies they adopt in response. The article provides the results of an analysis of a pilot sample of 20 criminal proceedings, focusing on non-renditions and distinguishing between those that are “justified” and those that are “unjustified.” The article then discusses these preliminary results as part of the ongoing project.