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Hyperformality, Politeness Markers and Vulgarity

This document summarizes and reviews the book "The Art of Legal Interpretation: A Guide for Court Interpreters" by Constance Emerson Crooker. The summary includes: 1) The book explores linguistic and ethical issues that interpreters face in legal settings such as translating vulgar or impolite language and dealing with unclear or "muddy" testimony. 2) It provides guidance on legal terminology, courtroom procedures, interpretation methods, and interpreter qualifications. Appendices include a legal term glossary and excerpts on interpreter statutes. 3) However, the book is found to be quite parochial in its focus on the U.S. legal system, particularly in Oregon, without indicating this

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Gabriela Hernandez
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31 views

Hyperformality, Politeness Markers and Vulgarity

This document summarizes and reviews the book "The Art of Legal Interpretation: A Guide for Court Interpreters" by Constance Emerson Crooker. The summary includes: 1) The book explores linguistic and ethical issues that interpreters face in legal settings such as translating vulgar or impolite language and dealing with unclear or "muddy" testimony. 2) It provides guidance on legal terminology, courtroom procedures, interpretation methods, and interpreter qualifications. Appendices include a legal term glossary and excerpts on interpreter statutes. 3) However, the book is found to be quite parochial in its focus on the U.S. legal system, particularly in Oregon, without indicating this

Uploaded by

Gabriela Hernandez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hyperformality, Politeness Markers and


Vulgarity
by Zsuzsanna Ardó

 
The party of the first part
hereinafter known as
Jack,
and the party of the
second part
hereinafter known as Jill,
ascended or caused to be
  ascended
an elevation of
undetermined height and
degree of slope,
hereinafter referred to as
'hill'.

D. Sandburg

The law is a profession of


words.
 
D. Mellinkoff
 
 
ow do you feel about saying four-letter words in public? When do
you translate bastard as bastard and when do you replace it with
a euphemism? Do you retain Your Honour on each and every
occurance? Just how vulgar and how polite can you—or rather
should you—strive to be while interpreting in a court of law?
When does correct become hypercorrect, and how correct is
hypercorrect? How do you deal with garbled and muddy
questions and anwers? Do you have the courage to render
muddy and garbled as such or you clean up the mess as you
interpret? What is the difference between dismissal with
prejudice and dismissal without prejudice, cross-claim and cross-
examination, writ of habeas corpus and writ of mandamus? Who
is Miranda and what has she got to do with the Miranda
Warnings—and what are these warnings anyway? Can you switch
sides during the same case and what are the major courtroom
do's and don'ts? Should you simplify the text to be interpreted to
accommodate an accused with limited verbal skills? Can you
interpret during pretrial preparation and then continue working
on the same case in higher courts?

These are some of the linguistic and ethical issues explored by


Constance Emerson Crooker in The Art of Legal Interpretation: A
Guide for Court Interpreters published by Portland State
University (1996). Crooker is 'crook' only by name, not by
nature: in fact, she is a bilingual criminal defence lawyer
(English/Spanish) with over 19 years of experience, and teaches
legal seminars for lawyers and interpreters.

The guide includes chapters on determining dual language


proficiency, legal terminology, courtroom procedures, methods
of oral interpretation, frequent errors during interpretation and
their effects, interpreter ethics, qualifications and administrative
and financial issues, such as the not altogether insignificant
question as to who pays the interpreter.

But The Art of Legal Interpretation does not end here. Indeed, a
just-as-chunky part of the book is titled Appendices, which
includes no fewer than 19 entries such as a glossary of legal
terms, and excerpts from interpreter statutes. The glossary gives
succinct explanations of legal terms most, but not all, of the
time. For example, it does not only explain the legal principle
often referred to in Latin as Res ipsa loquitor—the thing speaks
for itself—but illustrates it as well with the example of a barrel
falling on, say, your head from a warehouse window. Even
though you did not see who did it, somebody must have been
negligent that is to say the res ipsa loquitor principle applies.

However, explanations are not half as satisfying for the reader at


other times. For example, probation is explained clearly enough,
but parole is simply dispensed with as a system of post-prison
supervision of former inmates, not unlike probation. The reader
is left with questions, such as in what ways then is parole
different from probation, if at all?

The chapter on Interpreter Statutes you may find relevant but


only if you are also interested in the state of affairs in the United
States, and especially in the State of Oregon. Hence the book is,
arguably, quite parochial. This is not necessarily a crime in and
by itself, I hear you say. It can, in principle, meet some local
need. And it does. But the title and the subtitle are somewhat
misleading since there is no indication of the self-imposed
limitations of the book in either of them.

The glossary is based on American English: for example, it


explains supreme court as In Oregon, the highest state court. In
the federal courts, the highest court in the land. Clearly, the
primary focus is on the State of Oregon, and then 'the land' i.e.
the US. There is no attempt made to cross-reference the
material with relevant terms 'outside the land' i.e. there is no
mention of crown court. This will certainly seem like a pity for
many readers outside the US. But what seems like a faux pas is
that there is no indication of the limitations of usage. The last
item in the book, the bibliography, also focuses on American
literature, but was made with an eye to Spanish speakers: it
includes Spanish entries, dictionaries, software, networks.

Notwithstanding its undeclared limitations, the Art of Legal


Interpreting may be very helpful for you if you are, or planning
to be, engaged in customs, prison and court interpreting in
particular, and public service interpreting in general. The chapter
on the most frequent errors during legal interpretation is a good
read and offers clear and straightforward explanations of many
issues, such as untranslated side conversations, correcting
speaker's mistakes, seeking clarification, correcting interpreter's
mistakes, switching from first person to third person, linguistic
coercion, additions and deletions, switching active and passive
verbs, adding hyperformality, adding or deleting politeness
markers, softening slang and vulgarity, adaptation, altering
demeanor of witness, and yielding to inappropriate requests
from the judge or lawyers.

The chapter on Interpreter Ethics raises and illustrates some


important issues about accuracy, bias, and conflict of interest.
For example: have you ever wondered if, having worked for the
law enforcement agency, you can serve as a court interpreter in
the same case, say in the higher courts of law? Well, the answer
is no and yes. No, because there may be an appearance of bias.
Yes, because it is just that, the appearance of bias and not more
—that is to say if the premise is, as indeed it should be, that
interpreting is a profession. I for one would tend to agree with
the author of the book: the decision is best left to the judge's
discretion.

Those of us who teach English for Law or Translation and


Interpreting Courses for advanced TESOL or TEFL students will
certainly welcome The Art of Legal Interpreting

The Art of Legal Interpretation: A Guide for Court


Interpreters
By Constance Emerson Crooker, Attorney
Continuing Education Press, Portland State University 1996
pp. 138
ISBN 0 87678 116 4

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