From M to M: Message Modulation

Message Modulation

Discourse Interpreting

Lecture 4

After these remarks on what the process of translation is, I intend, from now on, to focus this discussion on translation as a communication activity and not as a mere product, involving the negotiation of meanings between producers and receivers of a text. In this sense, the discussion on translation activities goes far beyond the linguistic aspects underlying a text but it regards the social, cultural and psychological dimensions of the process. Thus, the translation activity should be studied as a discursive practice, where different reflexive actions are performed, such as: reading, interpreting, analysis, making decisions and others, which surpass the level of words and sentences reaching the level of discourse.

According to Fairclough (1992), discourse is the relationship between text and social practice. He conceptualizes discourse in three important dimensions: text, discursive practice and social practice (Figure 2). Shortly, we could say that the text is the discursive event, the central part of the discourse which deals with the linguistic aspects of the language; the discursive practice is related to the text production, distribution and consumption of the text and involves the analysis of the text as discourse - the interpretation of ideas which brings about the social function of a text; and finally, the social practice establishes the relationship between discourse and the social structure as a whole - how the discourse articulated by the text may affect current society, by changing values, behavior, concepts, etc.

• When passing through an interpreter-mediated exchange, a message's original meaning (M) is 'modulated' by the interpreter into a target message M' and culture on the basis of the interpreter's knowledge profile and in consideration of situational factors, particularly the purpose of the actual discourse.

• This potential modification of a message in the interpreting process is here called an interpreter's modulation of a message. It potentially modifies the source message by being checked with a number of interpreting factors which operate on the original message (M) to result in the interpreted message (M').

Definition of Modulation

Message Modulation in discourse interpreting is the process a message M undergoes from its

original state (source message M) to its interpreted message (target message M') involving a number of interpreting factors applied by the discourse interpreter.

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