Hohl Zürcher, Franziska

2024-05-28, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska, Capus, Nadja

In multilingual societies, translation and interpreting play pivotal roles in facilitating access to essential services provided by public institutions for individuals speaking languages other than the official language. However, prevailing assumptions among professionals in these institutions often regard translation as a mechanical process, overlooking the inherent interpretive nature of interlingual transfer. This study examines the interventions of intercept interpreters/translators (IITs) in the translation process within the criminal justice system, focusing on covert communication surveillance. An analysis of 538 translated intercept records (TIRs) reveals that IITs significantly intervene in selecting and interpreting content, often decrypting vague or encoded terms used in intercepted conversations. These interventions, which include annotations and comments, shape the evidentiary value and comprehensibility of TIRs. The findings highlight the complex nature of communication surveillance and underscore the need to reconsider the roles of translators and interpreters. This study contributes to our overall understanding about the ambiguous roles interpreters and translators may play in public institutions. As for IITs, the study suggests a re-evaluation of their roles that recognizes their specialized skills and multiple tasks.

2024, Capus, Nadja, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska

2016-9-14, Capus, Nadja, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska, Mundhaas, Stefan

2024, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska, Capus, Nadja

In multilingual societies, translation and interpreting play pivotal roles in facilitating access to essential services provided by public institutions for individuals speaking languages other than the official language. However, prevailing assumptions among professionals in these institutions often regard translation as a mechanical process, overlooking the inherent interpretive nature of interlingual transfer. This study examines the interventions of intercept interpreters/translators (IITs) in the translation process within the criminal justice system, focusing on covert communication surveillance. An analysis of 538 translated intercept records (TIRs) reveals that IITs significantly intervene in selecting and interpreting content, often decrypting vague or encoded terms used in intercepted conversations. These interventions, which include annotations and comments, shape the evidentiary value and comprehensibility of TIRs. The findings highlight the complex nature of communication surveillance and underscore the need to reconsider the roles of translators and interpreters. This study contributes to our overall understanding about the ambiguous roles interpreters and translators may play in public institutions. As for IITs, the study suggests a re-evaluation of their roles that recognizes their specialized skills and multiple tasks.

2023-04-14, Capus, Nadja, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska, Stoll, Mirjam

In this article, we examine whether the participation of an interpreter in police–suspect investigative interviews affects the perception of statement credibility based on the written record of the interview and, whether this relationship is influenced by the interaction style as depicted in the written record. This study thus addresses the question of whether the credibility problems observed in interpreter-mediated investigative interviews are carried forward to the case file and is based on the content analysis of 102 actual written records of police–suspect interviews conducted in Switzerland. Our results show, first, that written suspect statements are indeed considered to be less credible when an interpreter participates in the interview. Second, this effect is mediated by the questioning style and the fragmentation of discourse. According to the written records of interpreter-mediated interviews, interviewers use a more controlling questioning style and suspects provide shorter answers, which in turn results in reduced statement credibility.

2016, Capus, Nadja, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska

2024, Capus, Nadja, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska

2017-12-26, Hohl Zürcher, Franziska, Capus, Nadja, Stoll, Mirjam