Research on interpreter-mediated interaction has shown that linguistic and cultural mediators carry out independent choices when rendering their interlocutor's utterances in another language (Baraldi & Gavioli, 2021). This has been explained in two different, though complementary, ways. First, in terms of interaction coordination, through the empirical observation that interpreters do not only provide textual translation of utterances but frequently add to, cut, or modify their "source text" (Wadensjö, 1998). Second, in terms of conversational implicature, since linguistic meaning is in close relation with its embedding context, which at times needs to be made explicit (Mason, 2006).
Based on transcribed audio-recordings of both mediated medical visits (data taken from the AIM corpus, cf. Gavioli, 2018) and of parent-teacher meetings in Italy, in which ELF is used to communicate with foreign patients or parents, this paper wants to shed light on those occasions in which mediators take the initiative of including extra information in their renditions, in order to clarify elements of the institutional context: in Public Service Interpreting, differences do not only concern the languages involved, but also the "service", which may be unfamiliar to foreigners with a migrant background. All data have been analysed according to two main methodologies. The first refers to the taxonomy formulated by Wadensjö (1998), which helps determine the degree of textual correspondence between speakers' utterances and mediators' renditions, but also the coordinating nature of the latter. The second draws from Conversation Analysis, mainly for what concerns "recipient design" (Sack, Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974) and "turn design" (Drew, 2013). Our final aim is to show how mediators' additions of institutional information not only serve the purpose of clarifying the immediate goals of the single institutional meeting but provide migrants with a potentially clearer understanding of the new institutional context they are a part of.
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Baraldi, C., & Gavioli, L. (2021). Effective Communication and Knowledge Distribution in Healthcare Interaction with Migrants. Health Communication, 36(9), 1059-1067.
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