Characterising ‘Interpreting Problems’ in Two Public Service Settings

This chapter explores the notion of interpreting problem by drawing on the functional analysis of two corpora of authentic interpreter-mediated encounters that took place in two public service settings in the United Kingdom. Corpus 1 is set in a police context and Corpus 2 in a medical setting, with both corpora featuring English-speaking service providers and Spanish-speaking service users. Among the categories of interpreting problems identified, this chapter places emphasis on 1) intertextuality, 2) face-threatening acts, 3) indirectness and 4) formulations. The analysis focuses on the service-provider to service-user directionality to pave the way for a discussion on how different professional discourses may present unique challenges when rendered across languages. Ultimately, this chapter illustrates the various ways in which the contextual features of the institutional setting where the communicative activity takes place as well as interpersonal and individual features can shape the nature of the interpreting problems that arise.