Phonetic Markers of Profession in Interpreter's Speech

The paper is devoted to the study of the phonetic features of the interpreter’s speech as a representative of ‘highly verbal’ professions. The relevance of the study is determined by the interest of contemporary linguistics in the social factors of speech communication, in particular, the influence of the professional environment of individuals on the prosodic realization of speech. Focus is given to identifying and describing phonetic means necessary for the implementation of the professional tasks of the interpreter. The paper examines phonetic markers of professional background in the interpreter’s speech with regard to the extralinguistic situation. The research was based on the analysis of the oral translations performed by novice interpreters during an international translation competition. The findings of the research demonstrate that for representatives of highly verbal professions, in particular for interpreters, it is important to control the phonetic speech design, since prosodic design contributes to the effectiveness of speech communication. In addition, it was revealed that the effectiveness of interpretation depends on the interpreters’ phonetic skills: from a technical point of view - diction, at the segment level - the absence of phonological violations, at the level of prosody the following parameters are especially significant: speech flow, the use of pauses, the allocation of semantic centers, the variability of the melody, the appropriateness of the manner of speech, etc. The findings support the assumption that the phonetic means contribute to the realization of the professional goals and objectives of the interpreter. Interpreters need special phonetic training to improve their speech skills and eliminate the most common mistakes. The observations obtained can be useful in the creation of teaching materials for the development of the phonetic competence of novice interpreters.