Investigating Lexical and Syntactic Interference in Simultaneous Interpretation: a Case Study of Kiswahili Into English

Abstract

Linguistic interference interferes with the quality of rendition especially by interpreter trainees hence reducing efficiency of communication between the speaker and the listener who happens to be the consumer of the message. Despite the fact that many researches have been done on interferences it still poses a big challenge to interpreters. Many of the researches however have been about interferences from UN languages and not much has been done on other languages.This research was undertaken because there was a need for a systematic study of these linguistic interferences especially from Kiswahili into English, establish their causes, gravity, why they occur and how they affect the rendition of trainee interpreters. It is focused on trainees that work from Kiswahili into English.This research project was meant to investigate lexical and syntactic interferences from Kiswahili into English in simultaneous interpretation. It was set to analyze the effects of lexical and syntactic interference to rendition by trainee interprets and how they can be minimized for a quality delivery free from interference. We concentrated in delivery from Kiswahili into English. The main objectives were to describe the influence of lexical and syntactic interference to simultaneous interpretation, causes and to discuss forms of linguistic interference in simultaneous interpretation and also investigate the causes of linguistic interference from Kiswahili into English. This study came to conclusion that in any rendition from Kiswahili into English, there are more lexical interferences than syntactic interference which all can be reduced through practice, being cautious, having background information and developing glossaries of different terminologies over different fields of study. Having a grip of the working languages and proper analysis were also identified as other ways of minimizing interferences hence improving efficiency and quality of delivery.