Abstract

The literature suggests that interpreter involvement is necessary in mental health care. The aim of this qualitative study is therefore to contribute to the definition of the notion of interpreter involvement and to determine whether it leads to specific discursive behaviour in the pragmatic dimension of renditions, that is, the processing of thoughts, emotions and the relational aspects of communication. To this end, seven semi-structured interviews were subjected to content analysis and three excerpts from Russian-French psychotherapeutic consultations were subjected to discourse analysis. The results provide a definition of the interpreter’s cognitive, emotional and relational involvement and show that it is considered necessary for the effectiveness of therapy by the therapists, patients and interpreters interviewed. They also show that, driven by their cooperative pretexts, interpreters produce collaborative renditions through micro-adaptations of a pragmatic nature. Finally, the results suggest that interpreters engage in cooperative meta-coordination of interaction.

Keywords: dialogue interpreting, mental health interpreting, interpreter involvement, cooperation-oriented pretext, collaborative renditions, cooperative meta-coordination of interaction, pragmatics, Relevance Theory, Politeness Theory, Positioning Theory

•  Previous article
• Next article