Enjeux du culturème en contexte d’interprétation simultanée : Définitions, identification et stratégies de restitution

Details

Supervisors

Narvaez Soto, Mauricio

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en interprétation, à finalité spécialisée: interprétation de conférence

Abstract

enThis dissertation examines the challenges posed by culturemes in simultaneous interpreting and seeks to answer the following question: how can conference interpreters identify terms and expressions that constitute culturemes in the source speech, and which strategies can they employ to interpret them? A review of the literature shows that, although the concept of the cultureme has been extensively explored in Translation Studies, it has received comparatively little attention in Interpreting Studies. To address this gap, a review of the literature on the notion of the cultureme, existing translation strategies, and the treatment of culture-specific elements in interpreting—particularly in the media context—is complemented by an empirical analysis of eight Andalusian culturemes extracted from the television programme Andalucía de Fiesta. The proposed interpreting strategies are then compared with the solutions generated by DeepL and ChatGPT. The findings indicate that identifying culturemes requires strong linguistic and cultural competence, as well as careful consideration of the context. The treatment of culturemes in interpreting calls for a case-by-case approach, as no single strategy can be applied universally to all culturemes. Where justified by the context, and provided that the cognitive and time constraints inherent in simultaneous interpreting allow it, borrowing combined with a brief explicitation, or cultural adaptation, emerge as the most appropriate strategies. Overall, borrowing is recommended because, unlike omission, it at least alerts the target audience to the presence of a cultureme. Tools such as DeepL and ChatGPT can support interpreters during the preparation phase, but they cannot replace human analysis. This study highlights the interpreter's essential role as an intercultural mediator and recommends further research into culturemes in interpreting through additional field studies examining how professional interpreters handle culturemes in real-life interpreting settings, as well as during the assignment preparation phase.