Annotation of interpreters' conversation management problems and strategies in a corpus of criminal trials in Spain : the case of non-renditions

Although corpus-based research on conference interpreting has increased recently, for public service interpreting, there is still a lack of studies with data samples large enough to allow reliable generalizations about interpreter performance. This article reviews the design and methodology that was developed for compiling and exploiting corpora for the TIPp project, which was conducted in Barcelona. The corpus was transcribed and annotated using the EXMARaLDA software tools designed for working with oral corpora. The annotation system took into account Wadensjö's (1998) distinction between "talk as text" and "talk as action" in order to classify the various problems faced by interpreters when they are working with criminal proceedings and the various strategies or techniques the interpreters adopt to deal with these problems. The article provides the results of an analysis of a pilot sample of 20 criminal proceedings, focusing on non-renditions and distinguishing between those that are "justified" and those that are "unjustified". The article then discusses these preliminary results as part of the ongoing projec