Intra-cultural aspects of legal interpreting for deaf people

Deaf people, although members of majority cultures largely constituted by the languages and lives of hearing people, also belong to minority cultures constituted by the sign languages and lives of deaf people. Sign language interpreters act as mediators of communication during encounters between representatives of these two cultures, with the express aim of enabling both parts to express themselves freely in the particular language they feel most at home with.Legal interpreting situations represent one general category of symbolically loaded encounters between representatives of the cultures and languages of deaf and hearing people. This wider category of encounters represents a broad range of different types of encounters, each with their own sets of socially and/or culturally appropriate codes of behaviour, linguistic codes and stringent norms and rules for the organisation of discourse and interaction in general.This paper discusses a model for examining intra-cultural aspects of interpreting in legal settings where deaf people may be present either as plaintiff, witness or accused. A constructionist approach is used to describe the interpreted courtroom as a complex social (semiotic) field with a large number of different codes and meta-codes in operation simultaneously. Focus is on development and maintenance of a professional role and function (position) for sign-/ spoken language interpreters working in legal settings. Specific demands that legal interpreting makes on sign-/spoken language interpreters' communicative competence are incorporated in the discussion. Particular attention is paid to problems associated with representation of meta-communicative and/or non-verbally coded signals in legal interpretation between signed and spoken languages. Finally, the need for a specialised code of ethics applicable to the field of legal interpreting is discussed