15.4 English Source Comprehension & Target-Text Construction
Key Takeaways
- Role Delineation Tasks 8, 10A and 10B converge on constructing a coherent equivalent target text rather than a sequence of locally accurate renderings.
- Referential drift is the most common structural failure: loci must stay assigned in ASL, and ASL's indefinite spatial reference must be converted into periodically re-named English noun phrases.
- Structures with no direct equivalent — English passives, superordinate terms and nominalizations; ASL depicting constructions, role shift and rhetorical questions — each have a standard handling, and none of them is invention.
- Lexical equivalency means representing every item in a form appropriate to the target language, and the Role Delineation Study requires integrating the consumer's own preferred terminology.
- Coherence across the encounter depends on terminology consistency, register consistency, structural signalling of transitions, and not re-expanding what is already established.
Role Delineation Tasks 8, 10A and 10B converge on a single competency: building a coherent, equivalent target text rather than a sequence of locally accurate renderings. Task 8 requires "appropriately constructing an equivalent message intent," "tone," and "content," plus knowledge of "lexical equivalency (ensuring translation of all items in appropriate lexical format)" and of "unique language features and their impact (e.g., how to interpret passive voice, supra-ordinate 'words,' and use of classification in ASL)."
A target text is more than the sum of its sentences. It has cohesion, consistent reference, a discourse structure the audience can follow, and a register that holds across the whole encounter.
1. Cohesion and reference
The most common structural failure in interpreting is referential drift: a pronoun, locus, or noun phrase that no longer clearly points to what it pointed to a minute ago.
- Into ASL: every referent introduced must be assigned a locus and then indexed consistently. If "the supervisor" occupies the space to your left, she must stay there for the whole discourse. Reassigning or abandoning loci forces the consumer to re-track referents continuously.
- Into English: the signer's spatial reference must be converted into explicit English noun phrases and pronouns. ASL can index a locus indefinitely without re-naming; English requires periodic re-naming or the listener loses track. "He said…" five turns after the last name was spoken is ambiguous in English where it was perfectly clear in ASL.
2. Handling structures with no direct equivalent
| Source structure | Why it resists direct transfer | Handling |
|---|---|---|
| English passive ("the medication was discontinued") | ASL strongly prefers an identified agent | Identify the agent if it is recoverable; use a depicting or impersonal construction if it is genuinely unknown; do not invent an agent |
| English superordinate terms ("transportation," "assets," "personnel") | ASL often lacks a single cover term | Enumerate exemplars and mark the category, or use a listing structure |
| English nominalization ("the implementation of the policy resulted in…") | ASL prefers verbal, event-based construction | Reconstruct as events with agents |
| English embedded clauses | ASL prefers shorter propositions in sequence | Split into ordered propositions preserving the logical relationship |
| ASL classifier/depicting constructions | English has no morphological equivalent | Unpack into verbs, prepositions and adverbs: "a long line of people curving around the corner" |
| ASL role shift | English has no body-shift device | Attribute explicitly: "and she said…", plus voice-quality shift |
| ASL spatial layout | English is linear | Convert to explicit spatial language: "on the far side," "directly behind" |
| ASL rhetorical questions | English rhetorical questions read as genuine ones | Recast: "The reason is…" |
3. Lexical equivalency versus conceptual accuracy
"Lexical equivalency" in the Role Delineation Study means every item in the source is represented in the target in a form appropriate to the target language — not that each word receives a corresponding sign. A conceptually accurate rendering of "run" differs completely depending on whether the source is a runner, a machine, a candidate, a nose, or a stocking. Selecting the sign for the athletic meaning because the English word was "run" is the definitional error of a form-driven interpretation.
The Role Delineation Study also requires "integrating the consumer's lexical preference for terminology when expressed." If a Deaf consumer uses a particular sign for their diagnosis, their employer, or their own name, adopt it. Overriding a consumer's own terminology with a textbook alternative is both inaccurate and disrespectful.
4. Coherence across the whole encounter
Local accuracy is not enough. A target text must hold together:
- Terminology consistency. Once you establish a rendering for a recurring term, keep it. Switching between three different signs for the same concept forces the consumer to work out whether a distinction is intended.
- Register consistency. Drifting from formal to casual midway signals a change the source did not make.
- Structural signalling. Mark transitions, enumerate lists, and flag topic shifts so the audience can follow the architecture of the discourse.
- Given versus new. Do not re-expand something already established — it wastes time and signals to the consumer that you think they did not follow. Use the shortened form you established.
5. Receptive English: the demands that actually defeat interpreters
Task 10B covers comprehending English well enough to build the target. In practice the hard cases are:
- Read-aloud text. Written English read at speed is far denser than speech and has none of speech's redundancy. Ask for the document.
- Dense numeric content. Figures, dates, dosages, statutory citations. Slow the source and, where a table or list is involved, ask for it in writing.
- Multiple simultaneous registers. A clinician addressing a colleague technically, then the patient plainly, then dictating for the record — three registers inside a minute.
- Culturally loaded idiom. Sports metaphors, religious references, regionalisms and pop-culture allusions that carry pragmatic force rather than literal content.
- Institutional shorthand. "We'll route it through UM for a peer-to-peer" is opaque unless you know the setting.
- Degraded audio. Masks, speakerphones, background noise, poor video audio.
6. Self-assessment against the target-text standard
After an assignment, useful questions are structural rather than lexical:
- Could a consumer who saw only my output reconstruct the discourse's architecture?
- Did referents stay put, and could the consumer always tell who was being referred to?
- Did register hold, and did it match the source?
- Did I represent every proposition in a form appropriate to the target language, rather than every word?
- Where I departed from the source's form, was it to preserve meaning — or because I could not follow?
CASLI's Study Checklist asks candidates to "perform self-assessments on the areas within the KSAs" and to "develop/enhance ASL interpreting competence through deliberate practice." These questions are how that self-assessment is operationalized for the production task.
An English source says: "The medication was discontinued." The speaker has not identified who discontinued it. What is the most appropriate ASL handling?
Over a forty-minute meeting an interpreter uses three different signs for the same recurring technical concept. Why is this a target-text problem rather than a stylistic one?
A Deaf consumer consistently uses a particular sign for her employer's name that differs from the sign the interpreter learned. What does the Role Delineation Study direct?