Interpreting taboo : the case of Arabic interpreters in Spanish public services

One of the distinctive features of community interpreting (also known as public service interpreting) is the presence and participation of at least three persons in the interpreted communicative event: a service provider, a user, and an interpreter. Whether or not the interpreter is considered a party is the subject of ongoing debate (e.g. Barsky, 1996; Hale, 2007, 2008; Wadensjö, 1998), but there is indisputably a communicative situation comprising three vertices, as the title of Mason’s (2001) book, Triadic Exchanges, makes plain. The presence of three interlocutors (whether they are all considered as parties, or as two principal participants and an interpreter) conditions the manner in which utterances are formed and interpreted. A principal participant formulates and constructs a message; an interpreter decodes and recodes it; and another principal participant subsequently processes and responds to the interpreter’s rendering. As Wadensjö (1998) argues, the interpreter also co-constructs meaning with the main interlocutors and shares responsibility for the development of their exchange. As the interpreter’s clients usually come from linguistically and culturally distant communities, their exchanges typically involve linguistic and cultural asymmetries. Each principal participant (and the interpreter as well) follows a set of linguistic, social, and cultural norms that determine what and how much may be said, as well as how it may be said. These norms inform the way utterances are constructed and how they are supposed to be interpreted, in both senses of the word (interpretation as understanding or conceptualisation, and interpretation as oral or signed translation). This information implies that the interpreter must have a good command not only of the two working languages but also of their respective social and cultural conventions. Starting from the premise that linguistic output can hardly be disassociated from its social and cultural contexts, this chapter addresses the challenges that sex-related taboos present in community interpreting settings. Culture is understood herein as constituting a mould that shapes linguistic expressions in general, and linguistic forms relating to the human body and sexuality in particular. In this sense, feelings such as love, hate, and pleasure may be universal but cultural norms determine where, when, and how they may be expressed. The same feeling may have multiple verbal (and nonverbal) manifestations. Similarly, the same verbal (or nonverbal) representation may have a completely different impact on different audiences: what is an acceptable topic or expression for some cultural groups might be viewed as extremely offensive for others, at least in some contexts. Our focus in this chapter is upon interpreting in communicative situations that involve Arab cultural taboos, especially in public service settings such as hospitals and courts. In this chapter, the issue of taboo in community interpreting is discussed with special reference to the Spanish public service context and its Arab users. But the discussion is intended to draw attention to a number of issues generally related to intercultural communication and interpreting in public service settings, which may apply to other contexts and cultural groups as well. Our primary aim is to raise awareness among public instrumentalities and their staff of the need for intercultural sensitivity and special arrangements when engaging with users on intimate or sensitive subjects. Second, we explore the conflicting views among interpreters on the most appropriate manner to handle taboo topics and language. Finally, we distinguish between the situations and discourse constraints of different participant combinations and participation frameworks in interpreter-mediated public service encounters (e.g. male interpreter–female user–female provider; female interpreter–male user–male provider; culturally uniform user and interpreter; culturally different user and interpreter). Authentic examples are taken from public service situations involving an Arabic-Spanish interpreter, so as to illustrate the complexity of the task and analyse both observable and potential interpreting strategies.