The Translator as Communicator

A REGISTER ERROR
From this broad kind of analysis, we may now move on to consider more
specific errors that implicate particular areas of textuality. It must be stressed,
however, that error specificity is only a matter of what the analyst wishes to
focus on for a particular purpose. That is, despite the fact that some errors may
originate in one specific textual or contextual domain (e.g. register), the effect is
inevitably wide-ranging, impinging on almost all of the other domains of
textuality. To illustrate this, let us begin with an example from interpreting. In a
simulation of part of the US Senate Watergate investigation in a liaison
interpreting practice session with a group of postgraduate trainees, one aspect of
the interaction was particularly interesting. This was to do with how the
formality of the situation acted as an important constraint on the way the Chair
challenged John Ehrlichman, one of President Nixon’s most senior aides
(
Sample 10.2
).
Sample 10.2
Q: Mr Ehrlichman, prior to the luncheon recess you stated that in your
opinion, the entry into the Ellsberg psychiatrist’s office was legal
because of national security reasons. I think that was your testimony.
A: Yes.
This is a case in which, according to Fairclough (1989),
3
formality both restricts
access and generates awe. For example, the choice of 
prior to the luncheon
recess you stated
instead of ‘before lunch you said’ is highly formal. But this aspect
of the interaction was not reflected by almost all of the students who took part in
the interpreting session. The renderings in the target language were prosaic and
the crucial level of source text formality was compromised. Of course, this is
essentially a register problem, but it is not without pragmatic implications to do
with power and politeness. The semiotic dimension of context is also involved,
with genre-related as well as discoursal and textual values being necessarily
glossed over. A further example of inadequacy in negotiating register may this
time be taken from literary translating. Like the interpreter, the literary translator
needs to be aware of the rhetorical values yielded by the inevitable overlap
142 THE TRANSLATOR AS COMMUNICATOR

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between textual clues and factors of context. 
Sample 10.3
is the source text
which presents us with a register problem.