Everything Talks: A Tentative Study Of The Non-verbal Facets Of Consecutive Interpreting From The Perspective Of Multimodality

In spite of diversified models, theories and paradigms with regard to interpreting,much study, particularly of consecutive interpreting, has been confined to culturalequivalence, linguistics and cognitive science, which in truth are three fundamentalfields of communication, yet leaving other phenomenal factors in the sophisticatedprocess of conveying messages unaccounted, such as artifacts employed in theenvironment or the role of social actor in meaning-making. Multimodality, raised as acomprehensive way to perceive communication, has incorporated the componentsaforesaid into its analysis with a bigger picture of various modes of information.Notwithstanding, due to limited assumption, it has left out social actor’s unconscioususage of the body that may reveal his or her real message concealed by words.Nonetheless, the black spot is highlighted as a major subject of non-verbalcommunication theory.In the research, in addition to enrichment of multimodality with non-verbalcommunication theory, descriptive analysis was undertaken examining the feasibilityand necessity of sparing attention to the non-linguistic components of interpreting inpress conferences under the new model of enriched multimodality. Cases weredissected to demonstrate the significant role of non-verbal modes in conveyingmessages under different circumstances. It was concluded that awareness andunderstanding of the multiple modes of information and the metafunction ofconsecutive interpreting are required to realize communicative effects. The resultsalso have implications for interpreters. Suggestion on practice is provided.