Contextualisation in telephone interpreting

Professional Telephone Interpreting (TI) challenges the idea that proxemic distance and visual contact among participants in a conversation are essential for providing effective interpretation. However, being physically absent from the location where the communication takes place does force telephone interpreters to develop strategies in order to situate the encounter and understand what is said. The aim of this study is to analyse some of the mechanisms telephone interpreters use to situate the communicative situation by identifying certain auditory cues that work as contextualisation elements (Gumperz 1992). The rapid procurement of this information will be conditioned by a range of factors, such as the interlocutors’ knowledge about the interpreter’s role.