RIASSUNTO TESTI ORALE INGLESE III (1).pdf

UNIT 1 Gotti, Maurizio (2011) "Insights into medical discourse in oral and written contexts". In A. Loiacono, G. Iamartino, K. Grego (eds). Teaching Medical English: Methods and Models. Monza: Polimetrica, pp.29-55. 1. Introduction Medicine, as it is practiced nowadays, developed largely in the 17...

UNIT 1 Gotti, Maurizio (2011) "Insights into medical discourse in oral and written contexts". In A. Loiacono, G. Iamartino, K. Grego (eds). Teaching Medical English: Methods and Models. Monza: Polimetrica, pp.29-55. 1. Introduction Medicine, as it is practiced nowadays, developed largely in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Scientific medicine was based on testable and replicable results published in research papers, review articles and meta-analyses. Before that, the early medical traditions were adopted as absolute truth. There was a remarkable increase in the use of the vernacular for medical and scientific writing. English started prevailing Latin and by 1700 we can find a full range of sophisticated university treatises on medicine in English where Latin played little or no role. Great epistemological and methodological developments took place both in medicine and surgery. There were new patterns of thought and methodologies based on observation and interpretation of physical phenomena which determined new ways of communicating and expressing the new discoveries. The realization that the English language was inadequate for the needs of expression of men of science led to its gradual amelioration, both from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view (increase in the number of specialized terms to improve the exactness of their meaning, increase in variety of genres such as anatomical observations, book reviews, experimental essays). 2. Medical discourse in written contexts The great developments in medical research and practice are well reflected in the growing number of medical journals published annually worldwide and of non-medical journals devoted to the study of medical discourse. Unconventional medical journals are steadily on the increase as well. Indeed, CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medical therapies) have attracted attention from the media, the medical community, government agencies and the public. 2.1. Medical written genres There is usually a close link between the type of medical text and its structure which implies a number of correlations between the conceptual, rhetorical and linguistic features that characterize the text itself. Through training and professional engagement, specialists learn to follow given norms and patterns in each type of text. The conventional use of genres produces certain experiences among their audience and whenever the rules are broken a text is misunderstood or rejected (there are genre expectations and conventions rooted in the socio-cultural context). Genres vary according to the communicative purposes, the settings or contexts, the professional relationships between the people taking part in such activities and the background knowledge of each participant. For example, medical genres can differ by: - Degree of innovativeness: o Primary genre category (texts which convey original information and innovative data): ▪ Research Papers ▪ Case Reports ▪ Editorials o Second genre category (texts which rely on previous info and data): ▪ Review articles ▪ Book reviews ▪ Pedagogic texts - Degree of specialized knowledge of their readership: o Professional texts (aimed at medical professionals) ➔ written by medical professionals o Popular texts (targeted at general readers) ➔ written both by medical professionals and non- professionals - Communicative function and writer’s intention: 1  o Argumentative genres (meant to convince the readers) o Directive genres (provide advice on how to act) o Expository genres (purpose of explaining or describing) Experimentation can be considered the main activity and argumentative texts the main product as they are meant to convince of the validity of the results achieved. While directive and expository genres relate to the practical side (they provide recommendations to professionals and advice to non-professionals). The complexity of the medical field and its genres can be exemplified. Argumentative Directive Expository Professional Research articles Handbook samples Medical textbooks Editorials Clinical manuals Popular Guidebook samples Popularizing articles Informative material 2.2. Generic structure Studies of medical discourse have also highlighted the contribution of each generic part to the overall pattern. A very popular model of genre analysis is the one devised by Swales in 1990, which identifies the main parts of a genre as moves and their subparts as steps. We will now see how this model is applicated to the analysis of the typical structure of a medical research article, which follows the IMRAD sequence (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion/Conclusion). - Introduction o Move 1: Establishing a territory (claiming centrality) o Move 2: Establishing a niche (indicating a gap and raising a question) o Move 3: Occupying a niche (including the aim of the present study) - Methods section (describes in detail the research strategy and the criteria used for the evaluation of results) o Move 4: Data collection procedure (source of data, data size, criteria for data collection) o Move 5: Main experimental procedures (research apparatus, recounting experiment process, criteria for success) o Move 6: Describing data-analysis procedures (terminologies, data classification, analytical procedure) - Results (presentation of the outcome) o Move 7: Indicating consistent observations o Move 8: Indicating non-consistent observations - Discussion/Conclusion (function of legitimizing the author’s claims) o Move 9: Highlighting overall/main outcome o Move 10: Explaining specific outcome o Move 11: Stating research conclusions (research implications, promoting further research) 2.3. Medical research articles in comparison with other disciplines 2.3.1 The KIAP Project The KIAP Project (Cultural Identities in Academic Prose) aimed at doing a comparative analysis of medical research articles with those of other disciplines. Flottum has investigated in the disciplines of Economics and Linguistics (other than establishing whether cultural identities are identified in academic prose and whether these identities are language or discipline-specific in nature). 2 Aspects analyzed: - Medical research articles are normally multi-authored, while most of those in Linguistics and Economic are single-authored. Moreover, medical authors “hide” behind passive constructions and impersonal formulations. - The frequency with which authors refer to the text itself or explains what will be done and where is more or less absent in medical articles, while it is present particularly in Linguistic articles. - The strategies used by medical authors to convince their readers are commonly realized by the presentation of facts or observations in neutral utterances which at first glance appear as both objective and deprived of personal traces. - The frequency of bibliographical references: in a medical article the references are listed at its end are indicated by numbers in the body of the text. In Economic and linguistics references are introduced in the text itself. Medical authors use more references than economists and linguists. - Cited linguists are allowed to argue and to claim something while cited medical authors are only allowed to find or show results and observations. - How explicitly authors present their final results: the word “result” with the meaning “final result” is more or less absent in Linguistics articles, but quite frequent in medical and Economics articles (it is used in a neutral cotext). For cultural identities, discipline has greater influence than language. - Verbs with first person pronouns: these verbs indicate that the authors assume various roles when referring to themselves by the pronoun “we”. Linguists play as arguers, writers or reader’s guide. Economists generally play as researchers or writers, while medical authors stick to the research role. This is because medical research is more cumulative and need not discuss basic conceptual systems in the same way as Linguistics often does. And in Medicine the reported research is presented as completed when the writing of the article starts. In Linguistics the research is presented as if it is part of the writing process itself. Furthermore, by adhering strictly to the IMRAD article structure, medical authors need not guide the reader in the same way as linguists and economists do in their often much more heterogeneously structured articles. 3  INSIGHTS INTO MEDICAL DISCOURSE IN ORAL AND WRITTEN CONTEXTS. Maurizio Go (Università di Bergamo) 2.3.2 The CERLIS project The CERLIS project has chosen to inves gate the rela onship between socioculturally- oriented iden ty construc ng factors and textual varia ons in academic discourse. For this purpose a speci c corpus (CADIS) has been designed, including text from 4 disciplinary areas: Law, Economics, Linguis cs and Medicine. For each eld, 4 textual genres were considered : Research ar cles, abstracts, book reviews and editorials. One of the members, Giannoni, has no ced how, for instance, in Linguis cs and Economics, the use of emo ve, ironic and hyperbolic lanaguage is more common than in Medicine. Another analysis made by Giannoni highlights the frequency of use of 3 metaphoric values by domain. “Signi cant” is the most recurrent in all 4 domains but in a di erent seman cal meaning: This term is used with the sense of “sta s cally valid” mainly in Medicine, followed by Linguis cs and Economics, as for the Legal elds where is used in the sense of “meaningful”. 2.4 Medical research ar cles across languages and cultures CERLIS has also inves gate the rela onship between wri ng prac ce an linguis c background. Maci has carried-out an analysis of medical research ar cles wri en in English by non-na ve speakers and Italian NNSs of English with the purpose of comparing the textual structure chosen and the argumenta ve strategies employed. The ar cles are structurally very similar and commonly follow the IMRAD pa ern which implies that both na ve and non-na ve speakers writers conform to a highly codi ed structure that transcends na onal cultures. Di erences have been found in the use of argumenta ve strategies. Italian authors o en use present tense and rarely use hedges; in addi on quota ons are frequently employed to reinforce their views and thus their academic credibility. Giannoni has taken into considera on medical edi orals representa ve of na ve speaker English, non na ve-speakers English and na ve speakers Italian to inves gate their macrostructrure in both quan ta ve and qualita ve terms. 4 ti ti ti fi ti ti fi ti ff tti ft ti ti ti fi ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ff ti ti fi tt ti ti ti ti ti tt ti ti ti ti ti fi ti ti ti ti ti ti  INSIGHTS INTO MEDICAL DISCOURSE IN ORAL AND WRITTEN CONTEXTS. Maurizio Go (Università di Bergamo) This study shows a wide set of op ons regarding their contents of the NS group, while in the NNS journals are far less diversi ed which suggest that when English is employed as lingua franca it is not common to experiment with new features. To support these statements 3 types of medical editorials sub genres were observed: advice editorials, editorials and message edi oral. NS English editorialists become opinion-makers to comment and give their personal medical point of view. NNS prefer advice edi orials and message edi orials, while half of the Italian text are advice editorial. This con rm that sociocultural norms and expecta ons developed by di erent cultures a ect linguis c structural pa erns. 3. Medical discourse in orale contexts With wri en medical discourse, also talk in medical discourse has been researched in some depth. Conversa on analysis has dealt with inves ga ng oral discourse in the medical domain as early as in the 1960s. It aims to show how the analysis of oral interac on can help to explain the organiza on o the structures of social ins tu ons. Naturally occurring data of verbal communica on + close turn-by-turn examina on. The nature of turn-taking can be inves gated using speci c analy cal tools: 1. Adjacency pairs: presupposes that in paired u erances (ques on-answer) the produc on of the second part is condi oned by the rst part. Example: 2. Preference: implies the existence of preferred ac ons or interpreta ons, such as accep ng or refusing when one is o ered something 3. Repair: par es in an interac on use to deal with a situa on of trouble or a problem in understanding a speaker’s talk. The most typical medical interac on that has been studied is the doctor-pa ent interview. Such intercourse has brought to the a en on some aspects such as: - The way in which doctor and pa ent deliver or receive good or bad news - Deals with test result or discuss taboo subjects - The way par cipants take on speci c ins tu onal roles, conform to a par cular iden ty traits or establish asymetrical power rela ons. There are other se ngs, such as the psychiatric interview, which interac onal process may be facilitated or inhibited by the par cipants themeselves. When pa ents get “o the track”, psychiatrists have to use their interviewing competence to get back on topic and lead their pa ents to less digression. 5 ff tt ti ti ti tti fi tti ff ti ti ti ff ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti fi fi tt ti fi ti ti ti ti tt ti ti tt ti ti ti ti ti fi ti ti ff ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti  INSIGHTS INTO MEDICAL DISCOURSE IN ORAL AND WRITTEN CONTEXTS. Maurizio Go (Università di Bergamo) Another kind of ac vity which has greatly been inves gated relates to interac ons taking place within a medical training programme; this helps to point out the key moments when the interac on between trainer and trainee is par cularly problema c. Moreover trainee are sensi sed to the coopera ve and co- constructed nature of doctor-pa ent talk by carrying out their own recording and analysis of talk. Equally important is the study of speech pathology, in ar culate in the areas of aphasia and stammering. A further area in which conversa on analysis has proved extremely useful is intercultural communica on. In this context the study of oral medical discourse is helpful for diagnosing when interac onal problems are due to cultural di eren a ons. Pa ents with a range of ethnic and linguis c backgrounds, have requirements than cannot be dealt with merely in terms of the need for interpreters and how they are used. Another aspect of intercultural communica on is con nued by the higher mobility of professionals with doctors increasingly working and communica ng in mul disciplinary and mul lingual teams. 4.In conclusion This richness of viewpoints is due to the fact that in the past 30 years medical care in the Western world has increasingly emphasized “Pa ent-centredness” and paient autonomy in decision making. This changes perspec ve is re ected in research on medical discourse, bringing more a en on to areas which were once considered marginal or irrelevant, for instande an interest in the talk of the pa ents themeselves with the analysis of interac on between pa ents involved in therapeu c session. Other areas of interest of development for researchers working on medical discourse concerns interdisciplinary studies of health coommunica on. Doing so, the various branches of linguis c studies provide raw data and a methodology that are needed for a systema c approach to the empirical inves ga on fo medical discourse. Another eld of applica on of the results of linguis studies of medical studies is the training of the new professionals and the upgrading of the competences of medical personnel. This pedagogic perspec ve on earns not only NS but also NNS due to interna onalism of medical encounters involving doctors, nurses and pa ents from many di erent ethnic cultural and linguis c backgrounds. In conclusion , the present analysis of the main elds of study of medical discourse has highlighted a considerable variety of themes, data and research methods that helped expand and developed it in general.l 6 ti ti ti fi tti ff ti ti ti ff ti ti ti ti fl ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti fi ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti tt ti ti ti ti ti ti ti  THE POPULARIZATION OF SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AND KNOWLEDGE ACROSS COMMUNITIES AND CULTURES “The physics you buy in supermarkets” Writing science for the general public: THE CASE OF STEPHEN HAWKING This study considers the books Stephen Hawking wrote for popularizing purposes, especially it focuses on “A Brief History of Time” (1988) and “A Briefer History of Time” (2005) → revisited and simplified version. Stephen Hawking’s popular writing (linguistic aspects from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective) is being analyzed and the linguistic realization of its popularizing purposes is considered from an English for Special Purposes viewpoint. ❍ RESEARCH QUESTIONS : Was the disseminating aim of these texts achieved? If so, through which linguistic strategies? How is ESP used or adapted for dissemination? Was anything else achieved? What was the social impact of Hawking’s best- sellers on science popularization at large? Between 1988 and 2005/2010, Stephen Hawking wrote 5 popular science books (popular means both disseminating knowledge and best-selling) to bring Physics closer to a wider audience (not only academia): ❍ TOPIC AND MATERIAL Stephen Hawking is a world-renowned physicist and cosmologist considered as an “academic celebrity” for his scientific books and public appearances on various media (source: wikipedia; which uses also the many honorary titles he has to describe him → CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA). Apart from his career (academic posts he held and still holds) and academic publications, on his official file on the website of his Department at Cambridge, there is also a list of his publications in which the sections “popular”, “children’s fiction” and “film and series” are included. He defines himself a professor, director of his research centre and a best-selling author (source: Stephen’s Hawking own official website) Hawking closely identifies himself with Galileo Galilei (as he writes in Brief) ❍ POPULARIZATION: A MODEL Cloitre and Shinn’s model (1995) identifies 4 levels of scientific exposition: 1. INTRA-SPECIALIST EXPOSITION ( from specialist → to specialist IN THE SAME FIELD) 2. INTER-SPECIALIST EXPOSITION ( specialist → specialist ACROSS FIELDS) 3. DIDACTIC/PEDAGOGICAL EXPOSITION ( specialist → non specialist) 4. POPULAR EXPOSITION ( largest audience possible) 7 A Brief Story of Time and A Briefer Story of Time are samples of popular exposition, so they should be expected to present lexical, syntactic and textual features of popular texts, BUT there is a discrepancy with the expectations. EXCERPT 1 from A Brief Story of Time ◼ “GENRE GRANULARITY” = hybridization phenomenon in which it is still possible to clearly distinguish 2 (or more) mixed genres. In this case the mix is between the intra-/inter-specialist and the popular levels of scientific exposition which in Brief alternate in this way: SD = specific discourse → chunks of text containing SD are large, prevalent and regularly-spaced by those of pd pd = popular discourse → chunks of texts containing pd function as short bridges between larger chunks of SD EXCERPT 2 from A Briefer Story of Time 8 ◼ GENRE GRANULARITY is still present but reduced = texture looks tighter and the distribution of levels of exposition has been reversed in this way: SO.. can Brief and Briefer still be considered popular texts? YES, there is much ESP exposition but those sections do not present any real “singularity” compared with the tradition of Western scientific exposition. Both Brief and Briefer contain popular sections to a degree that allows considering them popular works. Scientific exposition and genre granularity have been coexisting for centuries (long tradition in the Western culture). The granularity phenomenon is no novelty in science, it is neither modern nor a characteristically contemporary phenomenon, also Galileo adopted this technique. RESULT of EXPOSITORY GRANULARITY ➝ there appears to be a popular text within a specialized text. ❍ THE DISCOURSE OF POPULARIZATION: A SAMPLE ANALYSIS This analysis takes in consideration a sample of discursive strategies which are representative of scientific exposition classified into a number of CDA-based and -oriented categories functional to constructing the discourse of popularization: a) (OVER) EXPLANATION / (OVER) EXEMPLIFICATION / (OVER) SIMPLIFICATION To illustrate those features excerpts will be reported from a subcategory called “ superlative magnitudes” ( extremely big numbers). Hawkings uses frequently in both books this strategy: when he mentions astronomic magnitudes (or extremely big numbers) he writes the whole number in words, often specifying in the brackets the number of zeroes involved in the figure →is this OVER EXPLANATION ? In EXCERPT 3 from Brief and EXCERPT 4 from Briefer are present 5 repetitions of the word “million”→ magnitude that non-specialized reader can easily handle, if not mathematically, at least linguistically and visually in printed form. 9  In EXCERPT 5 from Brief the word “million” is being repeated 14 times, but this makes the already complex specialized concept more complicated. Neither mathematically, nor linguistically, nor visually easy to take. That’s not over exemplification, not properly a popularizing technique. ◼PSEUDO-POPULARIZATION → the seeming simplification is in effect a complication This rhetorical strategy derives from the material having been originally read out as lectures to students who are specialists at the didactic level, could appreciate the intellectually refined pedantry. Not mentioning the datum would make the concept easier for a popular audience and that is what was done with the version Briefer where this excerpt was omitted. METALANGUAGE : there are several passages in which Hawkings provides his readers with metalinguistic explanations ( more in Brief, less in Briefer). In EXCERPT 6 and EXCERPT 7 metalinguistic explanations are quite simple and identical. In EXCERPT 8 and EXCERPT 9 the Brief version is longer, provides more detailed information and tends more towards ESP (lexicon and syntax). Over explanation is necessarily a quantitative strategy but it is often also qualitative. The more popular a text ➜ the more over-explanations it should include BUT in some cases the quantitative/qualitative proportion is not maintained when a concept come out as clearer when explained more briefly than with a longer explanation like in EXCERPT 10 and EXCERPT 11. ◼PSEUDO-POPULARIZATION →its presence in this case could be ascribed to the fact that the original nature of the Brief is to be collected reading material with over-explanations flouting the Gricean maxim of manner “Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity) in order to create moments of comic relief (i.e. for the benefit of students during a university lecture). b) IRONY To add the comic relief Hawkings uses jokes, more or less amusing anecdotes and ironic remarks who contribute to the granularity of the text in favour of popularization or of specialization. 10 Jokes in Brief and Briefer are not always particularly refined, but their effectiveness could only be tested by means of surveys among readers or if told in a lecture room by the audience’s reaction. Linguistically they are very interesting and offer chances of interpretation. EXCERPT 12 is an example of overexplanation, overexemplification and of jokes (in bold) The first joke the irony is caused by considering what so far had been a hypothetical event as a real occurrence and imagining the repercussion in real life. The second joke is a popular culture quotation and an example of overexplanation/overexemplification. Both jokes are pop culture-based and could have been easily understood by a non-specialized audience, so it is not apparent why this passage has not been included in the Briefer. it can only be suggested thatit was for the topic, the entropy, that was omitted altogether (never mentioned in the Briefer version). The more “pop” the supposedly shared knowledge, the wider the audience that may be entertained by it EXCERPT 13 and EXCERPT 14 are identical in both texts which report Hawking’s not very sympathetic but highly respectful view on Newton. Both also report the anecdote on Dr Johnson, a very popular figure in English-speaking culture, of whom Hawking is fond (not difficult to interpret so present also in the Briefer version). c) ARGUMENTATION 11  Books have a disseminating purpose and deal with several well-established topics in physics and astronomy. Brief and Briefer do not stop at modern science, but go further and try to explore contemporary theories too, entering the realm of the not-so-well-known-yet and joining the ongoing scientific debate. Hawkings reports on current issues in theoretical physics and supports his own views. modern science → advances brought forth between the 17th and the 18th centuries by the likes of Galileo,Kepler and Newton contemporary science → refers to later developments, contributed by and after Darwin’s evolutionary theory and Einstein’s relativity theory in the 19th and 20th century. CLASSIC RHETORIC Often his texts include overt argumentative markers with a performative verb introducing a declarative content clause: In EXCERPTS 15 and 16, the marker introduces a premise on what a theory is. lexically, the focus is on the words “simpleminded” and “we”. The first is interesting in that it is associated with someone “possessing little or no subtlety of intellect”, which is something Hawking is not. The use here is ironic or, rather, slightly critical towards more complex conceptions of the notion of theory. The pronoun “we” is the only discriminating element between and. It is supposedly due to Briefer technically having two authors, but it is also in line with Briefer’s wider disseminating purpose, and inclusiveness through first-person plural pronoun usage is extensive throughout the 2005 text. In EXCERPT 17 the verb is both declarative and commissive, in pragmatic terms, since the author declares as well as undertakes to argue in favour of a given position. The choice of the term “argue”, in its classic simplicity, is significant too: Hawking follows in the Western argumentative tradition of scientific exposition by treatise and does so by also using the language of classical argumentation. Academic enemies Occasionally, the scientific debate gets heated and Hawking, as one of its protagonists, not only is not afraid of supporting his own views, but does not fear attacking other scientists. In 1972 I wrote a paper with Brandon Carter and an American colleague, Jim Bardeen, in which we pointed out that although there were many similarities between entropy and the area of the event horizon, there was this apparently fatal difficulty. I must admit that in writing this paper I was motivated partly by irritation with Bekenstein, who, I felt, had misused my discovery of the increase of the area of the event horizon. However, it 12 turned out in the end that he was basically correct, though in a manner he had certainly not expected. [...] At first I thought that this emission indicated that one of the approximations I had used was not valid. I was afraid that if Bekenstein found out about it, he would use it as a further argument to support his ideas about the entropy of black holes, which I still did not like. However, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that the approximations really ought to hold. But what finally convinced me that the emission was real was that the spectrum of the emitted particles was exactly that which would be emitted by a hot body, and that the black hole was emitting particles at exactly the correct rate to prevent violations of the second law. Since then the calculations have been repeated in a number of different forms by other people. They all confirm that [...] EXCERPT 18: MASTERPIECE OF SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTATION Hawking et al. proposed a theory: we pointed out · The theory was imperfect: apparently fatal difficulty. · Hawking admits writing the paper in response to irritation with academic enemy: I must admit irritation [...] with Bekenstein · Explanation of reason for his irritation: Bekenstein, who, I felt, had misused my discovery · Admission of enemy being right: However, it turned out in the end that he was basically correct · The enemy had not expected he was right (intellectual defeat of enemy, intellectual superiority of author): though in a manner he had certainly not expected · Fear of putting enemy in a stronger argumentative position: I was afraid that if Bekenstein found out he would use it as a further argument to support his ideas · Repeat that he did not like his enemy: which I still did not like · Reaffirmation of belief in his own theory: the approximations really ought to hold · Resolution of diatribe -> external (objective) judgment: calculations have been repeated by other people · Intellectual and scientific triumph of Hawking: They all confirm that What truly distinguishes him and works like Brief and Briefer is their real popularizing intent, directed a changed public, no longer made of a few literate intellectuals or scientists. The fast evolving post-war world, with its democratic systems, new media and globalization, is increasingly hungry for information, and the more so for information about that science that makes the technology it uses daily work, but escapes its comprehension. Popular works like Hawking’s surely meet the expectations in trying to bridge that gap, and prove successful commercially, bringing money and popularity to their authors. The argument in is perhaps too intrinsic to the world of physics to be reported in Briefer. Again, it too probably suffers from its didactic origin, acceptable in Brief, which is altogether more specialized, but not in Briefer, which is also directed at younger readers. Of Nobel Prizes Not exactly academic enemies, there are other figures in physics with whom Hawking engages argumentatively in his books. [...] in 1979, Salam and Weinberg were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics, together with Sheldon Glashow, also at Harvard, who had suggested similar unified theories of the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces. The 13 Nobel committee was spared the embarrassment of having made a mistake by the discovery in 1983 at CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research) of the three massive partners of the photon, with the correct predicted masses and other properties. Carlo Rubbia, who led the team of several hundred physicists that made the discovery, received the Nobel Prize in 1984, along with Simon van der Meer, the CERN engineer who developed the antimatter storage system employed. (It is very difficult to make a mark in experimental physics these days unless you are already at the top!). EXCERPT 19: in Brief (not present in Briefer) sees Hawking describing the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, for which Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979. “The Nobel committee was spared the embarrassment of having made a mistake”: a euphemism for saying that it was luckily proved right, by a following discovery. The implicit criticism is that the three scientists were trusted (and rewarded) based on purely theoretical grounds, since at the time “particle accelerators were not powerful enough” (Brief: 77) to prove them right, and “few people believed them” (ibid.). The day-saving discovery referred to was the one that earned the Italian physicist Carlo Rubbia his Nobel Prize in 1984. The commentary, this time is openly bitter: “It is very difficult to make a mark in experimental physics these days unless you are already at the top!”. The criticism goes out to the entire research system, as Rubbia at the time was already a leading physicist at CERN. But the real point at issue, when talking Nobels, is obviously Hawking’s failure, so far, to secure one for himself. He clearly does not consider himself less worthy of one than Rubbia or Einstein. For one who willingly decided to go popular, and seems to have been enjoying every single day of his popularity, a call from Stockholm would represent recognition by the public as much as by the international scientific community. (d) Personal references Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) One of Hawking’s defining features is undoubtedly his physical disability. I was a research student desperately looking for a problem with which to complete my Ph.D. thesis. Two years before, I had been diagnosed as suffering from ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, or motor neuron disease, and given to understand that I had only one or two more years to live. In these circumstances there had not seemed much point in working on my Ph.D. – I did not expect to survive that long. Yet two years had gone by and I was not that much worse. In fact, things were going rather well for me and I had gotten engaged to a very nice girl, Jane Wilde. But in order to get married, I needed a job, and in order to get a job, I needed a Ph.D. Excerpt : (only present in Brief) reports the author’s own story of his condition. He starts by naming and explaining the disease (“I had been diagnosed as suffering from ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease”). He then curtly moves to two personal, moving considerations: “I had only one or two more years to live”, “I had gotten engaged”. “But in order to get married, I needed a job, and in order to get a job, I needed a Ph.D.”. In this way, the anecdote starts out as scientific exposition, acquires an intimate tone, but finishes as logical argumentation, bringing the subject back to physics and to why Hawking got into it professionally. All the information provided here is strictly personal. The contrast between the logical attitude and the touching situation is in fact a good popularizing strategy: it inspires sympathy for its protagonist by bringing people closer to his ordeal. But why tell about his disease in the first place? It can only be hypothesized that it probably came as a reply to the curiosity raised by his appearance. Also, where AlS excluded him from “normality”, by telling the “normal” people about it, he included them into the personal life of a scientific genius, and thus reversed the inclusiveness relationship with his audience, creating empathy (not pity), and at the same time contributing to raising his own profile and public awareness of AlS. Great amongst the greatest 14 From the analysis of Brief and Briefer what emerges is Hawking’s (very high) consideration of his own role in physics. A proper understanding of the electron and other spin-½ particles did not come until 1928, when a theory was proposed by Paul Dirac, who later was elected to the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge (the same professorship that Newton had once held and that I now hold). Excerpt 21 is a paradigmatic example of Hawking’s self perception as a scientist. He simply lists names such as Paul Dirac’s and Isaac Newton’s, and quietly juxtaposes his own as another holder of the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge. He mentions Dirac first and, commenting on him, he casually drops that the same professorship held by Dirac was once held by Newton and currently by himself. His name thus appears, in a very natural way, as immediately following Newton’s. (e) (Critical) social references in , Hawking declares that his aim in writing Brief was – concisely – to “attempt” to teach “people without a scientific education” how to “master mathematics”. Ambitious as it may seem, this was the intent he pursued in his first book. is longer because it is a necessary expansion on : an apologetic description of what went wrong in the original book is firstly given (“few readers are seeking a lengthy dissertation befitting a college-level course in cosmology”), followed by a new declaration of intent: leaving out “some of the more technical content”, 15 providing a “more probing treatment of the material that is at the heart of the book”, and “taking care to maintain its length and readability”. in this respect, Briefer seems to have more successfully reached its declared aim. The same disseminating intention is repeated and reinforced at the end of the last chapters of both books ( and ), using the same words (“Only a few people can keep up with the rapidly advancing frontier of knowledge, and they have to devote their whole time to it and specialize in a small area. The rest of the population has little idea of the advances that are being made or the excitement they are generating”), which sound soberly suited to the current years (Briefer was published in 2005), but were certainly very sharp and prophetic for the times – some 30 years ago – when they first appeared in Brief, in 1985. 5. Emerging trends Brief and Briefer feature hybridization phenomena. The non-specialized (popular) and the specialized (ESP) levels of exposition (Cloître and Shinn’s 1985) mix in both texts, creating granularity. In Brief the degree of granularity is higher than in Briefer. The proportions of specialized vs. non-specialized sections is unbalanced in favour of the former, with large chunks of ESP passages only linked by short popular sections (sometimes even just phrases) acting as bridges. In Briefer, the alternation is more balanced, tending towards a predominance of the popular from both a quantity and a quality viewpoint. The ESP sections are reduced and do not go into such detail as those in Brief. The reason for this shift seems to be a different target audience. Brief’s features place it at the inter- (sometimes intra-) specialist to didactic level. It is more didactic than popular and more specialized than didactic. Hawking’s admission in the Foreword of Briefer indicates that Brief sounded like “a lengthy dissertation befitting a college-level course in cosmology” (Briefer: 1), it could have been based on the author’s own lecturing material. The discrepancy between the aim and the results of Brief derives from a distorted scholarly view of lecture-level material as being already quite popular. It proves mostly didactic, i.e. directed at users on the threshold of the community of practice, who should be familiarizing with the specialized lexicon, genres and discourse of the community in question. The book promises a more popular approach, yet turning such didactic material into a supermarket paperback without much editing resulted in a granular hybrid, albeit a best-selling one. Due to Hawking’s having in mind an audience of university students, Brief is more of an ‘adult’ book. It contains adult irony, which can be understood by readers sharing certain grown-up experiences or notions. Brief is more ideologically committed, for instance, it often refers to god in abstract or theoretical ways, especially when dealing with the universe. The presence of graphic elements in Brief is scarce, with just a few graphs and illustrations. Briefer was intended to address a different public, belonging to the didactic to popular level. Is more likely to be understood as a school- rather than university-level audience, also looking to include younger readers. Only an attempt at reaching a different audience justifies a new edition of a successful book, involving a second author, as the “updates on the latest research” promised on the cover of the book do not occupy more than a few pages in the final chapters. The result is a less specialized text, and a more popular one. Popular features include the larger format, and the increased relevance of the iconic aspect: the many colourful illustrations, the inclusion of humorous images and graphs make the product more appealing to its audience, if less scientific-looking. Considering the potential young readers, the type of irony is different, with sometimes entire anecdotes and jokes removed. God is less mentioned, with some delicate passages from Brief having been omitted in Briefer. A sentence from Brief mentioning indeterminism (“The doctrine of scientific determinism was strongly resisted by many people, who felt that it infringed god’s freedom to intervene in the world, but it remained the standard assumption of science until the early years of this century”, Brief: 57), disappeared in Briefer, which proves more ideologically neutral. 6. Final CDA-based remarks It is possible to maintain that “Hawking’s Brief history shows that ‘scientifically correct’, ‘ideologically acceptable’ ‘effective’ or ‘objective’ vulgarization of science is [...] a reachable ideal” (Cornelis 1998). Brief presents with some 16 limits with respect to its intended popularizing aim, some of which are relevant, yet do not entirely prevent the book from reaching a wider audience than that at the intra- and inter-specialist levels of specialization. Its orientation toward the (university) didactic level makes it sogranular that it looks like a very hybrid text, for which reason it is more suitable to view it in terms of pseudo-popularization. The actual popularization occurs in Briefer, but then the question arises of whether Briefer can be considered a text of its own. It is an edited version of Brief, with most of its text having been taken ‘as is’ from the earlier book. Additions are minimal, reformulations almost non-existing, though omissions abound. Where Brief is an instance of popular writing, Briefer is a successful attempt at re-writing, or interpreting an already existing text. A suggestion to make sense of the discrepancies and similaritiescould be to look at Brief and Briefer not as two separate works, but as different phases of one large popularization project. The fact that it took their author twenty years to complete should not be surprising, given that the didactic (Brief) and the popular (Briefer) levels are not typical of Hawking’s community of practice. Following this view would have the further advantage of seeing Hawking’s entire scientific contribution as one and the same work, one single collection of material, modulated into all the levels of exposition: the corpus of his specialized or academic publications (intra-specialist), Brief (inter-specialist to didactic), Briefer (didactic to popular).The popularizing aim of Hawking could be said to have been reached in two stages, just like a professional disseminator might take as long to turn one of his works into an acceptable academic text. Prof. Hawking did not only work on Brief and Briefer between 1985 and 2005; his other intra-specialist projects surely account for the 20-year gap between his two acclaimed best-sellers. Since this is a linguistic study of Hawking’s popular exposition, here is one statement of his about language that gives linguists a lot of credit: This assertion represents an instance of critical social communication, and it looks to a not-so-distant past when science and philosophy were not separate. He sticks to the distinction between the ‘hard’ (scientists) and the ‘soft’ (philosophers) sciences that has characterized the contemporary era and has grown in the 20th century. He makes it clear that he does not belong with the philosophers, but is one of those few lucky specialists. So he adds: What a comedown from the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to Kant! (ibid. bold added) It seems he would consider Galileo-Newton-Hawking to constitute an ascending curve, and Aristotle-Kant- Wittgenstein (the latter by implication) a descending one. Linguists could only reply that, to reach the wide audiences he did with Brief and Briefer, he too had to surrender to using language according to all the popularizing strategies required by the task and that the task took him two books and over twenty years. Unifying theory of gravity and quantum mechanics he and his fellow physicists have been after for about a century is not unlike the unifying perspectives scholars in many fields are looking for today (including linguists and, by definition, philosophers), and that a re-unification of the soft and hard sciences as they were in past centuries could be one step towards finding it. Aristotle-Kant-Wittgenstein can hardly be seen as a poorer sequence than Galileo-Newton- Hawking, but rather as the way philosophy reflects the evolution of society, its contradictions, but also its needs and strengths. The set of Hawking’s lifetime achievements – his academic work, Brief, Briefer and his other popular books – are not barbarizations of science but different expository levels of it and, like all innovative research, a terrific demonstration of the potential of man – both the scientist and the philosopher. 17 18 Community interpreters versus intercultural mediators Is it really all about ethics? This article compares the professional profile of community interpreters to that of a particular group of intercultural mediators who work as nonprofessional, untrained interpreters, mainly in healthcare settings. By analizing a corpus of 13 deontological documents, this text investigaes differences in the ethical positioning of these two profiles and whether the reasons for the formation of the intecultural mediator are truly only deontological. Community interpreting is defined, the activity of “oral and signed communication that enables access to services for people who have limited proficiency in the language of such services”. They also assist individuals who are not proficient in the societal language to participate in different events organized by faith-based organizations and help in emergency situations. Community interpreters may also be called public service interpreters, dialogue interpreters, or liaison interpreters. Interpreting can be performed by professional or non-professional interpreters. The term “professional interpreter” refers to those who have received training and are commited to obey the profession’s codes of ethics and conduct. The term “non professional interpreter” is used to refer to those individuals who have no interpreter training but may practice interpreting as a full-time or part-time professional activity. There is also a difference between “ethics”, relations between Self and Other and depends on the individual’s integrity, and “deontology”, which referes to normative ethics that are typically expressed in codes of ethics. Codes of ethics are documents that outline best practices in a profession and give guidance on conduct to practitioners and usrs of the services. Codes of ethics are closely connected to standards of practice. Generally codes of ethics are relatively short and contain basic values of the profession. Standards of practice, however, are typically longer, more specific, and contain scenarios which exemplify adherence to the canons. Intercultural mediators The term “intercultural mediator” is used for various profiles working in a range of settings in Europe, and it would be impossible to categoriz or describe all of them. Instead, we describe the most common, current understandings of the term in Europe. In parts of Spain the term can be a synonymous with the term community interpreter; however, other parts of the country consider these two profiles as being distinct professions. In the UK, intercultural mediation is understood as a type of civil mediation, i.e, a process aimed at amiceble settlement of disputes between private subject. In France, cultural 19 mediation is considered to be a part of social mediation, an activity aimed at resolving conclicts between individuals or groups or between institutions and individualds. In Belgium, cultural mediators are used to facilitate contacts between the Roma community and local authorities, and in Czech Republic, they mainly assist migrants when applying for their residence permits. In Germany and Austria, cultural mediators are also called integration facilitators. In some institutional EU settings, “intercultural mediation” is used as a collective term for a variety of different services provided by the EU translation departments. Furthermore, the term “intercultural mediators” may refer to inviduals who provide interpeting services and intercultural mediation. The Erasmus+ project Train Intercultural Mediators for a Multicultural Europe (TIME) defines intercultural mediatos as those individuals who facilitate “the integration process through the removal of bothe linguistic and cultural barries”. In fact, the main task of “many intercultural mediators is to facilitate linguistic exchange, which nearly always includes interpreting”. Although interpreting is one of the main tasks of this group of intercultural mediators, advocates of this emerging profession also admit that interculturalmediators are presently non-professional interpreters. Thereforse, the individuals who perform intercultural mediation are tipically not trained in interpreting. The fundamental difference between intercultural mediation and community interpretering in terms of interpreter training. Generally, intercultural mediators posses a more extensive list of skills and competences than community interpreters. Verrept suggets that while interpreters overcome language barriers without necessarily achieving mutual comprehension, the intercultural mediatiors ultimately ensure mutual understanding. These claims reduce interpreters to mere conduits of a linguistic code without taking into account meaning or culture. This terminological fuzziness and the fact that interpreting for public services is claimed to be performed by two distinct profiles of practitioners can lead to considerable confusion, in particular since the term “intercultural mediator” is, in some cases, used for two or three of the previously-described profiles, even within the same country. The situation in Italy exemplifies the complexity of the issue. In Italy, at least three understandings of intercultural mediators prevails: 1. intercultural mediators are equated with community interpreters, whose task include linguistic and cultural mediation; 2. intercultural mediators are specialists in conflitc prevention and resolution; 3. intercultural mediators are understood as community integration facilitators and non- professional interpreters whose profile is distinct from that of interpreters. Interpreting scholars argues that since language and culture are inseparable, linguistic and cultural mediation are in fact intrinsic to the job of the interpreter, whose task is to facilitate communication between speakers of different languages and cultures. The Italian Association for Alternative Conflict Resolution (AIRAC) lists cultural mediators among other dispute resolution agents such as family mediators and arbiters. Here, cultural 20 mediation is understood as a series of interventions aimed at facilitating social integration of foreign families and individuals by providing information about Italian culture and society. Another profile of intercultural mediators emerged when Italy witnessed increased immigration from areas with languages not included in translation or interpreting studies programs. According to the promoters of this new profession, the intercultural mediator is a profile that provides a wider range of services than the interpreter, as he/she is a social operator who is able to carry out interventions of linguistic-culturalmediation, non- professional interpreting and translation and social mediation; promote intercultural mediation as a system device in integration policies; optimize the network and improve the organization and delivery of services. Professional intercultural mediators only need to supplement their work experience with some brief and basic interpreting and translation training. This requirement differs from that of professional community interpreters who have been trained at several Italian university programs. Differentiating community interpreters and intercultural mediators Even though the profile of the community interpreter and that of the intercultural mediator are both in usewith these largely overlappingmeanings, few comparisons of the two professions have been made. Pöchhacker’s article “Interpreting as mediation” states that “every interpreter is a mediator, but not every mediator is an interpreter”. According to Pöchhacker, the term “mediation” can be understood as a successful transfer between languages and cultures (linguistic mediation), as a personal transfer of message from the producer of the discourse to the receiver (cognitive mediation), but it can also be understood as successful resolution of intercultural conflicts and differences (contractual mediation). The distinction between community interpreters and intercultural mediators was only possible if promoters of intercultural mediation limited the notion of interpreting to linguistic transfer only. The terms “interpreter” and “intercultural mediator” are used interchngeably in France, Italy, Belgium and Germany, while in Ireland their roles are different and remain separate. Focusing on healthcare, mediators should be called initially to help healtchcare users providing relevant cultural information and empowering them by informing of their rights. Once task is complete, community interpreters should be engaged to interpret the communication between the healthcare provider and users during the medical examination. METHODOLOGY: Corpus composition To select the documents to analyze the ethical positioning of the intercultural mediator and community interpreter profiles, we first consulted the following surveys of deontological documents for interpreters: Schweda Nicholson (1994); Mikkelson (2000); Bancroft (2005); Hale 21 (2007); Ozolins (2014b); Mikkelson (2016); and Baixauli-Olmos (2017). Some of these surveys focused on deonto- logical documents that were not directly relevant for our study. We then conducted an internet search and consulted the Translation Studies Bibliography. We have not limited our search to European documents only, since community interpreting is an internationally recognized profession, and is not limited to one particular state, region, or continent. In addi- tion, we have assumed that community interpreters may consult the codes and practices that provide ethical guidance and are freely available on the internet, even if they are not members of a particular association. Since ISO defines healthcare interpreters as a subcategory of community interpreters, we also decided to include in our corpus the codes and standards focusing on healthcare and medical interpreters. We have thus identified six deontological documents that explicitly address community or public service interpreters. We did not limit our search to documents in English only; however, in order to facilitate the analysis, we used the English version of the identified documets. In our search, we excluded deontological documents for sign- language interpreters to enable comparison with the deontological documents of intercultural mediators, which focus only on those mediators working with spoken languages. We also excluded documents that were the work of a particular researcher or practitioner or business entity, such as a training agency since we wanted to get insight into the documents that have been accepted by large groups of practitioners or stakeholders. The following criteria were adopted to select the documents included in the corpus: a. The document focuses on spoken and not signed languages. b. The document explicitly addresses community interpreters. c. The document addresses medical or healthcare interpreters. d. The English language version of the document was used if multiple languages were available. e. The document originated from a public body or a professional association. Documents that define the ethical positioning of intercultural mediators are much scarcer. For example, Martín and Phelan (2010) found “no recognized, unified code of practice” for intercultural mediators. We identified only two documents that were comparable to the selected deontological documents of community interpreters using the above-mentioned criteria and that discussed deontology of intercultural mediators: the first one was developed within the European project TIME (Train Intercultural Mediators for a Multicultural Europe), and the second was published by the WHO’s European regional office. Despite the fact that they are not called standards or codes, these documents include definitions and specifications of ethical positionings of intercultural mediators. The TIME document details the roles and deontology of intercultural mediators, and the WHO documents, 2 in particular, compares the roles and ethical positioning of inter- cultural mediators and community interpreters. The final corpus comprises 13 documents (Table 1), which are divided into three categories. 22 23 ANALYSIS: The texts were analyzed by two researchers who inductively derived a series of categories(Corbin and Strauss 2008). The two researchers could consult on discrepancies to rearrange categories as needed and to resolve ambi- guities until redundancy was reached. Seven main categories and 15 subcategories were coded. Table 2 presents the coding scheme that was developed on the basis of their analysis. Here, we focus on the profile, role, competences, and ethical positioning of these two profiles. RESULTS: Table 3 summarizes the number of times each category was coded in each text. The main codes with aggregated numbers for all the relative sub-codes are marked in bold. The subcategory “Other” comprises other references to ethical principles, such as integrity or professionalism, which lie outside the scope of this study. Not all of the texts chosen for the analysis mention both profiles (see Table 3). In fact, apart from the TIME and WHO documents, which explicitly attempt to distinguish between community interpreters and intercultural mediators, both profiles are referred to in only three of the documents aimed at healthcare inter- preters (CHIA SOP, IMIA COE, and IMIA MI), while intercultural mediators are not mentioned at all in the first set of deontological documents, which focus explicitly on community interpreters. 24 The definitions of the main role(s) of community interpreters or intercultural mediators are present in all of the analyzed texts, except in the IMIA COE text. The most detailed description of the role of a community interpreter is found in the CHIA SOP text which distinguishes between the roles of message converter, message clarifier, cultural clarifier, and patient advocate. And finally, the role of intercultural mediators is extensively described in both the WHO and TIME texts. The analysis of the deontological documents shows that there is indeed over- lap between the two profiles. Expected competences: The differences between the two profiles become clearer when we investigate the competences that community interpreters and intercultural mediators are expected to have. Five distinct competences (or sets of competences) were ana- lyzed. Three appear in all of the analyzed documents: linguistic competence, cultural competence, and transfer competence. This last competence, namely transfer, typically refers to interpreting, but in some instances, can also include written translation. Thematic competence – i.e., factual knowledge about the institutions and fields in which community interpreters/intercultural mediators work – is explicitly mentioned in all but three texts (IMIA COE, IMIA MI, and NCIHC NSP), although it is often also implicitly included in reference to linguis- tic or cultural competences. In addition, the WHO and TIME 25 documents men- tion this competence much more frequently than the others. The most striking difference among the three sets of analyzed texts, potentially linked to advocacy, is related to the conflict resolution and mediation competence, mentioned in only five texts (TIME, WHO, IMIA MI, IMIA SOP, and CHIA SOP). The textual analysis reveals that this competence is seen in the IMIA MI text as being outside the scope of the work of a medical interpreter, while the CHIA SOP and IMIA SOP texts view this competence as being linked primarily to the optional role of a patient advocate, which should be undertaken only by the most experienced interpreters. However, in the TIME and WHO texts, the conflict resolution and mediation competence assumes the central role. The definition of ethical principles listed in the deontological document The principle of impartiality appears in all of the documents analyzed. The TIME text even talks about impartiality as the default position of the intercultural mediator. But there are some differences because the first set of documents stress that impartiality is the only acceptable position for a community interpreter while CHIA SOP promotes the incremental intervention model in which specific situations call for different approaches. Confidentiality is dealt with in all analyze text, except for WHO texts Advocacy was mentioned in nine texts , five of which are also mention intercultural mediators (WHO, TIME, CHIA SOP, IMIA COE, and IMIA MI) while four texts (COE Ireland, IMIA SOP, NCIHC NCOE, and NCIHC NSP) focus exclusively on community interpreters dot we can say that the attitude towards advocacy varies from text to text. In the COE Ireland advocacy is advised against. In the IMIA COE, IMIA MI, IMIA SOP is accepted. In CHIA SOP, NCIHC NCOE and NCIHC NSP the patient advocate is one of the possible roles the healthcare interpreter can assume. In CHIA SOP more caution is advised, but the California standards also stress that the role of an advocate requires experience and skill, because it could lead to ethical dilemmas, and have negative consequences for the patient and the interpreter. In the documents on intercultural mediators, less caution is present toward advocacy. The WHO and the TIME give central role to advocacy. Both texts positions are neutral but advocacy is desirable. Discussion The analysis above shows that there is a lot of confusion between the profile of community interpreter and that of the intercultural mediator. There are significant differences between the expected roles of both profiles. There are two elements that differentiates the presence or absence of conflict management, and the second the issue of impartiality versus advocacy. Intercultural mediators are expected to get involved in conflict prevention and resolution and the deontological documents defining the ethical positioning of intercultural mediators are open to advocacy. On the other hand, community interpreters do not focus on conflict management as one of their tasks and the deontological documents tend to uphold the principle of neutrality and impartiality. The only document on community interpreting that is different from the others is the CHIA SOP. Conflict management, cultural instruction, and advocacy in healthcare settings is allowed, but there is a warning against potential negative consequences. However, this overlap may be confusing for the service providers, and in the worst case it can generate distorted expectations of the interpreter’s or mediator’s competences and performance. 26 Conclusion It looks like the reasons why this new profile of intercultural mediators in Europe has emerged are diverse, and do not concern only the issues surrounding ethics. First, the European institutions that train interpreters and translators did not respond to the urgent need for interpreters in languages of newly arrived migrants. For this reason NGOs, organizations, and institutions working with migrants couldn’t find professional interpreters to meet the demand and asked for anyone who could help with the language barrier. So intercultural mediation arose as a reaction to the increased presence of refugees who spoke languages that were not taught in European interpreter and translator training programs. Second, sociologists, cultural anthropologists, and other specialists who work with migrants through NGOs recognized the need to train ad hoc interpreters for newly arrived migrant groups. The specialists realized that a recognized professional figure already existed, named the community interpreter. Because of this, it was decided to emphasize the differences between the two profiles by downplaying the communicative function of interpreting and reducing the community interpreter to “someone who focuses mostly on the language structure and not on the meanings of a message”. Third, sometimes service providers call for someone who can also assume a more active role in medical treatment to the point where some health professionals asked intercultural mediators to perform tasks that normally should be performed by themselves, such as explaining complex medical issues. So, despite the overlapping competences we think that there is space in the market for both professions. Intercultural mediators may be well suited for certain tasks such as: providing information on health and social services, providing psychosocial support, health education and promotion and co-therapy in mental health settings, providing information to migrants regarding administrative procedures, access to services and assistance and also contributing to events and projects in order to raise awareness on intercultural communication and integration. On the other hand, we believe that we should insist on the use of trained interpreting professionals in communication that necessarily involves interpreting between two speakers or a group of speakers. In conclusion, this brief analysis of the documents shows that everyone must be made aware of the nature of interpreting, and the need of professional, interpreting service provision, especially in high risk, multilingual communicative events and in every situation, where unskilled help might result in negative life-changing or life- threatening events. 27 Riassunto: Healthcare across Languages in Italy: A Case Study Riassunto: Healthcare across Languages in Italy: A Case Study Abstract This study aims at investigating healthcare interaction as a form of institutional talk-in-interaction. When interpreter-mediated, requires an adjustment of discourse practices and configuration (different distribution of power, different interaction coordination). What was done on the data collected: - Conversation Analysis and interactional sociolinguistics, analyzing studied from a functional point of view recurring phenomena, focusing on episodes that highlight interpreters’ choices promoting or excluding emotions. Introduction The EU Commission White Paper of 2007: access to healthcare as a universal right. “Health is central in people’s lives and needs to be supported by effective policies and actions in Member States”. Italy introduced the right to access to healthcare for all as far back as 1948. And yet, little has been done to grant such access to foreign citizens, migrants, and non-Italian-speaking individuals in general. Draft bills have been presented to the Italian Parliament in the past decades, but the debate is still ongoing. Something has been done on a local basis: according to the Friuli Venezia Giulia regional bill, such experts are defined as “cultural mediators”, and are required to have an extensive knowledge of the local context, in which they live and work, as well as the culture and language of one or more countries of origin of the individuals they assist; the indication of who and how should train such professionals is (conveniently) missing. This study investigates bilingual healthcare interaction first and foremost as a form of institutional talk-in-interaction. Healthcare communication is a particular kind of professional discourse, involving a professional part as well as a non-professional one. When an interpreter is present the professional part is slip into two professional parts: the one of the caregiver (medical profession) and the one of the interpreter (interpreting profession): an adjustment of discourse practices and configuration in necessary (different distribution of power). Real-life data are examined to identify recurring phenomena in interpreter-mediated doctor-patient interaction, particularly as regards interpreters’ contributions that go beyond mere language transfer. These phenomena are identified and studied from a functional point of view. 1 28 Riassunto: Healthcare across Languages in Italy: A Case Study An increasingly rigid classification of dialogue interpreters’ role(s) into typologies of behavior over time has been considered as the proverbial necessary evil in order to achieve a much-needed professionalization of dialogue interpreting for the community, but this process led to going away from the real life interactions. A more flexible and dynamic interpretative framework: focusing on the interpreter’s capacity to adopt a primary speaker’s perspective, “empathic behavior”, despite explicitly contradicting the traditional principle of interpreters’ invisibility. By applying Merlini and Gatti’s trifocal model, in a combination of cognitive and interactional approaches to the data, this study’s goal is to investigate dialogue interpreters’ behaviour in their professional capacity and within the specific setting of healthcare. 2. Dialogue interpreting 2.1. Dialogue, interaction, interpreting and mediation. Interlinguistic exchanges of various nature and in very diverse communication contexts of society have been increasing in frequency quite steadily in the past few decades, especially in everyday life (social care, courts, schools, and healthcare). This interpreting dimension, where interpreters work face to face with their clients, has captured the interest of scholars. Despite their almost infant-like stage, Dialogue Interpreting studies today account for a significant body of research, which, however, appears quite ‘scattered’ and far from homogenous, considering the many denominations they have been published under, such as “liaison interpreting”, “community interpreting”, and/or “public service interpreting”. Such denominations indicate a clear tendency to identify this kind of interpreting with the work setting in which it is performed, because dialogue interpreters’ behaviour is strongly dependent on the implication. Dialogue interpreters are as much an integral part of the ongoing face-to-face interaction as the other participants, and together they co-construct said interaction. Observing interpreters working within the interaction means taking into consideration variables usually neglected in conference interpreting settings: they display a relatively low interactivity degree, where speaking turns are mostly monologue- (i.e. individually managed) rather than dialogue-like. 2 29 Riassunto: Healthcare across Languages in Italy: A Case Study Interactions between institutions and foreign-language individuals, on the contrary, are marked by a high level of asymmetry between the parties involved, with foreign-language speakers frequently experiencing conditions of urgent need. This has direct implications on the social management of the interaction. Casting a closer look at the set of professional tasks of dialogue interpreters, it is clear that interlinguistic transfer is only one component of their job, and that their activity and professional choices are extremely context-sensitive and recipient-oriented. These considerations may evoke Pöchhacker’s definition of mediation: the author distinguishes between “communicative mediation”, further divided into “cultural/linguistic mediation” and “cognitive mediation”; and “contractual mediation”, mainly aimed at solving “(intercultural) conflicts or differences”, on the other. As far as cognitive mediation is concerned, communication between interlocutors speaking different languages requires first and foremost comprehension and interpretation of the message by the interpreter. Moreover, the act of translation consists of a transposition of the message from one language culture into another. Interpreters are therefore necessarily intercultural and interlinguistic mediators (“cultural/linguistic mediation”): “language is never culturally neutral”. This paper is based on a concept of mediation closer to the one illustrated in the Common European Framework of Reference for Language: Learning, Teaching, Assessment CEFR. In that document, mediation is defined as any intra- or interlinguistic activity aimed at ensuring that individuals understand what they read or listen to. Dialogue Interpreting as a professional activity is linked to specific environments and their norms, demands and needs. Merlini defines Dialogue Interpreting as fundamentally linked to the community and/or public service environment, with its sets of rules and conventionally accepted behaviours. As a result, Dialogue