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What a micro-analytical investigation of additions and expansions in remote interpreting can tell us about interpreters’ participation in a shared virtual space Abstract This paper explores data from video-mediated remote interpreting (RI) which was originally generated with the aim of investigating and comparing the quality of the interpreting performance in onsite and remote interpreting in legal contexts. One unexpected finding of this comparison was that additions and expansions were significantly more frequent in RI, and that their frequency increased further after a phase of familiarisation and training for the participating interpreters, calling for a qualitative exploration of the motives and functions of the additions and expansions. This exploration requires an appropriate methodology. Whilst introspective data give insights into interpreting processes and the motivations guiding the interpreter’s choices, they tend to be unsystematic and incomplete. Micro-analytical approaches such as Conversation Analysis are a promising alternative, especially when enriched with social macro- variables. In line with this, the present paper has a dual aim. The primary aim is to explore the nature of additions and expansions in RI, examining especially to what extent they are indicative of interpreting problems, to what degree they are specific to the videoconference situation, what they reveal about, and how they affect the interpreter’s participation in RI. The secondary aim is to evaluate the micro-analytical approach chosen for this exploration. Keywords: interpreter-mediated communication, remote interpreting, videoconference, virtual presence, additions 1 Introduction 1

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Page 1: Introduction - epubs.surrey.ac.ukepubs.surrey.ac.uk/811587/1/Braun 2016 - JoP_additions_in_RI_fin… · Web viewWhat a micro-analytical investigation of additions and expansions in

What a micro-analytical investigation of additions and expansions in remote interpreting can tell us about interpreters’ participation in a shared virtual space

Abstract

This paper explores data from video-mediated remote interpreting (RI) which was originally generated with the aim of investigating and comparing the quality of the interpreting performance in onsite and remote interpreting in legal contexts. One unexpected finding of this comparison was that additions and expansions were significantly more frequent in RI, and that their frequency increased further after a phase of familiarisation and training for the participating interpreters, calling for a qualitative exploration of the motives and functions of the additions and expansions. This exploration requires an appropriate methodology. Whilst introspective data give insights into interpreting processes and the motivations guiding the interpreter’s choices, they tend to be unsystematic and incomplete. Micro-analytical approaches such as Conversation Analysis are a promising alternative, especially when enriched with social macro-variables. In line with this, the present paper has a dual aim. The primary aim is to explore the nature of additions and expansions in RI, examining especially to what extent they are indicative of interpreting problems, to what degree they are specific to the videoconference situation, what they reveal about, and how they affect the interpreter’s participation in RI. The secondary aim is to evaluate the micro-analytical approach chosen for this exploration.

Keywords: interpreter-mediated communication, remote interpreting, videoconference, virtual presence, additions

1 Introduction

Remote interpreting (RI) is a modality of interpreting whereby the interpreter is linked to the main participants by communication technologies such as videoconference, entailing that the space in which the interpreter-mediated interaction takes place is virtual rather than physical. This modality of interpreting is becoming more frequent, as public services are turning to communication technologies to optimise access to interpreters and reduce interpreting costs. However, research shows that RI is challenging and that it differs from onsite interpreting (e.g. Braun 2013, Braun & Taylor 2012a, Moser-Mercer 2005, Price et al. 2012, Roziner & Shlesinger 2010). In a series of experiments conducted to investigate the quality of the interpreter’s performance in video-mediated RI in legal settings (Braun 2013, Braun & Taylor 2012a) we observed significant differences between onsite and remote interpreting, including a significantly higher number of additions and expansions in RI. A replication of the experiments, which took place after the interpreters had received short-term training in RI and had gained more practical experience with this method of interpreting (Braun & Taylor 2016), painted a complex picture, making it difficult to determine the impact of training and increased exposure to RI. However, there was one unexpected result: the interpreters produced more additions and expansions after receiving training and gaining experience.

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In a normative approach, reflected in many current codes of conduct, additions and expansions are conceptualised as a deficiency. Bearing this in mind, it is striking that familiarisation and training would have led to an increase in such ‘deficiencies’. The findings of our study therefore raise questions about the nature of these additions and expansions. In accordance with this, the primary aim of this paper is to explore the motives for additions and expansions in RI. Of particular interest is whether they are indicative of interpreting problems, to what extent they are likely to be specific to the videoconference (VC) situation and what they reveal about the interpreter’s participation in RI.

Studies of monolingual VC communication have highlighted tendencies towards reformulation and redundancy, which the participants attributed to a perceived lower rapport with the others (Braun 2004, Braun & Kohn 2001). A lower rapport, articulated as a feeling of ‘remoteness’ or reduced social presence, was also reported by interpreters using RI (Braun & Taylor 2012b, Moser-Mercer 2005, Mouzourakis 2006, Price et al. 2012, Roziner & Shlesinger 2010). In line with this, the additions and expansions in RI could be analysed as attempts by the interpreters to overcome their problems of rapport, regardless of whether the added elements are necessary, effective or appropriate from a normative point of view. The increase in additions and expansions after familiarisation and training could then be an indicator of the interpreters’ efforts to resolve perceived problems of RI.

However, investigations of the motives guiding interpreters’ choices are notoriously problematic, as researchers have no direct access to their mental processes. Interpreting process research shows that introspection is a possible solution (Braun 2004, 2007, Kalina 1998, Mead 2002) but the outcomes are by necessity incomplete, in the sense that it would be unrealistic to expect interpreters to be able to recall and comment on each aspect of their performance. An alternative approach in terms of achieving systematicity is a micro-analytical exploration of the data. Previous research using micro-analytical approaches to explore additions and expansions in interpreter-mediated communication has examined not only what interpreters add but also where and how additions and expansions occur, and how they contribute to the interaction and to the interpreter’s participation status (Angelelli 2012, Baraldi, 2012, Davitti 2013, Merlini & Favaron 2005, Wadensjö 1998). Building on these approaches, the secondary aim of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of micro-analytical approaches in identifying the functions and motives of additions/expansions in RI, and in exploring their impact on the interpreter’s participation.

Section 2 reviews previous research into additions and expansions in interpreting and discusses the distinction between additions and expansions. Section 3 gives an overview of relevant micro-analytical approaches and explains their application to the analysis of RI in the study reported here. Section 4 presents and discusses the findings from this analysis. Section 5 concludes the paper with a summary of the main insights and implications for RI and an assessment of the chosen micro-analytical approach.

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2 Additions and expansions in interpreting

Codes of conduct commonly assert that interpreters should not omit or alter any part of the message the interlocutors intend to convey and that nothing should be added. For instance, Article 6.4 of the code published by the Chartered Instituted of Linguists in the UK states that interpreters “shall interpret truly and faithfully what is uttered, without adding, omitting or changing anything”. Codes of conduct may be understood as a normative ‘ideal’ or as a product of an oversimplified view of interpreters as ‘translation machines’ (Jacobsen 2002). The crucial point is that the codes are sometimes at odds with observed interpreting practice. This discrepancy has prompted scholarly interest in all fields of interpreting.

Before reviewing this research, a word on definitions is in order. Schjoldager (1996:128) has defined additions as elements in the interpreted version that have no precedent in the original utterance, whilst Wadensjö (1998) distinguishes between “non-renditions”, i.e. elements which the interpreter adds on his/her own initiative, and “expanded renditions”, i.e. elements which elaborate on ideas explicitly expressed or implied in the original utterance. Following this distinction, this paper will refer to “additions” and “expansions” respectively, although it should be noted that the distinction is not clear-cut; for example, it may be difficult to know whether something that the interpreter makes ‘explicit’ in the target version was indeed implied in the source text.

In relation to simultaneous conference interpreting, Barik (1994: 135) analyses additions as a type of “departure from the original”, but notes that the better qualified interpreters in his sample added more than less qualified interpreters and attributes this “to their very expertise, which frees them from following the text too closely”. Schjoldager (1996), who focuses on norms in simultaneous interpreting, finds that norm abidance can legitimise additions, especially additions made to avoid violating target text norms. Kohn & Kalina (1996) and Setton (2002) discuss both additions and expansions as strategies aimed at making the target text better suited to the needs of the target audience. These include linguistically and culturally motivated additions and/or expansions making explicit information that is implicitly present in the ST and/or conveying new, e.g. culturally relevant information. Palazzi Gubertini (1998) furthermore emphasises the role of additions and expansions in disambiguation. All in all, research in conference interpreting reveals a wide range of motivations for additions and expansions, far from Barik’s view that they constitute a type of interpreting problem.

Research in legal interpreting corroborates this, but has placed more emphasis on analysing additions/expansions that stem from difficulties in relaying the source speech, including hedges, fillers, rephrasing and repetition. Whilst Jacobsen (2002) considers such elements to have minimal or no impact, others argue that they can alter the speech style of a defendant or witness and/or the illocutionary force of the utterance, and that they can ultimately have an impact on the defendant’s or witness’s credibility (Berk-Seligson 1990, Hale 2004, Krouglov 1999). Whilst these studies include paralinguistic means of expressions in the

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analysis of additions, others focus on elements related to semantic content and/or pragmatic meaning. Mason & Stewart (2001), for example, analyse the addition of politeness markers by interpreters in a legal setting, arguing that these are pragmatic additions to protect the interpreter’s or the client’s face. Similarly, Jacobsen (2002) argues that many of the additions/expansions she found in her analysis of court interpreting are motivated by the interpreter’s aim to convey the speaker’s pragmatic meaning rather than the semantic content. She identifies different types of additions/expansions and assesses their respective impact on the communication, as shown in Table 1 below.

In the medical setting, Angelelli (2012) and Baraldi (2012) reach conclusions that are comparable to Jacobsen’s, arguing that additions/expansions can support cultural understanding; Angelelli uses examples of interpreters giving patients explanations about the meaning of pain scales. Similarly, Baraldi examines ‘formulations’ (a term introduced by Heritage 1985), i.e. rephrased and expanded renditions aligning a doctor’s utterance with a patient’s culture and expectations, and multi-turn expansions, i.e. exchanges between interpreter and patient that take place between a doctor’s question and a summarised rendition. Baraldi believes that expansions promote empowerment, empathy, cooperation and trust (2012: 317). However, Davitti’s (2013) study of upgrading moves by interpreters in a pedagogical setting illustrates that such additions can also achieve the opposite of empowerment. This illustrates Mikkelson’s (2008) point about the difficulties in distinguishing between unacceptable, acceptable and desirable additions, and links the discussion of additions/expansions to ethical questions. These difficulties notwithstanding, Merlini & Favaron (2005) propose a classification of additions with reference to medical interpreting, as shown in Table 1, which maps the classifications proposed by Merlini & Favaron and Jacobsen (2003) respectively onto Wadensjö’s broad distinction between and non-renditions (“additions”) and expanded renditions (“expansions”).

Table 1: Classifications of additions and expansionsWadensjö (1998: 107-108; 123) Merlini & Favaron (2005: 287-293) Jacobsen (2003: 227-235)

ExpansionsExpanded renditions: more explicitly expressed information than the preceding original

Emphatic additions: interpreter-initiated repetitions/reiterations

Emphasizing additions: increasing the force of an utterance; significant impactDown-toning additions: mitigate or reduce the force of an utterance; significant impactRepetitions, fillers: minimal impact

Explanatory additions: explanation of meaning to clarify a potentially obscure message

Explicating additions: adding culture-bound information, explicating non-verbal information; minimal impactElaborating additions: elaborating on an item already rendered, e.g. use of additional synonym; minimal impact

AdditionsNon-renditions: not corresponding to a prior original

Phatic additions: backchanneling function (e.g. ensuring recipient’s

New-information additions: adding an aspect not mentioned in original;

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attention) and reassuring function significant impactOther additions e.g. asking for clarification, alerting a client to a possible missed inference, giving instructions

In relation to RI, Hornberger et al. (1996) examined additions in a comparison of onsite interpreting and RI (via audio link), aimed at establishing whether RI is a viable method for delivering interpreting services. Using Barik’s (1994) outline of ‘departures’ from the source text as an analytical framework they found fewer additions in RI than in onsite interpreting. However, as the study involved two different modes of interpreting—simultaneous in RI and consecutive in onsite interpreting—this result may have been caused by differences between the modes rather than the methods of delivery. Braun (2004, 2007) studied remote simultaneous interpreting in bilingual dialogue situations in three-way videoconferences where the interlocutors and the interpreter were each in a different location, and found a number of additions and expansions in the interpreters’ utterances. Notably, these include expansions aimed at ensuring the communicative message gets across (re-formulations), expansions resulting from ‘approximation’ (Kohn & Kalina 1996), and additions of meta-discourse, either to control turn-taking or to signal comprehension difficulties induced by poor sound quality. Based on these observations and introspective data from the interpreters, we hypothesised that these additions and expansions are VC-related, constituting more or less strategic attempts by the interpreters to adapt to this situation. This seems to be corroborated by the comparative study of onsite and remote (consecutive) interpreting in legal settings that was conducted in the European AVIDICUS projects (Braun & Taylor 2012a, 2016) and that formed the starting point for the analysis of additions/expansions presented in this paper. The two main findings of this comparison with regard to additions/expansions, i.e. that their number was significantly higher in RI than in onsite interpreting (Braun 2013) and that this number increased further after familiarisation and training (Braun 2016), suggest that the additions/expansions are at least in part a result of the VC situation. It is against this backdrop that the present paper aims to shed light on the nature of additions/expansions in RI.

3 Methodological basis

As was noted above, the data used in the present study were generated as part of a broader study which aimed at comparing onsite and remote interpreting in legal settings primarily in terms of interpreting quality. The study was based on a series of experiments simulating interpreter-mediated investigative interviews. The design and outcomes of these experiments are reported in detail in Braun & Taylor (2012a, 2016) and Braun (2013). This section first gives an overview of the experiment which supplied the data for this paper (3.1) and then provides a rationale for the specific micro-analytical framework used here (3.2).

3.1 The data

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The experiment that produced the data used in the analysis of additions/expansions involved simulated police-suspect interviews with eight police-certified English/French interpreters with a minimum of five years’ experience of police interpreting. The other participants were English-speaking police officers with experience in working with interpreters and French-speaking students playing the role of the suspects. The simulations were based on authentic interviews. Transcripts of these interviews had been obtained from a UK police force. They were adapted to the local situation in Guildford, Surrey, where the simulations took place, and then acted out—rather than read out verbatim—by the role players (Braun & Taylor 2012a, 2016). Each interpreter worked in four conditions, including on site and three different RI conditions. RI1 took place without specific training, and at the time of the RI1 experiment the interpreters had very little practical experience with RI. RI2 and RI3 took place two years later, i.e. after the interpreters had gained practical experience, mainly thanks to their work for the Metropolitan Police Service in London (which had since then implemented RI), and had participated in short-term training in RI designed by the research team (Braun et al. 2012). RI2 and RI3 differed only in the quality of the equipment used. The 32 interviews (eight per condition) were video-recorded, transcribed and coded using parameters for assessing interpreting quality and taking into account the specific challenges of legal interpreting such as a high requirements for accuracy. One of the entities coded was additions/expansions.

As was reported above, additions/expansions were more frequent in RI1 compared to onsite interpreting, and they increased further after training and familiarisation. In total, the interpreters produced 10 additions/expansions in onsite interpreting (1.3 per half-hour interview), 29 (3.6) in RI1, 70 (8.8) in RI2 and 62 (7.8) in RI3. This tendency, which can be observed in all but one interpreter, was deemed to be particularly interesting given that other content-related ‘departures’ from the original utterance, especially omissions, inaccuracies and coherence problems, were reduced in RI2/3 compared to RI1. A summary of the frequency distribution in the content-related categories is shown in Figure 1 below. Details of the quantitative analysis are discussed in Braun (2013, 2016).

Figure 1: Comparison of content-related ‘departures’ from the original utterance in onsite interpreting (OI) and the three RI conditions

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An initial qualitative analysis of the additions and expansions showed the following: Some of the added elements in RI2/3 are additions that relate directly to the VC

condition. In one interview, for example, the interpreter had difficulty seeing one of the speakers properly. After completing her rendition of his utterance she added uhm if the gentleman can turn his head a little bit more toward me, making direct reference to the speaker’s position in relation to the camera.

Other additions have an explicating function regarding, for example, non-verbal actions such as showing pieces of evidence. The normal routine is that the police officer, upon showing a piece of evidence, asks the suspect a question about it and then explains for the benefit of the audio tape recording, which is still common practice in English police interviews, what he is showing to the suspect. In RI, some of the interpreters took it upon themselves to initiate this explanation process as soon as they had interpreted the initial question about the piece of evidence by adding and adapting the formula the police officer normally uses (For the benefit of the tape, the police officer is showing…).

Yet other added elements fall in the category of cultural expansions. For example, when the suspect was asked to state his date of birth, some interpreters explained how to state this (ici on fait jour, mois, année/here they go day, month, year).

There was also a number of expansions where interpreters added synonymous expressions (e.g. vous l'avez frappée, vous l'avez donnée un coup/you hit her).

These additions and expansions fall easily into existing classifications, although they arguably have additional dimensions. Explanations of non-verbal actions and advice about the date format, for instance, can be construed as interactional shortcuts to reduce the turn-taking effort or pre-empt clarification questions respectively; the addition of synonyms is in line with strategies observed in monolingual VC communication. In contrast to this, the classification of many other additions in the corpus using the categories outlined in the previous section turned out to be problematic. Some additions did not seem to have a specific reason; in other instances, multiple reasons seemed to be at play. It was because of these classification problems that micro-analytical frameworks were evoked, assuming that because of their attention to even the smallest detail, they can provide more comprehensive insights into the nature of the additions and expansions.

3.2 Analytical framework

Perhaps the most widely used micro-analytical framework is rooted in Conversation Analysis (CA), which has been developed to analyse social interaction in every-day situations (Sacks et al. 1974) and has also been applied to institutional interaction (e.g. Drew & Heritage 1993). What sets CA apart from other methods of analysing interaction is its interest in examining how the participants themselves understand their respective contributions to the interaction. CA aims to do this through a close scrutiny of these contributions in terms of what is said or done, how it is said or done and where in the interaction it occurs (Schegloff 2007). CA is thus mainly interested in the resources that participants employ to co-construct meaning-in-interaction. Those working in the CA framework generally believe that

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interaction is a system in its own right, i.e. distinct from other systems such as language and culture. There is therefore a tendency to reject a priori assumptions about, and references to, social macro-variables such as the participants’ background. The elaborate transcripts normally used in CA highlight not only the sequential order of utterances in conversation and the resources that participants deploy to move from one turn to the next, but they also support the analysis of the small and seemingly ‘unimportant’ features of talk-in-interaction such as micro-pauses, hesitations and self-repairs (Sacks et al. 1974, Schegloff 2007), and the analysis of nonverbal resources (e.g. Mondada 2008).

The reluctance of CA to draw on social macro-variables in the analysis, which is seen as a strength by its founders (e.g. Schegloff 2007), has been criticised as potential “interactional reductionism” by Levinson (2005) and may be one of the limitations of CA. Interestingly, applications of CA to the analysis of interpreter-mediated communication have placed stronger emphasis on demonstrating how the selection of interactional resources is shaped by macro-variables including the communicative situation and the participants’ communicative goals. As Baraldi (2012) demonstrates, for example, it would be difficult to grasp fully the interactional significance of the interpreters’ additions and expansions in the doctor-patient consultations he analysed without taking into account the wider (political) context of healthcare communication, which is often characterised by time pressure. This can help explain, for example, why interpreters sometimes engage in multi-turn expansions with a patient before producing a summary rendition for the doctor and why doctors do not intervene in these ‘side conversations’.

The RI data analysed in the present study also highlight the importance of connecting the interaction system with other social variables. The situations created for the simulations of legal communication were set in Guildford and referred, for example, to Guildford’s main shopping precinct. A number of expansions and additions emerged around such references. In identifying possible reasons for these, it proved useful to combine the micro-analysis with the knowledge that the interpreters participating in our study were not from Guildford and had, according to their own account, limited or no knowledge of Guildford and its local infrastructure. This is particularly important in so far as a lack of local knowledge could turn out to be one of the more persistent problems of remote interpreting.

A combination of ‘pure’ CA with approaches highlighting the embeddedness of interaction in other social systems is therefore likely to strengthen the insights gained from focussing on the interaction only. Gumperz (1982), for instance, champions approaches that rely on in-depth knowledge about the participants’ background in the very belief that it affects the way in which they produce and understand contributions to the interaction. Levinson (2005) acknowledges conversational interaction as a separate ‘system’ but advocates an approach whereby this system is linked to language and culture by intermediate variables such as types of social relationships and inferential heuristics. In relation to RI, Gumperz’ and Levinson’s approaches enable us to engage in a fine-grained analysis without rejecting other (e.g. pragmatic or cognitive) frameworks that rely on inferential heuristics, especially if these bring us closer to an explanation of the interpreter’s moves. The next section applies such an

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‘enriched’ CA framework to the analysis of additions and expansions in RI in a legal setting in order to explore and appreciate their impact on the interpreter’s participation under the conditions of virtual presence.

4 Results and discussion

Given the space limitations, this section focuses on two aspects of the additions/expansions identified in RI, i.e. their complexity and their appropriateness. Complexity will be addressed in section 4.1., demonstrating how the ‘enriched’ micro-analytical framework adopted here can capture the multi-dimensional nature of the additions/expansions, and how this analysis can resolve obscure cases and identify VC-related reasons for additions/expansions. Furthermore, the fine-grained look at the additions/expansions in section 4.1 will prepare the ground for a critical analysis in terms of their appropriateness in section 4.2. Whilst a normative framework distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary additions seems unhelpful for research into the interpreters’ motivations for adding elements and expanding turns, section 4.2 will illustrate the benefits—including the educational benefits—of a micro-analysis for understanding why some additions are more appropriate than others.

4.1 Capturing the complexity of additions and expansions in RI

This section draws on one interview sequence which contains a number of additions and expansions that are characteristic of the RI2/3 data; this also highlights the usefulness of analysing series of additions/expansions together. The sequence is taken from an interview with a female suspect (S) who was arrested after starting a fight with her friend Pauline outside a pub. The police officer (PO) tries to elicit how much S had drunk when the fight started, asking her to use a scale from one to ten to describe her state at that time. The additions and elaborations that will be analysed in this sequence are highlighted in bold.

Example 1

01 PO Yeah yeah ok. Right. W-we quite often use a scale of one being sober and ten being drunk. Whe:re were you on that one to ten scale?

02 I One being sober and ten being drun-. (.hh) Donc euh nous- nous utilise(h)z (hh) nous utilisons une échelle, hein, pour, euh: (.hh) pour graduer le:: (.hhh) le degré d'ébriété dans lequel vou::s vous trouvez si vous voulez. Donc d- un, c'est vous êtes sobre et dix euh vous êtes euh:: vous êtes saoule. Donc vous e- vous diriez vous étiez euh: où sur-sur cette échelle? (.) Quel chiffre vous donneriez?Well we use a scale to grade the level of drunkenness in which you found yourself, if you like. So one, you are sober and ten you are drunk. So where we- would you say you were on that scale? Which figure would you assign?

03 S Peut-être quatre ou cinq. Je n'en suis pas sure. [Pas si saoule que ça. Pauline [était au moins à sept.

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Maybe four or five. I’m not sure. Not that drunk. Pauline was at least at seven.

04 I [Maybe [Maybe four or five. Not not not rea:l-, I wasn't that drunk, you know. I'm not really sure but Pauli- I would say Pauline was on a: seven=I would grade her at seven (.) She was drunk.

05 PO Do you often go drinking at the Red Lion on a week night?

An initial exploration, drawing only on the existing frameworks for analysing additions/expansions in interpreter-mediated communication, i.e. without a micro-analytical focus, could be as follows:

(1) The interpreter begins turn 2 by repeating the values of the scale that the PO used (one being sober and ten being drun-) in English, i.e. in the source language. Starting a turn in the source language is not uncommon in (dialogue) interpreting and is normally linked to the cognitively demanding conditions under which interpreters process the source language and the speaker’s meaning (immediacy, stress, fatigue etc.). In this example, however, the use of the source language by the interpreter is unlikely to be an instance of interpreting ‘into the wrong language’. Rather than being a formulation of the PO’s entire utterance, the interpreter’s utterance seems to be an attempt to repeat only selected elements of the PO’s utterance and could therefore be understood as an attempt to request clarification. However, there is no exchange with the PO. Furthermore, unlike other clarification requests, it is not a non-rendition in Wadensjö’s (1998) terms, as it takes up some of the source speech elements. The utterance may also be candidate for Merlini & Favaron’s (2005) category of phatic additions, used to confirm understanding to the PO, but all in all it does not easily fall into any category of addition/expansion discussed in section 2.

(2) In the same turn, the interpreter then seems to make the idea of the scale more explicit (pour graduer le:: (.hhh) le degré d'ébriété dans lequel vou::s vous trouvez si vous voulez/to grade the level of drunkenness in which you found yourself, if you like). This is similar to expanding utterances as a way of designing them for a specific addressee (Baraldi 2012) and explaining the meaning of pain scales for patients (Angelleli 2012). It is also reflected in Jacobsen’s (2002) category of explicating additions, which add culture-specific information. Alternatively, the added element could be classified as an elaborating addition in Jacobsen’s scheme, because it expands on an item already mentioned (the scale). At the same time, the hesitant manner of presenting the utterance suggests that other factors, not captured by these classifications, are at play here.

(3) At the end of turn 2, the interpreter expands the officer’s main question (Whe:re were you on that one to ten scale?) into two questions (Donc vous e- vous diriez vous étiez euh: où sur-sur cette échelle?(.) Quel chiffre vous donneriez?/So where we- would you say you were on that scale? Which number would you assign?). This expansion has similarities with the expansion in (2) above, but given that the first question omits the reference to the points on the scale, whilst the second question makes a (vague) reference to numbers, the rationale for this expansion seems different.

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(4) In turn 4 the interpreter expands the suspect’s description of Pauline (Pauline était au moins à sept./Pauline was at least at seven.) by offering two versions (Pauli- I would say Pauline was on a: seven=I would grade her at seven). Apart from the omission of au moins/at least in both versions, the expansion is similar to the previous expansion, and as above, the reason is not obvious.

(5) At the end of turn 4, the interpreter adds an assessment (She was drunk.). In Jacobsen’s (2002) scheme, this could be conceptualised as an emphasising addition increasing the pragmatic force of the utterance, i.e. here the assumed suspect’s intention to set herself apart from her friend Pauline, and would have significant pragmatic impact. Davitti (2013) treats similar cases as upgrade moves by the interpreter, also highlighting the significant impact on the outcomes of the communication. A number of questions arise here. One concerns the appropriateness of the conclusion that the friend was drunk, i.e. the question of whether or not this was indeed part of the suspect’s intended meaning. This is a question for pragmatics. Assuming the interpreter had come to the conclusion that it was, a related question would be whether it is appropriate for the interpreter to present this conclusion explicitly here. As this is particularly important in the legal setting, the crucial question in relation to RI is why the interpreter decided to present this conclusion explicitly, to what extent this decision was shaped by the RI situation and how it affects the interaction.

The picture emerging here is that this initial analysis, which draws on a priori categories, remains largely inconclusive. It omits many of the small details that play a crucial role in micro-analytical approaches and does not take into account possible links between individual additions. The next step will be to examine in more detail how the interpreter constructs and designs her utterances in this sequence, i.e. the resources she uses, and what can be inferred from this regarding the additions and expansions in this sequence.

(1') Although the interpreter begins turn 2 by repeating the values of the scale in the source language, which may sometimes be construed as a clarification request, she continues her utterance in French without waiting for confirmation. She briefly looks at the screen at the very beginning of this utterance but then looks down at her notes. Repeats of a previous speaker’s utterance are common in monolingual conversation. They were originally analysed as a display of understanding (Sacks et al. 1974), which is reflected in Merlini & Favaron’s (2005) category of phatic additions. However, Svennevig (2004) highlights the crucial role of intonation here, pointing out that falling intonation in repeats is normally associated with a display of understanding, whilst rising intonation can indicate a problem of understanding or a degree of uncertainty, with the result that repeats can have very different interactional values. The addition in question has a slightly rising intonation contour before it ends abruptly. Taking into account the addition’s composition including its intonation contour and the abrupt end it seems plausible that it is indeed motivated by the interpreter’s initial difficulty in processing the idea of the scale and meant as a clarification request, as also suggested by the brief look at the screen, but that the repetition of the decisive elements of the original utterance enables her to confirm the idea to herself, making further confirmation redundant. This is supported by another important element of the micro-analysis, i.e. the

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position of the utterance both within the turn, where it occurs in turn-initial position, preceding the interpretation into French, and within the episode, where it occurs 19 minutes into the interview. Analyses of interpreting problems in RI, which show signs of fatigue and a decline in performance after approximately 15-16 minutes (Moser-Mercer 2005, Braun 2013), corroborate the assumption that this addition is rooted in an interpreting problem (here: grasping the idea of the scale). Moreover, the phenomenon of “speaking to oneself” may have been encouraged by the interpreter’s physical separation from the others.

(2') The expansion regarding the scale of drunkenness in turn 2 is marked by paralinguistic features including hesitations, self-repairs, word repetitions, elongations of syllables, and breathing in, which occur before the main lexical units (graduer/grade, degré d'ébriété/level of drunkenness, se trouver/find oneself). Paralinguistic features occurring in this position have elsewhere been shown to indicate speech planning problems (Levelt 1983) or search for a word (Schegloff 2010). Whilst this expansion then may indeed be what Angelelli (2012) describes as a culturally appropriate explanation in such contexts, the paralinguistic cues, which form part of the composition of this addition, suggest that the interpreter finds it difficult to produce a concise and coherent account of how the scale works and that this interferes with her intention to produce a cultural explanation. Furthermore, here again, the position of the paralinguistic cues both within the turn, where they precede key lexical items, and within the episode as a whole, i.e. 19 minutes into the interview, lend support to the hypothesis that the interpreter struggles to produce a coherent utterance.

(3') The pair of questions at the end of turn 2 begins with a self-repair and an elongated syllable before the first question word (où/where) is uttered. This verbal hesitation is accompanied by a repeated circular hand movement, i.e. a co-speech gesture that frequently accompanies the search for a word or concept (Ladewig 2011). Interestingly, the end points of the scale, one and ten, which are included in the PO’s question, are omitted from the interpreter’s first formulation. Whilst the second formulation may have the effect of an elaborating addition (Jacobson 2002) or a re-formulation to optimise audience design (Baraldi 2012), as described above, the micro-context suggests that it is at least partly a result of difficulties with producing this question in the first place. The two formulations may thus constitute an approximation (Kohn & Kalina 1996). The abstract first question où sur-sur cette échelle/where on that scale, which omits the numbers constituting the end points of the scale, is followed by a concrete reference to the numbers of the scale (quel chiffre/which number) in the second question. The small pause between the two questions suggests that the reformulation is likely to be a result of the interpreter’s output monitoring (for similar cases, see Braun 2004, 2007).

(4') The elaboration in turn 4 (I would grade her at seven.) is again likely to have the effect of an elaborating addition, here elaborating on the preceding element (Pauline was on a: seven), but the micro-analysis suggests that it is brought about by a (partially) different set of circumstances than elaboration (3) above. It is produced following two instances of overlapping speech with the suspect, which were initiated by the interpreter. From the position of the overlaps it seems that the interpreter begins to speak as soon as the suspect

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finishes the expected part of the answer, i.e. grading herself, but the interpreter’s rendition overlaps with the unexpected continuation of the suspect’s turn, i.e. the grading of her friend (Pauline était au moins à sept./Pauline was at least at seven.). The interpreter then produces two versions of the overlapped utterance. Notably the second is latched onto the first without a pause and is uttered without a falling intonation contour. One possibility is that the added second version is again a result of monitoring and an attempt to repair the unidiomatic first version (Pauline was on a: seven) and/or to integrate the originally omitted element au moins/at least. Given the absence of even the slightest pause or hesitation marker between the two versions, these hypotheses are less likely. At least the monitoring would have had to take place while the interpreter is speaking, which is possible (‘simultaneous monitoring’, Braun 2004, 2007). At the same time, the latching of the two utterances and their parallel intonation pattern (slightly rising intonation contour, repetition of, and emphasis on, the final word) suggest that the interpreter elaborates this element to put emphasis on it in an attempt to ensure that the message is not lost after the overlaps. This is also in line with the observation that overlapping speech is perceived to be disturbing in videoconference communication (Braun 2004, 2012).

(5') The final added element (She was drunk.) is undoubtedly the most controversial one from a normative point of view. Following Jacobsen’s (2002) account, this element was characterised above as increasing the pragmatic force of the original utterance, but its motive remains obscure in this analysis. The micro-analysis shows that the addition is produced after a small gap, making it a candidate for a turn increment (Schegloff 1996), i.e. an element that is produced after a turn is potentially complete. The micro-context preceding the increment yields important cues as to the motive for it. Firstly, the overlapping speech, self-repairs and hesitations in the interpreter’s turn may have led her to believe that a clarification or upgrade is in order. Secondly, the segment preceding the increment (i.e. I would grade her at seven), which is the elaboration discussed in (4’) above, is uttered without falling intonation contour, calling for another element to complete the turn. The increment, which sums up the interpreter’s assessment of the suspect’s meaning and has a falling intonation pattern, is likely to be an attempt to achieve both further clarification and closure. It could be the result of a monitoring process, taking place during the pause preceding the increment. As in the upgrade moves that Davitti (2013) identified in her data, the added assessment brings the turn and the sequence to a close; the officer’s subsequent turn constitutes a topic change. However, the closure comes at a price, ending in a statement whose semantic accuracy and pragmatic appropriateness is debatable. The interpreter’s repeated attempt at completing turn 4 may in itself not be RI-specific, but Braun (2004) finds increments to be frequent in VC communication. Although her analysis of monolingual videoconferences linked increments to the transmission delay and the resulting unnatural pauses between turns, the interpreter’s remoteness could have a similar effect.

Considering how the sequence analysed above unfolds, it seems fair to say that the interpreter struggles to understand and express the idea of the scale here and that the additions and elaborations she produces are linked to these difficulties. At the very least, their motivations and functions seem to be more complex than the initial analysis based on existing categories

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suggests. They often have a VC-specific or VC-related dimension. Two of the common drivers for the additions/expansions seem to be emphasis to ensure that the message gets across, and clarification.

4.2 Exploring the appropriateness of additions: the case of added tag questions

As outlined above, this section explores what the micro-analytical approach can contribute regarding the appropriateness of an addition/elaboration. The section uses one group of additions that occurs only in RI2/RI3, i.e. the experiments conducted after a phase of familiarisation and training of the interpreters involved. It is a group of French expressions such as d’accord and c’est ça in the interpreters’ versions of utterances by the PO. These expressions have a range of functions in French but when used in turn-final position and with rising intonation, they normally serve as general tag questions. The following example, in which the PO explains to the suspect the practicalities of the right to access a lawyer at the beginning of the interview, illustrates this.

Example 2

01 P If you wish to speak to a solicitor please let me know and we'll stop the interview to allow you to speak to one [(.) either the duty solicitor or s- or=or one of your own choosing.

02 I [(.hh) (.hh) Si vous souhaitez eh consulter un avocat, à n'importe quel moment durant cette interrogation, (.h) vous n'avez qu'à me le faire savoir, e::t nous ferons venir un avocat ou p- vous vous allons- vous allez pouvoir vous entretenir avec un avocat de votre choix. (.) D'accord?If you wish to consult a lawyer at any time during this interrogation you need but let me know and we will call for a lawyer or you will- you will be able to speak with a lawyer of your choice. Ok?

03 ((S nods))

This utterance occurs in the introductory phase of the interview. In this phase rapport-building and alignment between PO and suspect play an important role (Rombouts 2012), suggesting that the officer’s statement carries an implicit request for confirmation. The interpreter’s addition seems to hone this request. At a more basic level, it also ensures the suspect’s attention to what is being said. Merlini & Favaron (2005) would probably classify this as a phatic addition. Although tag questions like this rarely invite full responses, they normally open up the communication channel for feedback. Further support for this analysis comes from the first part of the interpreter’s utterance. She elaborates on the possibility of consulting a lawyer by adding that this can be done at any time during the interview, which can be analysed as an attempt to align the understanding of the interlocutors, who are from different speech communities (Angelelli 2012). Eliciting confirmation or feedback from the suspect could be a complementary way of achieving alignment.

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Arguably, however, this addition has an additional dimension. In the second part of the interpreter’s utterance, the original idea that the interview can be stopped to enable the suspect to speak to a duty solicitor or a lawyer of his choice becomes blurred, as the interpreter conflates the idea that a lawyer can be called to the police station with the idea of talking to a lawyer the suspect chooses (as opposed to a duty solicitor). It is possible that the interpreter either did not know or was unable to retrieve the French equivalent for duty solicitor. Whatever the reason, the tag question may, in part, have been prompted by this and may have the additional function of checking the suspect’s understanding not of the PO’s question but of the interpreter’s formulation. The pause preceding the tag question points to a monitoring process. The addition could thus be an instance of the interpreter’s increasing her visibility. The interpreter’s remoteness may also have contributed to this.

A similar case arises in the next example, which features a procedural routine. The suspect demonstrates a physical action, and the PO explains the action to ensure it is recorded on the audio tape (see also section 3).

Example 3

01 P O::k so for the benefit of the tape you're s- you're showing how she shoved you. [One-handed, on the left-hand side of your body.

02 I [(.hh) Donc euh: ce- je- v- pour euh pour que ce soit précisé da:ns dans l'enregistrement, vous avez montré:: euh phy- comment elle vous a: poussée, hein. Vous avez montré votre bras gauche qu- qui a poussé c- (.) enfin le bras gauche qui vous aurait poussée, hein, sur- sur le côté gauche de votre corps=c’est ça? So uhm for uh to make this clear in in the recording, you have shown uhm phy- how she pushed you, right. You have shown your left arm uhm which which pushed or in fact the left arm that pushed you, er, on at the left-hand side of your body. Is this so?

03 (0.5) ((S looks down))

04 I [C'est bien ça?Is this the case?

05 P [Right.

Here again, the PO’s description implicitly invites confirmation, and perhaps even more so than the explanation of the suspect’s rights in the previous example, as the description represents only one possible way of depicting the suspect’s physical action and could thus be disputed. Moreover, the description occurs in the phase of the interview in which the suspect tells his version; clarification and confirmation are crucial here. The chosen question tag c’est ça/is this so reflects this insofar as it arguably carries a stronger pragmatic force than d’accord//OK, and the interpreter’s reformulation of the question with more emphasis (C'est bien ça/Is this the case) after the 0.5 second gap corroborates this, making the case similar to example 2.

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As in example 2, however, further analysis also suggests that the elicitation of feedback from the suspect is not the only reason for the addition. The many hesitations and self-repairs in the interpreter’s utterance point to her difficulty in visualising and relaying the PO’s description of what the suspect shows. It is possible that the interpreter’s physical separation from the main interlocutors contributed to the difficulty of processing and rendering this abstract description after seeing the actual physical action being demonstrated by the suspect. Following this assumption, the added question could, as in example 2, have the additional function of checking understanding (and prompting the suspect to correct the interpreter’s description if necessary), and the interpreter becomes ‘visible’. The overlap of the tagged question with the PO’s utterance (turn 5) is likely to have reinforced this impression for the other participants, although this is coincidental. There are two points to note in relation to the two examples, both ensuing from the micro-analysis. The first is that the additions have multiple reasons. They are at least in part a result of the interpreters’ difficulty in rendering the original utterances, which in one case is potentially compounded by the interpreter’s remoteness. This likens them to the additions and expansions discussed in section 4.1 above in terms of complexity. The second point concerns the intention underlying the POs’ utterances. The analysis of the content and position of these utterances suggests that they are manifestations of an interviewing technique and implicitly warrant confirmation. The professional profile of the interpreters, who are experienced police interpreters, implies familiarity with interviewing techniques. In line with this, the added questions can be analysed as being part of the interpreters’ utterance design for the recipient, making something explicit that was implicitly present in the original utterance.

However, familiarity with interviewing techniques did not always prevent problems at a micro-level in RI. This is illustrated by the following example, which refers to the suspect’s claim that she had lent money to her friend Pauline and that their argument in the pub was about paying the money back. In turn 1, the PO recalls an earlier statement by suspect before putting a question about this to her in turn 3.

Example 4

01 P You sai:d that you and Pauline could not reach an agreement in the pub:h.

02 I (.hh) Vou- vous avez dit que P- vous et Pauline vous vous n:'êtes pas arrivées à vou:: à vous entendre, hein, quand vous étiez dans le pub:h. C'est ça?You- you said that P- you and Pauline you could not come to an agreement, mhm, when you were in the pub. Is that right?

03 P Do you think anybody witnessed or overheard your conversation about the loan of two thousand pounds?

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The example is taken from the phase in which the PO asks specific questions, which follows the phase in which the suspect is allowed to tell her version. In this phase, the PO is interested in questioning the details provided, e.g. to uncover potential inconsistencies. Bearing this in mind, the micro-analytical framework is well-suited to explain why the addition of the question tag in the interpreter’s turn is not appropriate here. Turn 1 constitutes a type of pre-sequence (Schegloff 2007), which projects the question asked in turn 3. Turn 1 is delivered with falling intonation, indicating that it serves to establish the specific information to which this question pertains (i.e. you and Pauline could not reach an agreement in the pub:h) as background, i.e. as information that is ‘given’ rather than requiring confirmation. The tagged question, which has the effect of eliciting confirmation, interferes with the PO’s strategy.

The instance occurs close to the end of the interview. The interpreter may have begun to lose concentration and may not have fully engaged with the content of the PO’s utterance. At the same time, it is the PO’s behaviour that needs to be scrutinised here. As Schegloff (2007: 46) points out, pre-sequences “need to be fashioned as such” in order to prevent them from being understood “as what the speaker means to be saying/doing in its own right, often with untoward results”. Shegloff assumes that “specific practices of talking” are involved in marking an utterance as a pre-sequence. Pausing for the interpreter after the completion of the pre-sequence may send the wrong signal to the interpreter. This is especially important in the VC situation, where it is normally more difficult for the interpreter to pick up all the small conversational features that could indicate the speaker’s intention to continue his talk.

This section demonstrates that by combining the micro-analysis of the interpreter’s moves with considerations of macro-variables such as his/her professional profile and assumed procedural knowledge it is possible to examine the appropriateness of an addition/expansion in the context in which it is produced. The analysis shows, for instance, that the added elements explicitating procedurally relevant aspects of the interaction (such as eliciting confirmation from the suspect) in examples 2 and 3 are highly appropriate regardless of any further functions they may have or any other aspects they may reveal. At the same time, example 4 illustrates how the VC situation may interfere with the interpreter’s procedural knowledge, especially when the PO’s communicative behaviour is not adapted to the VC situation, leading to inappropriate additions/expansions on the part of the interpreter. In line with the dual aim of this paper, this section thus shows that the interpreter’s virtual (as opposed to physical) presence in RI may undermine his/her participation in the interaction and that the ‘enriched’ micro-analytical approach is useful for uncovering the reasons why.

5 Conclusions

The aims of this paper were to explore the functions and motives of additions and expansions in RI with special reference to legal contexts, to examine what they reveal about interpreting problems and the interpreter’s participation in RI, and to evaluate the affordances of a micro-analytical approach to this exploration. The fine-grain analysis, taking into account not only the resources that interpreters employ in the production of added elements but also macro-variables such as the interpreters’ professional profile and the specifics of RI and VC

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communication, has highlighted the complex and multidimensional nature of additions and expansions in RI.

One observation that should be highlighted is the dichotomy of motivations for the additions/elaborations in RI. Like those in onsite interpreting, additions/elaborations in RI often represent strategic attempts at producing a target version that meets the perceived needs of the recipient, as outlined in section 2 of this paper. At the same time, several of the additions/elaborations found in RI seem to be induced by, and indicative of, interpreting difficulties that can be linked to cognitive overload, fatigue, stress or physical distance to the primary participants. This dichotomy is illustrated, for instance, by example 1 (section 4.1), where the interpreter’s strategic attempt to explicitate the meaning of the scale of drunkenness for the suspect is partially obscured by the many reformulations and approximations which are indicative of her difficulties in expressing the very idea of this scale itself. Moreover, additions/elaborations in RI sometimes cause other problems, as evidenced by example 4 (section 4.2), i.e. the tagged question that interferes with the police officer’s interviewing strategy.

All of this suggests that the VC situation itself is an important driving force for the added elements, either overtly (as in the interpreter’s instruction to one of the participants to turn his head more towards the camera) or covertly (as evidenced by approximations, reformulations and increments, which are indicative of interpreting problems), while further additions/expansions are aimed at reducing the perceived lack of social presence in the VC and increasing the rapport with the primary interlocutors (especially tag questions to check understanding).

Arguably, the multidimensionality of the additions/elaborations in RI and the interpreter’s virtual presence bring about subtle changes to the patterns of participation that have been identified for face-to-face interpreting by Wadensjö (1998), Baraldi (2012) and others, as outlined in section 2. On the one hand, there is a danger that the interpreters’ strategic attempts at tailoring their renditions to the recipients’ needs become less successful when they are conflated with additions/elaborations caused by, or leading to, interpreting problems. On the other hand, the additions/elaborations triggered by the interpreter’s virtual presence seem to increase his/her visibility. The impact of this on the participants’ perception of the interpreter will need to be further investigated but the following two tendencies can be noted.

The combination of the quantitative analysis of the additions in RI in our original study with the findings of the micro-analytical investigation reported here reveals a tendency on the part of the interpreters to over-elaborate their utterances. This creates lengthy interpreter turns which—apart from being inefficient and potentially tiring to listen to—fragment the talk-in-interaction and carry the risk of shifts in meaning through ‘over-interpretations’ of the original utterances. The implications are twofold. At the informational level, there are consequences in terms of accuracy. At the interactional level, as said above, the interpreter’s participation status and visibility may be affected. Both has potentially negative implications

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for the perception of the interpreter’s professionalism and ultimately for the trust in the interpreter working in the virtual space.

At the same time, the additions and expansions in RI are also associated with a positive tendency, i.e. an adaptation process. Whilst expansions in the form of multiple reformulations and approximations resulting from interpreting difficulties may not be elegant, they are evidence of the interpreters’ achievement orientation, i.e. a strong trait of professionalism, as they are normally aimed at ensuring the communicative message is conveyed irrespective of problems. Such patterns have been identified as being characteristic of early stages of adaptation processes in RI (Braun 2004). The addition of some of the meta-discursive elements, especially the comments on technical problems and tag questions, have a similar function, whilst other such elements operate on the interactional level, resulting in a more explicit co-ordination of the interaction. The ultimate impact of potentially RI-specific patterns of addition/expansion on the communicative event is likely to depend on the communicative situation (e.g. legal or medical interpreting) and will require further investigation potentially involving larger data samples.

If the additions/expansions encountered in our RI data are at least in part a result of the VC situation, then regardless of their impact on the communication as such, another important question arising is to what extent they are appropriate in the context of legal interpreting. This also needs further study, e.g. in the form of perception studies involving the legal stakeholders. However, as the brief analysis of the appropriateness of tag questions in relation to their sequential position in the interview demonstrates, micro-analytical methods represent a promising approach. In the meantime, the exploration of added tag questions in particular is also a useful reminder that interpreter-mediated interaction is a joint venture of all participants and that the ways in which the primary interlocutors participate, use their interactional resources and shape their interactional contributions also play an important part in the success (or otherwise) of RI. This, in turn, raises important points for education and training not only for interpreters but also for the legal, medical or other stakeholders participating in RI.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by two grants from the European Commission Directorate-General for Justice (JLS/2008/JPEN/03, JUST/2010/JPEN/AG/1558), which are gratefully acknowledged.

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