Exploring information processing as a new research orientation beyond cognitive operations and their management in interpreting studies: taking stock and looking forward
Binhua Wang
Abstract
This article is a conceptual discussion reflecting on research trends in interpreting studies. It begins with an overview of the long-term focus on cognitive operations and their management in interpreting studies. By revisiting the multiple dimensions and distinctive features of interpreting, it reveals the necessity to go beyond the cognitive approach. Through a stock-taking of relevant literature, it identifies the pivotal role of information processing in interpreting. Proceeding from the distinctive features of interpreting, it proposes a framework on how information processing can be studied, which highlights four lines of research that call for new attention in interpreting studies: (1) how information is processed multimodally as a hyper-discourse in interpreting; (2) how information is processed strategically under the conditions of immediacy and singular presentation in interpreting; (3) how information is processed as meaning-making in interpreting as interpersonal communication and sociocultural interaction; (4) how information processing in interpreting has language-pair specificity.