Dependency Distance Differences across Interpreting Types: Implications for Cognitive Demand.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Computational Linguistics

Background:

• Interpreting is a complex cognitive task impacting language processing.
• Dependency distance measures sentence complexity and cognitive load.
• Previous research has not extensively compared dependency distance across interpreting modalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how dependency distance differs among simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting, and read-out translated speech.
• To explore the relationship between interpreting type and cognitive constraints reflected in sentence structure.
• To provide novel insights into the cognitive demands of different interpreting modes.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a treebank containing annotated output texts from three interpreting types.
• Quantitative measurement of dependency distance in sentences produced during simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting, and read-out speech.
• Comparative statistical analysis of dependency distance across the interpreting modalities.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in dependency distance were observed among the three interpreting types.
• Consecutive interpreting texts exhibited the smallest dependency distance, followed by simultaneous interpreting and read-out speech.
• These findings suggest varying cognitive loads associated with different interpreting tasks.

Conclusions:

• Interpreting significantly influences the dependency distance of output sentences, reflecting cognitive constraints.
• Consecutive interpreting appears to impose heavier cognitive demands than simultaneous interpreting, as indicated by reduced dependency distance.
• The study highlights the cognitive intensity of interpreting and its structural impact on language production.