Constructed dialogue in signed-to-spoken interpreting: renditions as a reconfiguration of utterance semiotics

This study investigates how two interpreters mobilize different language resources when faced with a semiotically complex construction in Norwegian Sign Language (NTS): constructed dialogue. Drawing on a semiotic approach to languages and multimodal conversation analysis, I analyze four sequences of interpreted semi-naturalistic conversation. Applying a semiotic approach to languages, three main types of resources serve as analytical categories of source utterances and renditions: descriptions , depictions , and indications . Part of interpreters’ task entails either maintaining or changing the depictive character of the source utterance’s constructed dialogue sequences, but this is only one of many choices. Fine-grained analysis reveals that interpreters recruit from a semiotically diverse repertoire to reconfigure the semiotics of the source utterance. The interpreter’s task of situating the complex semiotics of source utterances is highlighted. When the interpreter renders another participant’s utterance, they reconfigure the semiotic resources to ensure the rendition fits appropriately within its target language ecology, thus assuring common ground between participants. This study contributes to existing knowledge of interpreting as a discourse process by analyzing the semiotics of signed-to-spoken interpreting.