Using Compression Strategy in Sign Language Translation

This article examines compression as a meaning-oriented strategy in sign language translation and interpreting. Compression is understood not as arbitrary shortening, but as the selective reformulation of a source message to preserve its essential propositional content, pragmatic force, and communicative purpose within the visual-spatial and temporal conditions of signed communication. Drawing on translation and interpreting studies and on research into sign language interpreting strategies, the article uses a qualitative, descriptive and example-based approach. It distinguishes legitimate compression from harmful omission and discusses summarising, generalisation, lexical substitution, restructuring, and the reduction of redundant material. Illustrative examples show how a lengthy spoken message may be rendered more economically in a target sign language while retaining the central claim, relevant participants, causal relations, and necessary qualifications. The article argues that successful compression depends on discourse analysis, audience needs, linguistic competence, and continuous monitoring of comprehension. It concludes that compression should be evaluated by communicative adequacy rather than by the number of words or signs produced. The proposed analytical framework can support interpreter education and the assessment of sign language interpreting performance.