Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Kim B. Kurz. (2021). "No Two Interpretations Are Alike: A Study of Constructed Meaning in English to American Sign Language Interpretations in Education. In ADVANCES IN EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETING, edited by Elizabeth A. Winston and Stephen B. Fitzmaurice, 175-192.
https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/A/Advances-in-Educational-Interpreting
This video may not be repurposed or incorporated into other works in any way without the express written consent of the signer and the chapter author.
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Hello! My name is Kim Kurz. The title of my book chapter is “No Two Interpretations Are Alike: A Study of Constructed Meaning in English to American Sign Language Interpretations in Education.” Focusing on the theory from Langacker who is a Cognitive Linguist. In Langacker’s work, he discusses different domains related to “construal.” However, for the purpose of this study, I choose to focus on the “viewing arrangement” theory which means how the viewers and the situations are being viewed and how “an expression’s meaning is not just the conceptual content it evokes how that content is construed.” For example, in English, “The lamp is on the table” which makes sense to us. Suppose an English speaker said, “The lamp is under the table” – it might sound unnatural to some speakers depending on their viewing arrangement. Another example would be – suppose a signer signed GIRL-1cl-standing-front-of-TREE, the viewer might misinterpret that the girl is actually standing behind the tree, depending on his/her viewing arrangement. How we evoke concepts and view things or situations in a certain arrangement is based on our life experiences, our worldly experience, and how we feel or perceive a certain thing or situation. All of us have our own “lens” and “interpretations” of things or situations. We are human beings and our brains do not always evoke concepts nor see things in the same way as others. Imagine yourself going to a mineralogical display at a museum where visitors can examine a variety of gems, rocks, and minerals. Some of the visitors will prefer the more sparkling-looking gems, whereas others will prefer the nonsparkling kind. Some will find rocks of certain colors more appealing to them. This is similar to Deaf people’s preferences of how our interpreters provide their interpretations/translations. The hearing professor with expertise in the American-Spanish War who taught History to college undergraduates was recruited for this study. Three interpreters were also recruited for this research project.
The first interpreter was a child of Deaf adults (Coda), the second interpreter was a second language learner of ASL and an educational interpreter who regularly interprets college liberal arts courses for more than 10 years and the third interpreter was a Deaf certified interpreter. All of the interpreters interpreted the hearing professor’s 30-minute lecture. Both the Coda and L2 interpreters interpreted directly from the lecture while the third interpreter, the CDI interpreted from watching the L2 interpreter.
Three interpretations were analyzed using Langacker’s viewing arrangement framework and found that all had different viewing arrangements. The English sentence in the lecture was “The Spanish American War of 1898 was a Truly Global War”. The Coda interpreter signed as of the map was in front of him and he was looking directly at it. The L2 interpreter used a classifier for “earth” or possibly a “globe” to show the word “global”. The CDI interpreter took on a surrogate as if he were a teacher teaching in front of a classroom with a map behind him on the wall or blackboard behind him and he turned his head backward and pointed to the map behind him.
Although none of those interpretations were erroneous at all – it proved Langacker’s viewing arrangement framework at work. Those interpreters clearly had different conceptualizations that evoked in their minds based on their life experiences and worldly views. Thus, no interpretations are exactly the same.
Kim B. Kurz. (2021). "No Two Interpretations Are Alike: A Study of Constructed Meaning in English to American Sign Language Interpretations in Education. In ADVANCES IN EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETING, edited by Elizabeth A. Winston and Stephen B. Fitzmaurice, 175-192.
https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/A/Advances-in-Educational-Interpreting
This video may not be repurposed or incorporated into other works in any way without the express written consent of the signer and the chapter author.
+++++++
Hello! My name is Kim Kurz. The title of my book chapter is “No Two Interpretations Are Alike: A Study of Constructed Meaning in English to American Sign Language Interpretations in Education.” Focusing on the theory from Langacker who is a Cognitive Linguist. In Langacker’s work, he discusses different domains related to “construal.” However, for the purpose of this study, I choose to focus on the “viewing arrangement” theory which means how the viewers and the situations are being viewed and how “an expression’s meaning is not just the conceptual content it evokes how that content is construed.” For example, in English, “The lamp is on the table” which makes sense to us. Suppose an English speaker said, “The lamp is under the table” – it might sound unnatural to some speakers depending on their viewing arrangement. Another example would be – suppose a signer signed GIRL-1cl-standing-front-of-TREE, the viewer might misinterpret that the girl is actually standing behind the tree, depending on his/her viewing arrangement. How we evoke concepts and view things or situations in a certain arrangement is based on our life experiences, our worldly experience, and how we feel or perceive a certain thing or situation. All of us have our own “lens” and “interpretations” of things or situations. We are human beings and our brains do not always evoke concepts nor see things in the same way as others. Imagine yourself going to a mineralogical display at a museum where visitors can examine a variety of gems, rocks, and minerals. Some of the visitors will prefer the more sparkling-looking gems, whereas others will prefer the nonsparkling kind. Some will find rocks of certain colors more appealing to them. This is similar to Deaf people’s preferences of how our interpreters provide their interpretations/translations. The hearing professor with expertise in the American-Spanish War who taught History to college undergraduates was recruited for this study. Three interpreters were also recruited for this research project.
The first interpreter was a child of Deaf adults (Coda), the second interpreter was a second language learner of ASL and an educational interpreter who regularly interprets college liberal arts courses for more than 10 years and the third interpreter was a Deaf certified interpreter. All of the interpreters interpreted the hearing professor’s 30-minute lecture. Both the Coda and L2 interpreters interpreted directly from the lecture while the third interpreter, the CDI interpreted from watching the L2 interpreter.
Three interpretations were analyzed using Langacker’s viewing arrangement framework and found that all had different viewing arrangements. The English sentence in the lecture was “The Spanish American War of 1898 was a Truly Global War”. The Coda interpreter signed as of the map was in front of him and he was looking directly at it. The L2 interpreter used a classifier for “earth” or possibly a “globe” to show the word “global”. The CDI interpreter took on a surrogate as if he were a teacher teaching in front of a classroom with a map behind him on the wall or blackboard behind him and he turned his head backward and pointed to the map behind him.
Although none of those interpretations were erroneous at all – it proved Langacker’s viewing arrangement framework at work. Those interpreters clearly had different conceptualizations that evoked in their minds based on their life experiences and worldly views. Thus, no interpretations are exactly the same.
