A theory of nonsense? Challenges and strategies in interpreting buzzwords

Diplôme Master A theory of nonsense? Challenges and strategies in interpreting buzzwords eng 2025 author Selmouni Kahina 425678 director Seeber Kilian 0000-0002-7903-6246 513613 Département d'interprétation (INT) This thesis examines how professional interpreters handle buzzwords in institutional conference settings. Buzzwords such as ‘sustainable’, ‘empower’, and ‘resilience’ are pervasive in institutional discourse, where they function less as carriers of meaning than as rhetorical signals. The study investigates whether such terms pose specific challenges for interpreters and what strategies are used to address them. Using a corpus-based approach, 372 occurrences of ten buzzwords were analyzed in English–French simultaneous interpretation at the 112th International Labour Conference. Each rendition was coded according to seven strategies and annotated for nonverbal disfluency markers. Findings indicate that buzzwords create processing strain, often triggering compression tactics (omission and generalization). Transcoding predominated only where a well-established equivalent exists in French. Verbal forms such as ‘deliver’ and ‘leverage’ proved most problematic. The study suggests the need for interpreters to anticipate buzzword usage and develop pragmatic tactics to render their communicative impact while preserving cognitive resources. Simultaneous Interpreting Buzzwords Strategies Cultural-bound items Institutional Discourse Dewey 418.02 Maîtrise universitaire en interprétation de conférence 113 Département d'interprétation 93 false 0985442d-72d9-44b5-bd71-5519ba36400e Master thesis Public MAThesis-Buzzwords_SELMOUNI.pdf 847091 application/pdf 326da8425dab88da1e1a88c6cb8f5af9f38c0cdd4f5fc0e024f445c82dd1fe27 openAccess Faculté de traduction et d'interprétation / Département d'interprétation

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A theory of nonsense? Challenges and strategies in interpreting buzzwords				2025	36	249

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Selmouni, Kahina