3.1.4. Verb Tenses

According to R. Jones, it is also important to note down tenses of verbs. That means “when noting verbs, interpreters should thus take care to note the tense correctly, and if appropriate the mode, in particular conditional” [43:42]. The modes and tenses of verbs have decisive influence on the meaning of a sentence.

The tenses that are most important to note are the present, the past, the future and the conditional.

The most effective way to note them is to put a graphic sign near the verb form. For example, “ll” sign will indicate the future, a “d” sign will show the past, a circumflexed stress ^ will show the conditional, whereas no extra sign will be used for the present tense:

We say we || ⁰

We said we || ^d

We will say we || ^-ll

We would say we || ^

He likes to work : he ♥ wk ⁰

He is living in the States : He liv.

usa

As for modal verbs, it is advisable to note them in English, since they are rather short : may, must, can, want, etc. or should = shd; could = cd; would = ^ ; must = › ; may = may .

To sum up, in the notes of consecutive interpreter, at least main ideas and the links between them must appear in order to help the interpreter visualize the structure of the speech. Besides, to relieve the memory, the interpreter should also note down “noncontextualized” (precision) elements including numbers, dates, proper names, lists of things and terminologies, etc. Other things like tenses of verbs and points of view of the speaker may be or may not be noted down, depending on the decision made by each individual interpreter under certain circumstances. Some interpreters prefer the notes with very little detail while others prefer taking advantage of the notes with as much detail as possible. Both attitudes are justifiable provided that notes are not allowed to be counterproductive, harming the interpreter’s listening comprehension and target language production.

3.2. How to Note

In order to take notes effectively, the most important thing the interpreter must do is to decide what to note. However, according to experienced interpreters, how to note is also very important. Obviously, notes that are clearly separated and logically organized help the interpreter avoid all confusion when reading back notes. And notes using abbreviations and symbols are very helpful in activating the most information with the least effort.

Above all, notes should be as economical as possible in order to save the interpreter’s effort on writing. In this respect, shortenings, abbreviations and symbols appear to be efficient tools.

3.2.1. Shortenings

Shortenings and abbreviations help the interpreter take notes quickly, saving time spent on other activities in the process of interpreting.

At first, some general methods of shortening words well be considered here, i.e., those used any persons both professional interpreters and laymen who are not engaged in interpreting. Then, we shall turn to those techniques peculiar to the interpreter’s note-taking system.

There are two basic methods of producing shortenings: 1) clipping and 2) graphical abbreviations:

Clipping (shortening proper) means that the word is formed from the syllable of the original word, which may loose its beginning, its ending, both beginning and ending, its central part, or the whole form of the word may be transformed:

1. so called aphaeresis,the process when the word looses its beginning, e.g.: phone (telephone), bus (omnibus, autobus), cycle (bicycle), copter (helicopter), car (motor-car), coon (raccoon), cola (coca-cola), etc.;

2. so called apocope – the process when the word looses its ending, e.g.: exam (examination), prof (professor), vac (vacation), lab (laboratory), alg (algebra), algo (algorithm), ad (advertisement), admin (administrator, administration), cab (cabriolet), lib (liberty, liberation), gym (gymnasium, gymnastics), cert (certificate, certainly), demo (demonstration), movie (moving-picture), Oct. (October), perm (permanent wave), pop (from popular music, art, singer) etc.;

3. word looses both beginning and ending, e.g.: fridge (refrigerator), flu (influenza), tec (detective) etc.;

4. so called syncope – the process when the word looses its central part, e. g.: circs (circumstances), conds (conditions), pants (pantaloons), combs (combination garments), specs (spectacles, specifications), maths (from mathematics) Dr. (doctor), Mr. (mister), St (saint), etc.;

5. the whole form of the word may be transformed, e.g.: Mrs. (mistress, missis), Xmas (Christmas), bike (bicycle), nightie (nightdress), hanky (handkerchief), mike (microphone), ammo (ammunition).

O.V. Rebriy, the Ukrainian author of the manual on interpreter’s note-taking, has set up the following rules of “shortened literal note-taking”:

1) It is reasonable to take shortened literal notes in Ukrainian. English is less suitable for such shortenings as the difference between spelling and pronunciation is more considerable.

2) Redundancy of language allows partial writing of the word letters. In Ukrainian, is it possible to omit vowels inside the word longer than 4 letters (the vowel at the beginning of the word should be kept).

3) Adjectives if noted together with the defined nouns can be written even more shortened and without inflexional ending.

4) Writing of double consonants is optional. [14:19-20]

S.Y. Maksimov, another Ukrainian scholar, the Associated Professor of Kyiv National Linguistic University, also says about the “occasional individual interpreter’s shortenings”, like: K for Kyiv; Kmin for Cabinet of Ministers; hgo for he did not go, E for employment; E for unemployment, dr for draft, bdg for budget, прзд for президент, сгдн for сьогодні, крв for керівник, чит for читання, etc. [8:108]