It’s nothing personal, but there are certain things we just don’t interpret. It’s not that we can’t. Rather, interpreting them interrupts the audience’s understanding at the cost of interpreters’ mental resources. It’s just not worth it.
As a familiar example, many people use filler words in their speech. We faithfully interpret some of them including “basically”, “sort of”, and “you know what I’m saying?” because they may represent certain meanings or sentiments that the speakers want to convey. On the other hand, fillers such as “um”, “like” and “I mean” interrupt the flow of speech and are a disservice to understanding. So allow us to do everyone the favor of pruning them.
There are more complex idiosyncrasies in speeches that might also benefit from some pruning. They either add no value or worse, create confusion. You can detect them more frequently in unplanned speeches (prayers) than in planned speeches (sermons), but let me give you an example outside church circles. I had this guy who provided professional services to me. He was good at his job but he would keep saying “You know how it is, …” every few sentences. I know it was a force of habit, but I also “kind of” wanted to tease him, “Dude, I don’t know how it is. If I know how it is, you wouldn’t be here.”
Of course, we don’t go around policing everyone’s speeches. We understand how difficult it is to, like, stop saying “like” all the time. But what happens is when we focus on our duty to convey the meanings across languages, anything not serving that purpose is naturally peeled off in the process. So, you do you.
Photo by Daniel Herron on Unsplash