Mediation
Communication between speakers who have different first languages
Work Package 4 of the MIME project
Definitions of basic terms
Intercomprehension: Non-mediated interlingual communication where no party uses the language of the other party and all parties use their L1.
Intercommunication: Non-mediated interlingual communication where no party uses the language of the other.
Interpreting: Oral forms of translation. In this project we are basically concerned with public-service or "community" interpreting, of the kind available to migrant communities. party and the parties are not using their L1. (This could overlap with the use of a lingua franca.)
L1: A speaker's strongest language, often the first language acquired. Symmetrical bilinguals have two L1s.
Mediation: Communication between speakers with different L1s.
Language technologies: In this project, the main language technology of interest is online statistical machine translation. Other technologies will be considered as they surface in the studies.
Lingua franca: The use of a language that is not the L1 of any of the communication participants, particularly English.
Translation: Mediated interlingual communication. In this project, translation may be written or spoken (ie it can include interpreting).