MULTILINGUALISM AND INTERPRETER'S LANGUAGE COMBINATION IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: A COGNITIVE AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of multilingualism and interpreters’ language combinations in cross-cultural communication, integrating cognitive and sociolinguistic perspectives with empirical investigation. The research examines how multilingual competence influences interpreting performance, particularly in terms of cognitive load, linguistic interference, and intercultural mediation. A mixed-method approach combining qualitative analysis and empirical data was employed. The findings demonstrate that multilingual interpreters exhibit enhanced communicative flexibility and intercultural awareness, but they also experience increased cognitive load due to simultaneous activation of multiple linguistic systems. Empirical results confirm that performance is significantly higher when interpreting into the native language (A language), while interpreting into a second language (B language) leads to increased delay and error rates. The study highlights the importance of balanced language combinations and proposes an integrated model of multilingual interpreting competence.