Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.15176/vol62no29
“Human Speech” as a Keyword: Plain-Language Redesign of Informed Consent in Asylum Administration
Helena Tužinská
orcid.org/0000-0003-1135-3007
; Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava
Sažetak
This article examines how the emic keyword “human speech” circulates among actors in the asylum procedure and how its situated meanings can inform the design of applied anthropological interventions. Building on research into interpreters’ positionality, institutional scripting, and communicative asymmetries, the analysis foregrounds what “human speech” indexes in interactional and institutional contexts. I argue that positioning linguistic clarity at the center of legal procedure is not merely a stylistic concern but a question of epistemic justice. Ethnographic research conducted in Slovakia (2017–2019) revealed how applicants routinely signed legally binding documents without adequate comprehension or institutional accountability. The notion of “human speech” is examined through an epistemic, pragmatic, and empirical lens, drawing on the perspectives of applicants, interpreters, legal practitioners, and state officials. The article demonstrates how authorship of plain language can be institutionalized as a structural obligation rather than left to ad hoc compromise. An ethnography-informed intervention (2023–2024) shows how the concept of “human speech” guided the intralingual legal-to-plain-language transformation of informed consent templates in the asylum procedure.
Ključne riječi
plain language, interpreting, asylum procedure, informed consent, epistemic justice, relevance
Hrčak ID:
341677
URI
Datum izdavanja:
19.12.2025.
Posjeta: 574 *