Interpreters' institutional alignment and (re)construction of China's political discourse and image : a corpus-based CDA of the premier-meets-the-press conferences
Drawing on corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study addresses the research questions relating to the government interpreters' alignment vis-a-vis their institutional employer and (re)construction of China's discourse and image as civil servants at China's Premier-Meets-the-Press conferences. A typical discursive event, the interpreter-mediated and televised press conferences provide the Chinese premier the opportunity to answer journalists' questions on various topical issues, and, in doing so, present China's global diplomacy and domestic developments to a global audience. Featuring relatively comprehensive coverage of discourse at different levels, Fairclough's (1989; 1992; 1995) three-dimensional model is employed as a general theoretical framework. I argue, however, that his CDA model needs to be further enriched and adapted in a way that accounts for the dynamic and bilingual interpreter-mediated event. Given the triadic nature of the press conference setting (featuring the interactions between the Chinese officials, interpreter and journalists), the Bakhtinian concept of dialogised heteroglossia is discussed, which highlights the negotiated nature of interpreting where the interpreters
Gu, Chonglong
interpreter agency ; (re)contextualisation ; dialogised heteroglossia ; corpus linguistics ; political discourse ; ideological mediation ; interpreter-mediated communication ; institutional alignment ; political press conferences ; premier's press conferences ; corpus-based CDA ; critical discourse analysis ; image (re)construction
Interpreters' institutional alignment and (re)construction of China's political discourse and image : a corpus-based CDA of the premier-meets-the-press conferences. Drawing on corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study addresses the research questions relating to the government interpreters' alignment vis-a-vis their institutional employer and (re)construction of China's discourse and image as civil servants at China's Premier-Meets-the-Press conferences. A typical discursive event, the interpreter-mediated and televised press conferences provide the Chinese premier the opportunity to answer journalists' questions on various topical issues, and, in doing so, present China's global diplomacy and domestic developments to a global audience. Featuring relatively comprehensive coverage of discourse at different levels, Fairclough's (1989; 1992; 1995) three-dimensional model is employed as a general theoretical framework. I argue, however, that his CDA model needs to be further enriched and adapted in a way that accounts for the dynamic and bilingual interpreter-mediated event. Given the triadic nature of the press conference setting (featuring the interactions between the Chinese officials, interpreter and journalists), the Bakhtinian concept of dialogised heteroglossia is discussed, which highlights the negotiated nature of interpreting where the interpreters
institutional alignment construction china political_discourse image corpus_based cda premier the press conference drawing corpus_based critical_discourse_analysis cda study address_question relate government interpreter alignment vis_a_vis institutional employer construction china discourse image civil_servant china premier the press conference typical discursive event interpreter_mediated press conference provide chinese premier opportunity answer journalist question various topical issue present china global diplomacy domestic development global audience relatively comprehensive coverage discourse different_level fairclough person_person three_dimensional model employ general_theoretical framework argue however cda model need enrich adapted way account dynamic bilingual interpreter_mediated event given triadic nature press conference setting feature interaction chinese official interpreter journalist concept heteroglossia discuss highlight negotiate nature interpreting interpreter