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Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 64:4 (2018) ► pp.528–547

Effects of the interpreter’s political awareness on pronoun shifts in political interviews

A perspective of interpersonal meaning

 | Kunming University of Science and Technology
This paper investigates the critical role of the interpreter’s political awareness in interpreting high-level political interviews in China, and its effects on pronoun shifts. Using former Chinese Premier Zhu’s debut press conference in 1998 as a case study, the study examines in detail the pronoun shifts of a China’s Foreign Ministry senior interpreter prompted by her political awareness. It identifies four types of pronoun shifts: (1) from first-person singular pronoun (“I”) to first-person plural pronoun (“we”); (2) from active voice with first-person plural pronoun as subject to passive voice; (3) from pronoun to a third-party noun; and (4) replacement of a noun with an interactant pronoun. The paper considers implications of these findings in relation to relevant studies and to the macro-social institutional context in which the political interpreting is conducted. The paper argues that this type of political awareness is a form of socio-institutional cognition inculcated and developed through the interpreter’s diplomatic identity, their understanding of socio-institutional requirements, strict training and a large quantity of supervised practice.
Keywords: political awareness, pronoun shifts, conference consecutive interpreting, interpreter-mediated political interview
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Former Chinese Premier Zhu’s press conference in 1998 as a study case
  • 4.Pronoun shifts manipulated by the interpreters’ political awareness
    • 4.1From first-person singular pronoun (I) to first-person plural pronoun (we)
    • 4.2From active voice with first-person plural pronoun as subject to passive voice
    • 4.3From pronouns to a third-party noun
    • 4.4Replacement of a noun with an interactant pronoun
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1The interpreter’s identity as a diplomat
    • 5.2Socio-institutional requirements
    • 5.3Institutionalized specialized interpreter training and preparation before starting practice
    • 5.4Supervised interpreting practice
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 January 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00053.guo
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