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Volume 64, Issue 4
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Abstract

Abstract

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.

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2019-01-08
2025-04-25

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/content/journals/10.1075/babel.00053.guo
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): changements de pronoms; conference consecutive interpreting; conscience politique; entretien politique assisté par un interprète; interpreter-mediated political interview; interprétation consécutive de conférence; political awareness; pronoun shifts

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