Publications

Publication details [#67245]

Zhang Rui. 2020. Shifting meaning potential in interpreter-mediated formal interaction: The case of the Chinese premier's press conference in China. xiii + 293 pp.
Publication type
Ph.D. Dissertation
Publication language
English
Language as a subject

Annotation

This dissertation studies the role which a (consecutive) interpreter plays in the overall process of meaning generation in a high-profile political media context. In particular, linguistic pragmatics is used to analyze in great detail different types of formal shifts (addition, omission, lumping, splitting, reordering) and their functioning at the level of modality, illocutionary force, implicitness vs. explicitness, information structure, indexicality, idiomaticity, as well as propositional content. The dynamics of these shifts is further discussed in terms of audience design, (re)contextualization, coherence, identity construction, personalization, and depersonalization. Implications are spelled out for interpreter training.