Publications

Publication details [#35026]

Gu, Chonglong. 2020. ‘The main problems in China–Japan relations lie in the FACT that some leaders in Japan keep on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine’: a corpus-based CDA on government interpreters’ metadiscursive (re)construction of truth, fact and reality. In Wang, Binhua (王斌华) and Jeremy Munday, eds. Advances in Discourse Analysis of Translation and Interpreting: linking linguistic approaches with socio-cultural interpretation. London: Routledge. pp. 40–63.
Publication type
Article in jnl/bk
Publication language
English

Abstract

The interpreter-mediated premier-meets-the-press conferences are an institutionalised practice in mainland China, permitting the Chinese premiers to address journalists’ questions on a wide range of issues of common concern. This televised discursive event enables China’s top decision-maker to clarify Beijing’s official positions and articulate discursively what constitutes truth and fact. Drawing on a corpus consisting of 20 years’ press conference data, this CDA study explores how China’s discourse is (re)configured by interpreters in English through metadiscursive resources semantically related to truth, fact and reality (e.g. in fact, actually, indeed, as a matter of fact). A comparison of metadiscursive devices established in both sub-corpora shows that the interpreters tend to proliferate the use of these markers in English overall. Discursively, this adds an additional layer of factualness and authority to the Chinese original. In addition, special attention is focused on the structure ‘the fact that’. This study highlights the interpreters’ role as important co-constructors of the ‘Chinese story’ and vital agents of truth and knowledge for Beijing.
Source : Based on publisher information