Li Pan

Bio: Li Pan is an academic researcher from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. The author has contributed to research in topics: Interpreter & Mediation. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 13 citations.

Interpreter mediation at political press conferences: A narrative account

Abstract: Political press conferences, while playing a significant role in international communication by heads of state and government, are still largely underexplored in interpreting studies. More scholarly attention is needed, particularly to examine the interpreter’s mediating role in these uniquely constrained communicative settings. Drawing on narrative theory and Wadensjo’s model of renditions, this paper investigates the interpreter’s mediating role at a 2011 joint press conference with the American and Chinese Presidents, at that time Barack Obama and Hu Jintao respectively. Specifically, the study examines how the interpretation comprises reduced, expanded and summarized renditions of the speakers’ narratives, and how the resulting mediation can affect not only their image, but also the outcome of the diplomatic communication between their respective countries. Here, the interpreter’s performance is subject not only to his language competence, but also to a number of other factors. On the one hand, his mediation can be facilitated rather than restricted by the constraints of the setting where the interpreting occurs, such as technical problems and time limitations. On the other hand, the mediation can also reflect the interpreter’s institutional role and the public narratives within the socio-cultural context.

Journalistic translation research goes global: theoretical and methodological considerations five years on

Abstract: This article presents an overview of the publications on journalistic translation research spanning the period 2015-present day. It includes three sections that highlight the main theoretical frame...

News translation of reported conflicts: a corpus-based account of positioning

Abstract: Positioning, crucial in shaping the interpretation of a text, is usually unobtrusive in news translation. News translation of conflicts might provide an important context for investigating translat...

Interpreter ideology

Abstract: This study investigates empirically the way in which interpreter ideology is manifested in the evaluative language of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in China in 2016 (English–Chinese language pair). Methodologically, van Dijk’s Ideological Square and Martin and White’s Appraisal framework have been operationalised for the analysis of positive or negative evaluative language in ‘us’ vs ‘them’ discourses. The results reveal an overall positive-‘us’ and negative-‘them’ pattern in the interpreter’s ideological positioning. This is manifested in three ways: (i) negative, pejorative, and sensitive discourses about China are self-censored; (ii) positivity is accentuated and negativity is neutralised in China-related discourses, and (iii) negative tones in the discourses of other countries are amplified. The speaker discourse is ‘edited’ when interpreter ideology is at work during the simultaneous interpreting process. However, the linguistic patterns can provide only partial indications of the possible relationship between interpreter ideology and cognitive operations.

Contrastive images of journalists and Chinese premiers in interpreter-mediated press conferences: a case study of Chinese ‘xiexie’

Abstract: Although it is important to research the images of politicians as recreated in interpreted discourse, to date, minimal attention has been paid to interpreter-reshaped contrastive images of journali...

Hedging in interpreted and spontaneous speeches: a comparative study of Chinese and American political press briefings

Abstract: The investigation of potential stylistic differences between translated and non-translated texts has been proven to be a promising line in corpus-based translation studies, yet similar research on the product of interpreting seems both smaller in scale and slower in development. This study compares the use of hedges in interpreted and spontaneous English speeches collected in similar settings. Specifically, we gathered the two types of speech data from Chinese and American political press briefings respectively and analyzed their differences in the employment of various hedging devices. The results show that interpreted speeches not only contain significantly fewer hedges but they are also dependent on a narrower range of such devices than spontaneous speeches, which is consistent with the tendency towards simplification in translations. Also, our findings suggest that interpreted and spontaneous speeches tend to follow distinct hedging patterns in terms of preferred linguistic choices. Potential factors triggering such differences are discussed.