A multi-dimensional analysis of interpreted and non-interpreted English discourses at Chinese and American government press conferences

This study uses Douglas Biber's multidimensional analysis (MDA) to compare English interpretations of Chinese government press conferences with original English from U.S. government press conferences. The findings reveal significant differences along several communicative dimensions. Interpreted discourse, while equally persuasive, shows higher information density, lower involvement, more non-narrative content, greater reference clarity, more abstract information, and slightly less information elaboration. These differences are attributed to institutional discourse characteristics, interpreting norms, interpreters' professional habitus, and the consecutive interpreting mode used in a political setting. The study demonstrates MDA's effectiveness in distinguishing interpreted and non-interpreted discourse.

Dandan Sheng, Xin Li