Linguistic variation in mediated diplomatic communication: a full multi-dimensional analysis of interpreted language in Chinese Regular Press Conferences

This study uses a full multi-dimensional analysis to investigate linguistic variation in interpreted diplomatic language during Chinese Regular Press Conferences, comparing it to its non-interpreted counterpart. A factor analysis of 113 linguistic variables yielded five dimensions: Involved vs. Informational Production, Objective vs. Addressee-focused Narration, Literate-Oral Continuum, Information Elaboration, and Narrative vs. Non-narrative Concerns. Interpreted language was found to be more informative, objective, less elaborated, non-narrative, and formal than non-interpreted language, although both navigated the literate-oral continuum. The findings have implications for corpus-based interpreting studies and diplomatic interpreter training.

Yao Yao, Dechao Li, Yingqi Huang, Zhonggang Sang