The Interpreter’s Mediation of Presuppositions and the Persuasive Force in Chinese Political Press Conferences: a Critical Discourse Study

Abstract

Presuppositions are used as a useful strategic tool to increase the persuasive force in political communication. This study explores how interpreters mediate presuppositions and the way that consequential illocutionary forces contribute to the persuasive force of journalists’ questions and the premier’s responses at the 2011 Chinese Premier’s Press Conference. It reveals that through the interpreter’s mediation of presuppositional triggers, the overall persuasive force of the interpreted discourse is augmented and thus influences the audience in an implicit way. More specifically, journalists’ questioning force is justified through focusing on established facts rather than on confrontation and challenging stance, or the challenging force is reduced to a request for information; the assertive force in answers gets mitigated to avoid absoluteness, thus fostering a cooperative atmosphere for dialogic exchanges and being more persuasive; the persuasive force increases through perspective change or explicated contextual information. The critical discourse study argues that in political communication interpreters’ mediation is purposeful, and the strategic language choice aligns with their ideological stances and the temporal constraints resulting from interpreting and spontaneity of Q&A form of communication. This study offers insights into the ways that interpreters help to shape political dialogues between the authority and the international public. The findings contribute to the under-investigated intersection of interpreting studies, pragmatics, (critical) discourse analysis, (international) political communication, and to some extent, answers the recent call for an “outward turn” in interpreting studies.