International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2024
The inquisitorial feature of Chinese criminal trials requires active participation from defendant... more The inquisitorial feature of Chinese criminal trials requires active participation from defendants in courtroom interaction. To fully participate in the trial proceedings, defendants who cannot speak the language of the court have to rely on the language support offered by interpreters. Court interpreters are expected to facilitate language minorities’ participation and communication in the proceedings, but their mediation changes the dynamics of courtroom interaction. This paper aims to explore how the use of interpreting impacts the participation status of English-speaking defendants in Chinese criminal trials. Adopting participation framework as the primary analytical tool, drawing upon discourse analysis of seven authentic recordings of bilingual trials and fieldwork observations, this study empirically shows that as a result of zero renditions and non-renditions in the triadic communication, the participation role of the defendant changes from being a direct addressee to the position of a non-participant, which results in them a marginalised status. The role alteration, which is associated with the court interpreting practice, including the sole use of consecutive interpreting, puts the defendant at a disadvantage, undermining their participation rights in the trial proceedings. In a way, the defendant becomes a de facto stand-by participant in the interpreter-mediated courtroom interaction.
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication (2nd ed.), 2020
Much of the applied linguistic work on the language of the law has focused on the description of ... more Much of the applied linguistic work on the language of the law has focused on the description of peculiar features of legal discourse, especially evident in written legal documents such as contracts and legislation, but also discernible in face-to-face interactions, for example in court. Implicit in early studies of the language of the law is the understanding that legal specialists communicate in ways that are not easily accessible to non-specialists, by following conventions that are unique to legal culture. In effect, it is impossible to separate the study of legal discourse from the study of legal culture, with its specialist form of reasoning, specialist genres, grammar and lexis. The work on language and the law now suggests a number of possible cultural factors that may hinder communication in legal contexts. These cultural factors can be divided into three main types, according to the focus of study. First, as already suggested, intercultural communication problems may arise between legal specialist and non-specialist participants in legal processes, where the communication takes place in the same national and legal setting. For example, legal specialists are sometimes considered to adopt a rule-based orientation to legal disputes, which privileges legal rules, compared to non-specialists who are more likely to adopt a relational orientation, which focuses on relationships (see Conley and O’Barr, 1991). Second, interactions between legal specialists and non-specialists may be further complicated where participants from different national cultures are involved. Such problems are most frequently studied in the context of courtroom interaction and legal interpretation, where it is shown that non-specialist participants need assistance not only with issues of language, but also issues of national culture. Third, problems of intercultural communication arise in multilingual and multicultural contexts, for example, where legal rules are drafted to apply across legal systems and national contexts. This chapter describes research and explores issues in intercultural communication in legal contexts with reference to the three sets of factors outlined above.
Target-international Journal of Translation Studies, 2021
This article examines how the voices of trial participants are mediated by court interpreters. Th... more This article examines how the voices of trial participants are mediated by court interpreters. The research focuses on closing statements articulated by defendants in Chinese criminal trials, the last chance for their voices to be heard prior to sentencing. Drawing upon the concept of voice and theories of speech acts and pragmatic equivalence, and based on the discourse analysis of seven authentic trial recordings, this study reveals how the discursive performance of the defendant is constructed, altered, and sometimes undermined through interpreting. The findings reveal that speech acts performed by the defendant are often not maintained in the interpreted renditions and that the concept of closing statements is difficult to convey. It is argued that when interpreters fail to convey the pragmatic force of defendants’ utterances, the voice of the defendants is not fully heard, which places them at a disadvantage and impacts upon their right to equality and justice. The article also...
The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, 2020
In contrast to the world of many professions where men are dominant and women have fewer opportun... more In contrast to the world of many professions where men are dominant and women have fewer opportunities to succeed, the area of interpreting is certainly an exception, which tends to be female predominant. The noticeable gender imbalance, however, has attracted limited scholarly attention. Compared with the amount of work on gender in translation studies, very little research has been conducted to explore gender-related issues in interpreting. Attempting to fill the gap, in this chapter I set out to offer an overview of various perspectives on the intersection of gender and interpreting. I start by tracing the historical development of interpreting as a gendered profession, then review major research topics and key issues in this area. Using a case study of media representation of a woman interpreter in China, I proceed to investigate how the interpreter becomes visible and visualised in the media, and how her gender and professional role are discursively constructed. Adopting a feminist critique, the analysis is placed into the wider context of gender issues in the current society and focuses on how media portray female interpreters when their gender is foregrounded. Finally, suggestions are put forward of directions and approach for future research.
International Journal of Multilingualism, Apr 1, 2019
Owing to its economic growth and social changes in the past two decades, China has become a popul... more Owing to its economic growth and social changes in the past two decades, China has become a popular destination for tourists, investors, and diverse communities of migrants. When foreign-language-speaking migrants interact with Chinese criminal justice system, they rely on interpreters to participate in the proceedings. Based on four-month trial observations in a Chinese city that is reported to have the highest concentration of foreign migrants in the country, this paper attempts to empirically explore the communicative complexity between foreign defendants and interpreters when they use English as a lingua franca. Drawing upon discourse analysis of recordings of seven criminal hearings that involve defendants from African countries, this paper shows how intercultural communication in the legal setting becomes challenging when primary participants in the interaction have divergent linguistic repertoires and speak different varieties of English. Variations in pronunciation become barriers to intelligibility; different legal culture and legal systems further complicate mutual understanding. This paper highlights how linguistic differences in interpreter-defendant communication disadvantage defendants in participating in judicial proceedings, which may undermine their legal rights and result in inequality and injustice. (Full-text free download: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9NzdkTzydfIjjZTGe6yE/full)
Language-related right in the legal proceedings is mostly associated with access to interpreting.... more Language-related right in the legal proceedings is mostly associated with access to interpreting. Literature on the bilingual courtroom primarily centres on the role of interpreters in the intercultural communication. This paper, drawing on discourse analysis of a case study in a Chinese criminal court, investigates the atypical role played by an interpreter when she ceases to be an active participant in the bilingual interaction. It discusses how language ideology underlying the judicial practice could transform the role of the interpreter and convert the bilingual arterial into a monolingual one. Situating the analysis in the wider social and legal context of Chinese criminal justice system, this paper attempts to explain and interpret the judicial behaviour to keep the interpreter silent and the impact on the language rights enjoyed by the minority-language-speaking defendants.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2024
The inquisitorial feature of Chinese criminal trials requires active participation from defendant... more The inquisitorial feature of Chinese criminal trials requires active participation from defendants in courtroom interaction. To fully participate in the trial proceedings, defendants who cannot speak the language of the court have to rely on the language support offered by interpreters. Court interpreters are expected to facilitate language minorities’ participation and communication in the proceedings, but their mediation changes the dynamics of courtroom interaction. This paper aims to explore how the use of interpreting impacts the participation status of English-speaking defendants in Chinese criminal trials. Adopting participation framework as the primary analytical tool, drawing upon discourse analysis of seven authentic recordings of bilingual trials and fieldwork observations, this study empirically shows that as a result of zero renditions and non-renditions in the triadic communication, the participation role of the defendant changes from being a direct addressee to the position of a non-participant, which results in them a marginalised status. The role alteration, which is associated with the court interpreting practice, including the sole use of consecutive interpreting, puts the defendant at a disadvantage, undermining their participation rights in the trial proceedings. In a way, the defendant becomes a de facto stand-by participant in the interpreter-mediated courtroom interaction.
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication (2nd ed.), 2020
Much of the applied linguistic work on the language of the law has focused on the description of ... more Much of the applied linguistic work on the language of the law has focused on the description of peculiar features of legal discourse, especially evident in written legal documents such as contracts and legislation, but also discernible in face-to-face interactions, for example in court. Implicit in early studies of the language of the law is the understanding that legal specialists communicate in ways that are not easily accessible to non-specialists, by following conventions that are unique to legal culture. In effect, it is impossible to separate the study of legal discourse from the study of legal culture, with its specialist form of reasoning, specialist genres, grammar and lexis. The work on language and the law now suggests a number of possible cultural factors that may hinder communication in legal contexts. These cultural factors can be divided into three main types, according to the focus of study. First, as already suggested, intercultural communication problems may arise between legal specialist and non-specialist participants in legal processes, where the communication takes place in the same national and legal setting. For example, legal specialists are sometimes considered to adopt a rule-based orientation to legal disputes, which privileges legal rules, compared to non-specialists who are more likely to adopt a relational orientation, which focuses on relationships (see Conley and O’Barr, 1991). Second, interactions between legal specialists and non-specialists may be further complicated where participants from different national cultures are involved. Such problems are most frequently studied in the context of courtroom interaction and legal interpretation, where it is shown that non-specialist participants need assistance not only with issues of language, but also issues of national culture. Third, problems of intercultural communication arise in multilingual and multicultural contexts, for example, where legal rules are drafted to apply across legal systems and national contexts. This chapter describes research and explores issues in intercultural communication in legal contexts with reference to the three sets of factors outlined above.
Target-international Journal of Translation Studies, 2021
This article examines how the voices of trial participants are mediated by court interpreters. Th... more This article examines how the voices of trial participants are mediated by court interpreters. The research focuses on closing statements articulated by defendants in Chinese criminal trials, the last chance for their voices to be heard prior to sentencing. Drawing upon the concept of voice and theories of speech acts and pragmatic equivalence, and based on the discourse analysis of seven authentic trial recordings, this study reveals how the discursive performance of the defendant is constructed, altered, and sometimes undermined through interpreting. The findings reveal that speech acts performed by the defendant are often not maintained in the interpreted renditions and that the concept of closing statements is difficult to convey. It is argued that when interpreters fail to convey the pragmatic force of defendants’ utterances, the voice of the defendants is not fully heard, which places them at a disadvantage and impacts upon their right to equality and justice. The article also...
The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender, 2020
In contrast to the world of many professions where men are dominant and women have fewer opportun... more In contrast to the world of many professions where men are dominant and women have fewer opportunities to succeed, the area of interpreting is certainly an exception, which tends to be female predominant. The noticeable gender imbalance, however, has attracted limited scholarly attention. Compared with the amount of work on gender in translation studies, very little research has been conducted to explore gender-related issues in interpreting. Attempting to fill the gap, in this chapter I set out to offer an overview of various perspectives on the intersection of gender and interpreting. I start by tracing the historical development of interpreting as a gendered profession, then review major research topics and key issues in this area. Using a case study of media representation of a woman interpreter in China, I proceed to investigate how the interpreter becomes visible and visualised in the media, and how her gender and professional role are discursively constructed. Adopting a feminist critique, the analysis is placed into the wider context of gender issues in the current society and focuses on how media portray female interpreters when their gender is foregrounded. Finally, suggestions are put forward of directions and approach for future research.
International Journal of Multilingualism, Apr 1, 2019
Owing to its economic growth and social changes in the past two decades, China has become a popul... more Owing to its economic growth and social changes in the past two decades, China has become a popular destination for tourists, investors, and diverse communities of migrants. When foreign-language-speaking migrants interact with Chinese criminal justice system, they rely on interpreters to participate in the proceedings. Based on four-month trial observations in a Chinese city that is reported to have the highest concentration of foreign migrants in the country, this paper attempts to empirically explore the communicative complexity between foreign defendants and interpreters when they use English as a lingua franca. Drawing upon discourse analysis of recordings of seven criminal hearings that involve defendants from African countries, this paper shows how intercultural communication in the legal setting becomes challenging when primary participants in the interaction have divergent linguistic repertoires and speak different varieties of English. Variations in pronunciation become barriers to intelligibility; different legal culture and legal systems further complicate mutual understanding. This paper highlights how linguistic differences in interpreter-defendant communication disadvantage defendants in participating in judicial proceedings, which may undermine their legal rights and result in inequality and injustice. (Full-text free download: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9NzdkTzydfIjjZTGe6yE/full)
Language-related right in the legal proceedings is mostly associated with access to interpreting.... more Language-related right in the legal proceedings is mostly associated with access to interpreting. Literature on the bilingual courtroom primarily centres on the role of interpreters in the intercultural communication. This paper, drawing on discourse analysis of a case study in a Chinese criminal court, investigates the atypical role played by an interpreter when she ceases to be an active participant in the bilingual interaction. It discusses how language ideology underlying the judicial practice could transform the role of the interpreter and convert the bilingual arterial into a monolingual one. Situating the analysis in the wider social and legal context of Chinese criminal justice system, this paper attempts to explain and interpret the judicial behaviour to keep the interpreter silent and the impact on the language rights enjoyed by the minority-language-speaking defendants.
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(Full-text free download: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9NzdkTzydfIjjZTGe6yE/full)
(Full-text free download: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9NzdkTzydfIjjZTGe6yE/full)