An Analysis Of The Role Of Diplomatic Interpreters As Face Coordinators

Interpretation is a complex cross-cultural social communication activity.Under the background of the increasingly prosperous global political,economic and cultural exchanges,the role of interpreters as a bridge of cross-cultural exchanges has been controversial.Especially for interpreters on diplomatic and political occasions,due to the unique political sensitivity of the occasion,they represent not only the spokesman,but also the national image and the bridge of international exchanges.Therefore,it is particularly important to study the role of foreign interpreters.With the development of interpreting studies and interdisciplinary studies of interpreting,scholars have gradually realized that the role of interpreters is not just a “microphone” or “Diplomat”.In fact,interpreters also bear the responsibility of coordinating the faces of both sides.Combined with sociology of interpreting and politeness principle,this paper takes the on-site consecutive interpretation of the China US high level strategic dialogue in Anchorage in 2021 as the corpus.By adopting qualitative research methods,this thesis also studies the interpreter’s coordination for all participants on diplomatic occasions.In addition,this paper also explores the face coordinating strategies that interpreters should follow on political and diplomatic occasions.Meanwhile,through comparison between interpreters from the U.S.and China,this thesis points out the face coordinating strategies an interpreter should possess on diplomatic occasions.In the end,this thesis summarizes the role of interpreters as face coordinators.The thesis not only improves the author’s cognition on the role of interpreters,but also provides references for future study related to this thesis.At the same time,the author realizes the limitations in the analyzing process and proposes suggestions for the future study.