Interpreting Nonverbal Information In Diplomatic Negotiations

Nonverbal information,including paralanguage and body language,plays a significant role in conveying the true intentions and emotions of speakers.Some studies on interpreting of nonverbal information focused on the misuse of nonverbal language.Besides,the previous studies on interpreting for diplomatic negotiations were limited to verbal exchanges between different parties.However,little research paid attention to the interpreting of meaningful nonverbal language that expressed speakers’ intentions and attitudes.As nonverbal language always sends messages in communication,interpreters must figure out the intentions of speakers conveyed through their nonverbal language and think about how to comprehensively and unambiguously convey their intentions to the audience.In order to study how a professional interpreter deals with nonverbal information in a diplomatic negotiation,the thesis conducted a case study on the 2021 China-U.S.High-level Strategic Dialogue and analysed the Chinese interpreter,Zhang Jing’s interpretation,in particular,how she dealt with the paralanguage(changes of tempo,silent pauses,stress)and body language(postures and gestures)used by the two Chinese speakers,Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi,to express their intentions and attitudes.The study found that during interpreting,Zhang Jing intentionally reduced the use of paralanguage and body language that would undermine the audience’s understanding of the text and their trust in her,and used other kinds of paralanguage,including replacing short silent pauses with volume increases,combining decelerations with volume increases,replacing the changes of average tempo with another tone,shifting the original volume increases to other chunks,using changes of tempo and tone to replace posturers,and substituting gestures with volume increases.At the end of the thesis,the author suggested that future interpreters should be sensitive enough to identify the nonverbal language that conveys speakers’ intentions,and deliver the messages in a resourceful manner rather than just focusing on the verbal information.