Intertextuality and ideology in interpreter-mediated communication : the case of the European Parliament

Abstract

This doctoral thesis explores simultaneous interpreting (SI) as a social practice by investigating EU institutional hegemony and interpreter axiology in the institutional setting of the European Parliament (EP). Theoretical research is complemented by a corpus study of the interplay between these two forces in SI-mediated EP plenary debates. A multilayered understanding of discourse as a set of practices is developed before exploring the relationship between ideology and axiology manifest in discourse manifest in text. Bakhtin's term dialogised heteroglossia is used in this context to refer to the centripetal forces and centrifugal forces of language. The Gramscian theory of hegemony as shifting alliances is applied to EU institutional hegemony, before the concept of axiology is introduced to address subjective interpreter ethics and evaluation. Corpus analysis concentrates on intertextuality (manifest and latent intertextuality), lexical repetition of key institutional terms; and metaphor strings characteristic of EU institutional hegemony. Results suggest that EU institutional hegemony is strengthened by SI, and that interpreter mediation in the form of interpreter axiology occurs and is constrained by institutional hegemony. This `socially orientated' approach therefore contradicts the conduit view of communication. In this study, the simultaneous interpreter is shown to be an additional subjective actor in heteroglot communication.