Interpreting power in virtual courtrooms An analysis of tag questions

Abstract

Drawing on 2,250 minutes of audio recordings, this article reported the
interpretation of tag questions in virtual courtroom examinations. As an important
stylistic feature of the power differential, tag questions are strategically employed
by opposing counsels in adversarial courtrooms. However, little has been known
about the interpreters’ rendition of tag questions into Chinese during remote
interpreting. To investigate their remote interpreting performance, experiments
were conducted with 50 certified interpreters with varying modes and conditions
of interpreting. Interpreters listened to the English utterances in courts and
interpreted them into Chinese. Their interpretations were transcribed for further
analysis. It is revealed that, regardless of their significance, tag questions were
systematically disregarded and mistranslated into less coercive question types (e.g.
interrogatives), predominantly in the simultaneous mode via the video link and the
consecutive mode via the audio link. The findings suggest that the alterations of
illocutionary force may have implications for the accuracy of remote interpreting
in virtual courtrooms.