SENB :single edge notched in bending Abreviación en idioma ingles, que significa “probeta de flexión entallada por un solo lado”.

Apart from the general discursive analysis of these speeches as a whole, there are also some specific features in each speech. The 1987 speech shows a higher frequency of ritualised and clichéd expressions, for instance, 欣 欣 向 荣 (xin xin xiang rong/flourishing), 伟大、光荣、正确的党 (weida guangrong zhengque de dang/great, glorious and correct party). These ideologically marked phrases, traced back to the linguistic indoctrination in Mao’s time, continue to prevail in the discursive practices of both public and private spheres after his demise, but their renderings into English

are not indicative of as much social significations as in the ST, as demonstrated below.

5.3.1.1.1 Legitimation

The first four examples demonstrate the manipulation of interpersonal elements from the perspective of translation in terms of heightening or lessening the textual interactive dimension in the original speech for specific purposes to sustain the CPC legitimacy. Example Five concerns the amplification strategy with respect to adding the circumstantial component to impart to the target setting a positive self-representation of China’s political governance.

Example One

随着生产的发展，长期困扰我们的一些严重社会经济问题开始得到解决，……

(Zhao 1987a)

(LT) With the growth of production certain serious social and economic problems which had long plagued us have started to be solved.

(OT) With the growth of production we have started to solve, …, certain serious social and economic problems which had long plagued us. (Zhao 1987b)

Example Two

这是在坚持四项基本原则和推进建设与改革的基础上，妥善处理各种社会矛盾，

及时排除各种“左”的和 “右”的干扰的结果。(Zhao 1987a)

(LT) This is the outcome of properly handling social contradictions and promptly eliminating different forms of interference from both the Left and the Right, while upholding the four cardinal principles and promoting reform and economic development.

(OT) We have achieved this by properly handling social contradictions and promptly eliminating different forms of interference from both the Left and the Right, while upholding the four cardinal principles and promoting reform and economic development. (Zhao 1987b)

Example Three

我们在领导工作中还有不少失误。(Zhao 1987a)

(LT) We still have not a few failings in the work or leadership.

(OT) There are not a few failings in our work or leadership. (Zhao 1987b)

These three examples demonstrate the manipulation of interpersonal elements from the perspective of translation. In Example One, the sentence is literally constituted by a passive construction as indicated by the salient element ‘得到解决 (dedao jiejue/be solved)’, while in the TT it is transformed into an active process with a plural pronoun taking up the thematic potential. The involvement of the human agent as the actual ‘doer’ of the process helps to project a pro-active image of the Chinese authorities capable of resolving long-standing social problems for their people. This example manifests itself as the textual manipulation actualised in translation. The transformation from the passive to active construction initiated by the interpersonal marker ‘we’ seems to index the process of shifting the dogmatic Chinese political discourse towards a conversational and interpersonal style of public discourse.

By a similar token, the translators deliberately involved an actor ‘we’ at the thematic initial position in the TT of Example Two. In this way, the identifying relational process in the ST shown by ‘这是……的结果 (zheshi de jieguo/This is the outcome of…) has been rendered into a material process marked as ‘We have achieved this’. Therefore the static ST process is transformed into a dynamic construction of the ‘lifeworld’ components. In conjunction with the previous example, this instance of textual reconstruction through translation is adduced to indicate the translators’ attempt to produce a positive self image in line with van Dijk’s basic notion of universal positive self-representations in the discourse management initiated by powerful groups.

Despite the similar strategy employed in terms of the interpersonal dimension, Example Three diverges from the previous two in that it chooses to reduce this

dimension by the use of the heavily impersonal existential process in the TT. With the absence of any actual human participants in this construction, the overt representation of ‘we’ as the doer of the failings in the ST is totally removed in the translated discourse. In this sense, the translators appear to be intentionally renouncing the opportunity to represent the human agents involved in the process. This move seems to be basically motivated by the sanctioned norm to mitigate the adverse effect on the positive self image that the translators have been dedicated to constructing given the source-context-induced nature of Chinese political translation.

The above examples have suggested that the structural translation shifts in terms of the interpersonal dimension largely reflect the underlying purposes in line with the pre-set ideological agenda. Put in the broader socio-political context, China was in the face of severe challenges regarding the stagnant economy and stirring social unrest in the middle of the economic reform. Against this backdrop, discursive construction in the domain of translation needs to be strengthened to meet the ideological demand for the continued leadership of the CPC. Therefore translation appears to emphasise the positive self-presentations when it comes to the achievements done in the past as demonstrated in the first two examples, and de-emphasise the negative self-presentations in terms of the failings in the CPC’s governance. This form of textual manipulation enacted by translation is primarily aimed at increasing the political party’s popularity in the intercultural communication.

Example Four

我们在国际上的朋友更多了。(Zhao 1987a)

(LT) The friends we have internationally are more.

(OT) We now have more friends in the world than ever. (Zhao 1987b)

As presented in this example, the 1987 speech gives some traces of a hybrid discourse. For instance, in contrast to the formal and impersonal discourse running through the account of the achievements scored by the country since the Third Plenary Session of

the 11th Central Committee, a small stretch of text draws attention in terms of a heterogeneous type of interpersonal discourse interspersed in the formally-registered discourse. The shift to a more interpersonal discourse, however, is a marked feature in the Chinese CPC report as the Chinese political language is traditionally characterised by the static and dogmatic style. More strikingly, the TT gives more salience by adding the time adverbial and the suffix of the comparative construction at the end of the sentence. This translation shift can be construed as the discursive manipulation for the growing international recognition by the emotional appeal given the time when China was at the very initial stage of the economic reform.

Example Five

还有部分地区，温饱问题尚未完全解决，但也有了改善。(Zhao 1987a)

(LT) There are still certain areas where the problem of food and clothing has not yet been solved, but there has been some improvement.

(OT) There are still certain areas where the problem of food and clothing has not yet been solved, but even in those places there has been some improvement. (Zhao 1987b)

By adding the circumstantial element ‘even in those places, the TT sentence appears more cohesive with the occurrence of the anaphoric marker ‘those’, hence a greater degree of coherence is set up to facilitate the comprehension of the translated discourse. Meanwhile, with the emotionally-laden adverb ‘even’ leading the phrase, the TT is semantically reconstructed to highlight the fact that improvement has been made in the abovementioned areas. In this respect, this example converges with the previous case in that the flow of translated discourse is steered towards the ideological command to set up a positive self-representation of China’s political governance.