TITLE:
Exploring Interpreter Ideology through Appraisal Shifts: UN Interpreting in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
AUTHORS:
Haining Meng
KEYWORDS:
Appraisal Shifts, Conflict Interpreting, Critical Discourse Analysis, Interpreter Ideology, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.11,
November
29,
2024
ABSTRACT: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an ongoing geopolitical dispute of global attention where competing ideologies are articulated and negotiated, particularly at the United Nations. Against this backdrop, the present study investigates the role of interpreters’ ideology within the conflict through a discourse analysis of four United Nations Security Council conferences on the Palestine Question. Drawing on a combined framework of Critical Discourse Analysis and Appraisal Theory, the study first quantifies patterns of lexical, semantic, and polarity shifts in the interpreting for both Israeli and Palestinian speakers. Log-likelihood and Log-ratio algorithm are then applied to measure the differences between the two groups. Lastly, the ideological factors underlying these shifts are explored from cognitive, social, and discursive perspectives. The results reveal distinct patterns: interpreting for Israel tends to involve mitigation strategies, including downscaling force, softening focus, and weakening negativity. In contrast, interpreting for the State of Palestine shows an opposite trend with upscaling force, sharpening focus, and strengthening negativity. These suggest that interpreters may subtly shape narratives by promoting peace and dialogue in a tense international setting. However, they are also influenced by institutional and national ideologies, as interpreters are expected to perform under the guidelines of their home countries and the organizations they represent. By highlighting the multifaceted role of interpreters in conflict settings, this study sheds light on interpreters’ operation within complex interplay of language, conflict, and ideology.