How interpreting influences defendants’ participation: a discursive study of zero renditions and non-renditions in court interpreting

Abstract The inquisitorial feature of Chinese criminal trials requires active participation from defendants in courtroom interaction. To fully participate in the trial proceedings, defendants who cannot speak the language of the court have to rely on the language support offered by interpreters. Court interpreters are expected to facilitate language minorities’ participation and communication in the proceedings, but their mediation changes the dynamics of courtroom interaction. This paper aims to explore how the use of interpreting impacts the participation status of English-speaking defendants in Chinese criminal trials. Adopting participation framework as the primary analytical tool, drawing upon discourse analysis of seven authentic recordings of bilingual trials and fieldwork observations, this study empirically shows that as a result of zero renditions and non-renditions in the triadic communication, the participation role of the defendant changes from being a direct addressee to the position of a non-participant, which results in them a marginalised status. The role alteration, which is associated with the court interpreting practice, including the sole use of consecutive interpreting, puts the defendant at a disadvantage, undermining their participation rights in the trial proceedings. In a way, the defendant becomes a de facto stand-by participant in the interpreter-mediated courtroom interaction.