Publication: Exploring Modality In Englishchinese Courtroom Translation: Shifts, Choices, And Solutions
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Date
2025-09
Authors
Wu, Shuangjiao
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Abstract
Research on translation shifts, especially on modality, that occur in the chinese translations of english trial records is rare. This study adopted a mixed methods research design to investigate the translation of modality, a linguistic device used to express speakers’ evaluative judgments, in the english trial records of international military tribunal for the far east (imtfe) and their chinese translations based on the english-to-chinese imtfe parallel corpus. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics (sfl), this study examined the distribution of modality markers in the english source text (st) concerning modality orientation and value. The findings demonstrate that the english st employed a balanced use of epistemic and deontic modality, characterized by a prevalence of median-valued and implicit modality. Additionally, modality shifts and how they influenced interpersonal meaning in the corpus were described across two dimensions of the modality system, i.E., modal value and orientation. While modality shifts in the translations were relatively infrequent, the most common alterations involved changes in modal value, followed by shifts in orientation. These modifications led to a weaker and more implicit expression of the source speakers’ intended modal stance in the translated texts.
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Exploring Modality Englishchinese Courtroom Translation: Shifts