The Reconstruction of Modality in Chinese-english Government Press Conference Interpreting ― A Corpus-based Study

This book investigates a special genre of interpreting in the Chinese context, namely Government Press Conference (GPC) Interpreting. Drawing on the modality system from Systemic Functional Grammar and a corpus of 21 interpreting events, the project explores the regular patterns of modality shifts in Chinese-English GPC interpreting and seeks explanations in the sociocultural context. As a corpus-based project, the book covers qualitative analysis of the sociocultural context, qualitative analysis of the interpersonal effects of modality shifts, and quantitative analysis of modality shifts. This book will contribute to the understanding of the distinctive features of GPC interpreting in China, shed new light on the rendition of modality between Chinese and English in specific contexts, and also inspire new thoughts on the nature of interpreting in general.

Xin Li is an instructor of College English and a researcher in translation/interpreting studies at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She has a PhD in foreign linguistics and applied linguistics with a specialization in corpus-based translation/interpreting studies. Based on her active engagement in translation/interpreting research projects, she has published articles in influential journals in China such as Computer-assisted Foreign Language Education, Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice, and Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies. She is also the associate editor of Critical Readings of Corpus-based Translation Studies (2012, in Chinese).