A Corpus-based study of stancetaking as seen from stance adverbials in interpreter-mediated political discourse

Stancetaking is a pervasive phenomenon in human communication (Du Bois, 2007), and it has been attracting investigative attention ever since the twenty-first century (Englebreston, 2007). However, stancetaking investigation of Chinese languages (Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese included) from the perspective of translation and interpretation is almost non-existent. To fill this gap, this study aims to explore stancetaking in interpreted Cantonese by focusing on one particular group of stance markers, i.e. stance adverbials. Based on a self-built corpus composed of transcriptions of 7 original and interpreted proceedings of Chief Executive’s Question and Answer Session in HK Legislative Council (the “LegCo-CE”), the study investigates a comprehensive set of 36 stance adverbials expressing epistemic knowledge, attitude and style (Biber et al., 1999) in terms of their distribution and function in original discourses and their translations. Besides, one particular epistemic stance marker jat1 ding6 (“definitely”) and its translations has been examined closely. Through both quantitative and qualitative analyses, the study reveals significant differences in terms of the usage of stance adverbials in original and interpreted discourses. The author then explores the possible consequences of as well as reasons for such differences.