Book review: Advances in Discourse Analysis of Translation and Interpreting: Linking Linguistic Approaches With Socio-cultural Interpretation

Abstract

As a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods, corpus-based discourse analyses have generated fruitful research and provided insights on discursive constructions of various topics. However, most of these approaches are shaped by monolingual methodologies and analysis. This edited volume under review, taking Chinese-English translation and interpreting (T&I) as research objects, investigates methods of conducting bilingual discourse analysis and is aimed to present the latest developments of discourse analysis in T&I studies. Specifically, it further explores how different approaches to discourse analysis can be linked with socio-cultural interpretations in wider target text types and how cultural and ideological intervention is conducted in T&I through linguistic or discursive choices. Structurally, it is composed of an introductory chapter and 11 other chapters categorized into four parts. Chapters 1–4 engage in discussions regarding positioning and ideology in T&I. Wang examines how core concepts on ‘Belt and Road’ in China’s political discourse are re-contextualized in international communication. Through the analysis of the selected and unselected linguistics resources (or manipulation of linguistic resources), Wang illustrates the view that translators and interpreters are agents of not only linguistic but also cultural and ideological mediation. Gao reveals how interpreters manipulate evaluative resources to reconstruct the target text in light of J.R. Martin’s Appraisal Theory, shedding light on how the combination of a critical discourse analysis (CDA) perspective and Appraisal Theory may serve as a powerful methodological framework. Through identifying and categorizing evaluative shifts, it shows that the Chinese interpreters tend to strengthen positive evaluation relating to Chinese economic policies and mitigate negative evaluation. Employing a corpus-based CDA, Gu in Chapter 3 finds that the interpreters tend to proliferate the use of metadiscursive markers in English overall, adding additional factualness and authority to the Chinese original and recreating 1149808 DAS0010.1177/09579265221149808Discourse & SocietyBook Review book-review2023