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Article published In: Discourse Analysis in Translation Studies
Edited by Jeremy Munday and Meifang Zhang
[Target 27:3] 2015
► pp. 406–421

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Engagement and graduation resources as markers of translator/interpreter positioning

 | University of Leeds
Published online: 22 October 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.27.3.05mun
This article examines the application of appraisal theory (Martin, J.R., and Peter R.R. White. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to the analysis of translation. It develops the findings in . 2012. Evaluation in Translation: Critical Points of Translator Decision-making. Abingdon: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, which focused on attitudinal meanings, and explores the potential for the use of engagement resources and graduation as a means of determining translator/interpreter positioning. Using a range of examples from texts of international organizations, it discusses the translation of reporting verbs and intensification as a signal of the translator’s/interpreter’s degree of ‘investment’ in a proposition and control over the text receiver’s response. This is framed within the concept of ‘discourse space theory’ (Chilton, Paul. 2004. Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to provide a reference for future work in this field.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Systemic functional linguistics and appraisal theory
    • 2.1Engagement
    • 2.2Reporting verbs
  • 3.Deictic positioning
  • 4.Graduation
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (27)
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