Gender differences in Chinese-English press conference interpreting

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper, by making use of the Chinese-English Conference Interpreting Corpus, analyses the differences in press conference interpreting between male and female interpreters in the use of typical English words and interpreting methods. The research shows that male interpreters prefer to use low-value modal verbs, such as may and might; intensifiers; verbs of cognitive attitude, such as I think and I believe; and the first-person plural pronoun we, while female interpreters tend to use high-value modal verbs, such as must and should, more often. The research also indicates that male interpreters are inclined to adopt interpreting methods such as strengthening—i.e. increasing semantic intensity—and addition, whereas female interpreters prefer to use English equivalents to translate Chinese modal adverbs, intensifiers, verbs of cognitive attitude and the first-person plural pronoun we. It is argued that these differences might be attributable to the different roles in society played by men and women in China.