Negotiating Institutional Hierarchy: Power, Politeness, and Meaning Construction in English-to-Chinese Courtroom Translation

This corpus-based study investigates the translation of modality from English to Chinese in the high-stakes context of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). Grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the analysis employs a parallel corpus of trial transcripts to examine the distribution of modal expressions across orientations and values in the source language, and how translation of modality reshapes interpersonal meaning in the target language. The study first establishes a baseline distribution of modal orientations and values in the English source texts, noting a predominance of implicit and median-value modality. Additionally, the findings reveal that translations frequently weaken modal force and increase implicitness. High-value modals are often reduced or omitted, diminishing the perceived authority of courtroom participants, while the omission of explicit hedges erodes politeness strategies, rendering statements more direct and confrontational. Consequently, these shifts significantly alter the power dynamics and communicative tone of the original interactions. The study concludes that such unmitigated shifts can distort legal meaning and emphasizes the need for translators to prioritize modal equivalence to preserve the nuanced interpersonal fabric of courtroom discourse.