Document Type
Journal Article
Department/Unit
Department of English Language and Literature
Title
Interpreting Cantonese utterance-final particles in bilingual courtroom discourse
Language
English
Abstract
This paper examines an unusual feature of spoken Cantonese - the utterance-final particle - to see how it is deployed and rendered by interpreters in courtroom discourse. The data is based on five rape trials heard in the Hong Kong courtrooms. It is a known fact that different participants in the courtroom construct their version of the truth utilizing different linguistic devices. However, different language systems have different linguistic phenomenon which may be common in one language but non-existent in another. Utterance particle is one of those unique language devices in Cantonese which is not available in English. Court interpreters often find themselves facing the task of maintaining the coherence and modality of all the participants' languages while interpreting for these different language systems. © John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Keywords
Cantonese, Court interpreting, Utterance particles
Publication Date
2009
Source Publication Title
Interpreting
Volume
11
Issue
2
Start Page
190
End Page
215
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing
DOI
10.1075/intp.11.2.05leu
Link to Publisher's Edition
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/intp.11.2.05leu
ISSN (print)
13846647
ISSN (electronic)
1569982X
Recommended Citation
Leung, Ester, and John Gibbons. "Interpreting Cantonese utterance-final particles in bilingual courtroom discourse." Interpreting 11.2 (2009): 190-215.