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Epistemic stance in the translations of Chinese medicine classics: a case study of Huang Di Nei Jing

  • Yan Yue

    Yan Yue is a PhD candidate at Macquarie University. Her research interests include the science of language, translation studies (text and context), systemic functional linguistics, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Address for correspondence: Linguistic Department, Macquarie University, 12 Second Way, NSW 2109, Sydney, Australia.

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    and Canzhong Wu
Published/Copyright: February 4, 2021

Abstract

This article is a contrastive study of epistemic stance in the English translations of the Chinese medical classic Huang Di Nei Jing by clinicians and non-clinicians. Epistemic stance is concerned with a translator’s certainty about the proposition of a statement and is highly consequential to information validity. By drawing on the systemic functional linguistic framework and using two sets of translations of the Chinese medicine classic, Huang Di Nei Jing, by both clinicians and non-clinicians, the study investigates the linguistic choices concerning epistemic stance. The findings show that epistemic stance is closely related to the translators’ domain knowledge and expertise, with clinician-translators more likely to express their epistemic stance in the translations. However, this study also finds a counterintuitive epistemic pattern: non-clinician translators express more certainty in their translations.


Corresponding author: Yan Yue, Linguistic Department, Macquarie University, 12 Second Way, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia, E-mail:

Award Identifier / Grant number: 201706390064

About the author

Yan Yue

Yan Yue is a PhD candidate at Macquarie University. Her research interests include the science of language, translation studies (text and context), systemic functional linguistics, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Address for correspondence: Linguistic Department, Macquarie University, 12 Second Way, NSW 2109, Sydney, Australia.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from China Scholarship Council, and the comments from A/Prof. Annabelle Lukin, Dr ZhongWei Song, and Florence Chiew.

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Received: 2020-03-13
Accepted: 2021-01-20
Published Online: 2021-02-04
Published in Print: 2022-03-28

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