Modern Social Science Research

As an important means of expression, modifiers in political speeches convey the speaker’ s political stance, ideology, emotion and attitudes. Their accurate translation meets cross-cultural communicative demands including the emphasis and contrast of certain information. Against this backdrop, this paper discusses the types and their translation methods of modifiers in political speeches based on the English versions of two political speeches: Speech at the Welcoming Dinner Hosted by the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region and Address at the Meeting Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Macao’s Return to the Motherland and the Inaugural Ceremony of the Sixth-Term Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region. The paper shows that modifiers in political speeches frequently fall into several structural categories, including holistic, coordinate, central, and incremental types. Correspondingly, their translations often involve methods such as post-positioning, structural transformation, omission, upshifting, and amplification. Through the following analysis, this paper aims to enrich case studies in political speech translation, thereby promoting a better understanding of China’s policies and positions worldwide and facilitating cross-cultural political communication.

Political speeches; Modifies; The types of modifies; Translation methods