A Deaf Take on Non-Equivalence in Written Chinese Translation

A Deaf Take on Non-Equivalence in Written Chinese Translation examines the issue of lexical non-equivalence between written Chinese and Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) translation, describing its theoretical and practical implications.

This research foregrounds the semiotic resources in the Deaf community of Hong Kong by analyzing translation strategies exhibited by Deaf Hongkongers when they were invited to translate written Chinese passages with specialized and culturally specific concepts in a monologic setting. With discourse analysis as a framework, the major findings of this research were that: (1) a taxonomy of strategies featured depiction, manual representations of Chinese characters and visual metonymy, writing and mouthing; (2) employment of multisemiotic and multimodal resources gave intended viewers access to different facets of meaning; and (3) repeated renditions of the same concepts gave rise to condensed, abbreviated occasionalisms.

Observations from this research serve as a point of reference for interpreting scholars, practitioners and students as well as policymakers who formulate interpretation service provision and assessment.

Chan Yi Hin was born and raised in Hong Kong and has been a Hong Kong Sign Language interpreter for over 15 years. She obtained her Masters in Deafhood Studies from Bristol University, England. Since moving to the U.S. in 2015, Yi Hin has received national certifications in both ASL/English (NIC) and Cantonese/English (NBCMI). She is also the first Asian graduate of the PhD program in Interpretation and Translation from Gallaudet University in Washington DC. In the US, she practices medical interpreting; while in Hong Kong, she is an interpreting practitioner, trainer and a published author on sign language interpretation, Deaf history and culture. The last name of the author is Chan and should be used in citation.