SSRScientific and Social Research2661-43322981-9946Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.26689/ssr.v8i7.15947ArticleThe Representation and Reconstruction of Interpersonal Meaning in the English Translation of the Report on the Work of the Government: A Modality System Perspectivehttps://artdesignp.com/journal/SSR/8/7/10.26689/ssr.v8i7.15947LiXiaoqian,ZhaoXiyuan2026872026-08-14Using Chinese–English parallel texts from the Report on the Work of the Government published between 2010 and 2019, this study investigates the reconstruction of interpersonal meaning in the English translations. The analysis adopts a corpus-based approach and takes the modality system as the main analytical framework. The findings indicate that a large proportion of modal expressions in the English translations do not have direct counterparts in the Chinese source texts, resulting in the reconstruction of modal type, modal orientation, and modal value. These expressions are introduced during the translation process. Their distribution is concentrated in inclination-based modality, implicit modal orientation, and median modal value. In concordance lines where modal expressions appear in both the Chinese texts and the English translations, the English versions present a lower degree of obligation in modal type. They also show a stronger tendency toward implicit modal orientation and a higher level of modal value than the Chinese originals.

Cheng ZQ, 2004, Translation of Political Documents. Chinese Translators Journal, 2004(1): 52.

Huang YY, 2004, Adhering to the “Three Principles of Closeness for International Communication” and tackling difficult problems in international communication translation. Chinese Translators Journal, 2004(6): 29–30.

Jia YL, 2011, Reflections on the Translation of Central Government Documents. Chinese Translators Journal, 32(1): 78–81.

Jia YL, 2017, On the Construction and Translation of International Political Discourse System: Revisiting the English Translation of Qiushi Journal. Chinese Translators Journal, 38(3): 96–101.

Wang PX, 2013, Issues of Lexical Collocation and Semantic Prosody in Chinese-English Translation of Party and Government Documents. Chinese Translators Journal, 34(3): 71–77.

Huang CQ, 2015, A Survey on English Translations of the Four Comprehensives and Translation Suggestions. Chinese Translators Journal, 36(3): 109–111.

Tang YJ, 2012, A Survey of Verb-object Collocations and Chinese-English Translation Strategies in English White Papers: A Contrastive Corpus-based Study. Shanghai Journal of Translators, 2012(3): 26–29.

Tong XH, 2014, Subjective Awareness in Translation: Reflections on Translating the 2014 Report on the Work of the Government. Chinese Translators Journal, 35(4): 92–97.

Hu KB, Tian XJ, 2018, Linguistic Features and Textual Effects of English Translations of Report on the Work of the Government: A Corpus-based Study. Foreign Language and Literature, 34(5): 1–11.

Wang Y, 2016, Mitigation of Tone in English Translations of Report on the Work of the Government. Chinese Translators Journal, 37(5): 110–113.

Zhu XM, 2011, A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis of English Translations of Report on the Work of the Government (I): A Study of Plural First-person Pronouns. Foreign Languages Research, 2011(2): 73–78 + 112.

Li JM, Wei JL, 2018, A Study of Thematic Word Collocations in English Translations of Report on the Work of the Government. Foreign Languages & Translation, 25(4): 31–38 + 98.

Li XQ, Hu KB, 2017, A Study of Thematic Words and their Collocations in English Translations of Chinese Government Work Reports. Foreign Languages in China, 14(6): 81–89.

Tian X, 2025, Translators as Mediators to Mend the Psychological Gap between Source Text and Target Text: A Corpus-based Study on the Chinese–English Translation of Modal Verbs in the Chinese Report on the Work of the Government (2000–2022). PLoS ONE, 20(3): e0320490.

Lin N, He YH, 2024, A Corpus-based Study on the Interpersonal Meanings of Modal Verbs in the English Version of the Report on the Work of the Government. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University (Social Sciences), 25(3): 67–82.

Valdeón RA, Li S, 2024, Political Discourse Translation in Contemporary Chinese and Western Contexts. The Translator, 30(4): 427–440.

Fu R, Chen J, 2019, Negotiating Interpersonal Relations in Chinese-English Diplomatic Interpreting: Explicitation of Modality as a Case in Point. Interpreting, 2019(21): 12–35.

Li X, 2018, Mediation through Modality Shifts in Chinese-English Government Press Conference Interpreting. Babel, 64(2): 269–293.

Xu J, Liang Y. Negotiating Intersubjectivity by Interpersonal and Appraisal Shifts in Chinese-English Government Press Conference Interpreting. Frontiers in Psychology, 2023(14): 1106174.

Halliday MAK, 1994, An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). Edward Arnold, London.

Halliday MAK, Matthiessen C, 2014, Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar (4th ed.). Routledge, Oxon.