| Hedging is a common linguistic phenomenon in natural language and many scholars then discovered that gender differences in the application of hedges exist not only in spontaneous speeches,but also in translation and interpretation.Till now,most of these interpretation studies focus on performance of professional interpreters in conferences or court interpreting,few concern students’ performance in interpretation contests.Therefore,this study aims to investigate 30 student interpreters from various colleges around China who entered the National Final of the 7th,8th and 9th All China Interpreting Contest,to observe whether any gender difference exists in their treatment of hedges.In the light of a modified Hyland’s multifunctional model,hedges are classified into three categories:accuracy-oriented,speaker-oriented,and audienceoriented.Through a quantitative analysis based on the overall frequencies and functional distribution across categories,it is found that female interpreters hedge more than their male counterparts in Chinese to English interpretation,and they both use accuracy-oriented hedges more often than other two types of hedges.And through a qualitative analysis on the parallel texts,it is found that female interpreters tend to add more audience-oriented hedges while male interpreters tend to omit some accuracyoriented hedges in Chinese to English interpretation.Such difference may be explained by their different abidance by the Cooperative Principle,Politeness Principle and interpreting norms.It is thus inferred that in English interpretation contests,they both pay much attention to the accuracy and faithfulness of the delivery,but males are more assertive while females are more polite.This research will to some extent contribute to interpretation studies on gender differences,and also give beginners a better understanding of the multi-functions of hedges and help them to use hedges more properly and decently in interpreting. |
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