Towards the Study of Political Text and Translation in Thailand: A Case Study of Thai Translations of Biden’s Inaugural Address
Issued Date
2022-01-01
Resource Type
ISSN
15135934
eISSN
26511479
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85130825360
Journal Title
rEFLections
Volume
29
Issue
1
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
rEFLections Vol.29 No.1 (2022)
Suggested Citation
Phanthaphoommee N. Towards the Study of Political Text and Translation in Thailand: A Case Study of Thai Translations of Biden’s Inaugural Address. rEFLections Vol.29 No.1 (2022). Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/83484
Title
Towards the Study of Political Text and Translation in Thailand: A Case Study of Thai Translations of Biden’s Inaugural Address
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
The existing literature concerning the translation of political discourse in Thailand remains limited. To encourage more research in this area, this paper proposes a model for analysing the translation of political texts in the Thai context. Drawing upon Munday’s (2012, 2018) appraisal approach to translation and Schäffner’s (2004, 2012) analysis of the political context around translation, this paper offers a two-level methodology for investigating the Thai-English and English-Thai translation of political texts. The case of US President Biden’s 2021 inaugural address was chosen for testing the model. The findings reveal that the two Thai news agencies translated only some parts of the speech, resulting in a selective re-presentation of Biden’s political discourse. The ideological presentations of the two Thai versions are strikingly different: one representing a faithful portrayal of the original standpoint and the other with a stronger attitude in numerous ideology-laden terms. This paper also discusses the epitextual and contextual elements of the translations in question.