Zaid Bin Mohd Zin’s scientific contributions

This study examined the pragmatic functions of hedging strategies used by the Federal Reserve System (Fed) Chair during press conferences. The Fed’s significant influence on U.S. monetary policy and global financial markets makes its communication methods crucial yet linguistically underexplored. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine the frequency and types of hedges, their situational usage, and pragmatic functions. The findings revealed a notable use of approximators and shields to adapt to the complexities of financial communication, with adaptors and plausibility shields being the most common. The Fed Chair employed hedging strategies to address sensitive economic issues, uncertain policies, and matters affecting financial markets and public perception. These hedging strategies were used to mitigate potential criticism, enhance flexibility, soften the tone, maintain credibility, ensure effective information delivery, and improve politeness. The study contributed to the understanding of linguistic hedging strategies in financial communication and underscored the strategic use of language in economic policy-making and financial stability.

The Hmong, a Chinese ethnic minority, possess a rich cultural heritage. Due to their unique history of exile and migration, the Hmong have scant documentation of their vanishing cultural heritage. The Hmong oral epic constitutes a vital component of documenting Hmong culture. Thus, this paper delves into the translation of the Hmong Oral Epic 'Creating Heaven and Earth', focusing on folklore terms as fundamental units for analyzing Hmong culture. Eco-Translatology has the great importance in protecting the languages of Chinese ethnic minorities and enhancing the dissemination of their literature (Li, 2017). Hence, this paper examines the translation of Hmong folklore terms in the Hmong Oral Epic 'Creating Heaven and Earth' from the perspective of Eco-Translatology. The study reveals 53 translations of Hmong folklore terms, encompassing material, social, and spiritual aspects, within the Hmong oral epic 'Creating Heaven and Earth'. For Hmong material folklore terms, translators predominantly employ the 'target contextualization' strategy, along with 'extending substitution' and 'vitalization' methods. For Hmong social folklore terms, translators favor the 'source contextualization' strategy, supplemented by 'adaptive addition' and 'vitalization' methods. For Hmong spiritual folklore terms, translators predominantly utilize the 'source contextualization' strategy, in addition to 'extending substitution' and 'naturalization' methods.