Application Of Chinese Modal Particles In E-C Translation

Chinese modal particles belong to functional auxiliary words, whose modal meanings are elusive. There exist few studies on Chinese modal particles, let alone the studies on how to apply Chinese modal particles in the E-C translation. In addition, of the limited amount of the studies concerning this field, most are done without supportive theory. Some scholars'viewpoints are somewhat incorrect. After contrasting the similarities and differences of means of expressing mood between English and Chinese, we find out that Chinese modal particles have no counterparts in English. Therefore, when translating English works into Chinese, Chinese modal particles should be properly applied to express the original mood as well as to make the target texts natural.When we study translation, it is necessary to refer to an important concept—"equivalence". Nida's Functional Equivalence theory is considerably used in translation practice. Nida puts forward"the closest natural equivalent"to appeal that in translating the target text should be equivalent to the source text to the maximum extent, and the target text should be natural and fit the features of target language and culture. Chinese modal particles are frequently used in Chinese works. So Chinese modal particles should be properly applied in E-C translation to achieve the"closest natural equivalence". My thesis explores the strategies of applying the frequently-used Chinese modal particles (的,了,吗,嘛,呢,啊,吧) in the E-C translation in terms of surface equivalence and deep equivalence. Surface equivalence consists of two parts: typological equivalence and non-typological equivalence. In deep equivalence, we study the application of Chinese modal particles from personality and context.