A Corpus-based Analysis On Modal Verbs In Agriculture English

As Nanning becomes the permanent holding city of China-ASEAN Expo since2004, the bilateral trade between ASEAN and China increases notably. As the major agriculture province in China, Guangxi is the bridge connecting the communication between China and the ASEAN countries. Making full of Guangxi’s advantage and developing agricultural techniques communication are of great strategic significance to the construction of China ASEAN Free Trade Area and the social and economic development of Guangxi. Resent years have witnessed a great boost in Guangxi market of agriculture techniques Chinese-English translation. There is growing demands in professions and standardization of translation quality. A good many problems need urgent settlement in the C-E translation. However, domestic researches concerning agricultural techniques English are mainly dealing with English-Chinese translation. It is rare to find research concerning C-E translation of agricultural techniques.Based on Halliday’s systematic modality theory, the recent study conducts an investigation on the nine central modal verbs in agricultural techniques English though corpus quantitative research approach in the hope of gaining some insights on agriculture technique English. Firstly, an comparative analysis is made between Brown Corpus and self-built agricultural English corpus(AEC) which contains400,000words, summarizing the differences in application of modal verbs across the two corpora. Then, an collocation analysis on modal verbs in AEC is conducted through BUSF Collocator1.0. Finally, a contrastive analysis is carried out between AEC and the translated texts of Guangxi agricultural innovation serials(TAEC), discussing the differences in application of modal verbs.The research questions for the study are the following three:1. How does original agricultural techniques promotion English differ from general English? What are the characteristics of MVs in agriculture promotion English texts?2.What are typical collocation of original agricultural techniques promotion English?3. What are the differences between agricultural techniques promotion English and translated texts of agricultural promotion Chinese in terms of modal verbs?Major findings in the study are:1. the MVs in AEC differ significantly from in Brown. Will, should and may are the most commonly used MVs in AEC; large amount of MVs of median modal values are found in AEC; contracted negative modals are rare in AEC2. Typical collocation of modal verbs in is subjective lead word plus passive construction of modal verbs, namely,"it+modal verbs+be"3. There exist significant differences in application of MVs in AEC and TAEC."Can" is overused in TAEC with inanimate subject.This study wishes to inspire the application of modal verbs in C-E translation practice of agricultural technique promotion texts in a way that could be more better understood by readers of target language.