On The English Translation Of Modal Particles "Ma","Ne" And "Ba" In Modern Chinese

In modern Chinese language, putting modal particles at the end of a sentence isone of the most important ways to reflect the mood or attitude of the addresser, whichis different from that of in English by placing different order of the subject and thefinite element of the verb to express different mood. Taking Laoshe’s play Teahouseas the corpus, this thesis chooses three modal particles “Ma吗”,“Ne呢”and”Ba吧”,which are frequently used in the play, and presents the discussion on the meaningsand functions expressed by those modal particles in different sorts of sentencestructures from the perspectives of semantics, pragmatics and cognitive linguistics.The thesis also makes a comparative analysis of the corresponding translations of thethree modal particles in Huo Hua’s and Ying Ruocheng’s English translations ofTeahouse. Also the thesis illustrates the points with the typical sentence examplesselected in the two English versions, trying to find the best translation method toconvey the consistent mood of the addresser.The thesis contains five parts altogether. The primary contents of all five partsare summarized respectively in the following:The first part is an introduction. This part briefly introduced the issue ofproblems, research objects and scope，research objectives and methods，the source ofinformation or data and remarks on mood systems in modern Chinese and Englishlanguages.Chapter1mainly discusses the meaning of the interrogative modal particle “Ma吗” and its translation in English. The core meaning of “Ma吗” is query, which refersto not giving out judgment to the proposition, and requires confirmation of theaddressee. In accordance with the addresser’s purpose and the context, the thesis analyses the translation of disjunctive questions and special questions with the modalparticle “Ma吗” at the end of the sentences.Chapter2mainly discusses the meaning of the modal particle “Ne呢” and itstranslation in English.“Ne呢” can be used at the end of all declarative sentences andinterrogative sentences. The core meaning of the modal particle “Ne呢” is mainlyabout the supply of information. In English translation, the meaning and function ofthe modal particle “Ne呢” can be expressed by the metaphor ofmood, modality, conversion of parts of speech and tense. In addition, theuntranslatability of the modal particle “Ne呢” is also analyzed in this chapter.Chapter3mainly discusses the meaning of the modal particle “Ba吧” and itstranslation in English.“Ba吧” can be used at the end of declarative sentences,yes-or-no interrogations and imperative sentences. The core meaning of the modalparticle “Ba吧” is to show the addresser’s uncertainty. This thesis discusses theEnglish translation of yes-or-no interrogations， tag questions， declarativesentences and imperative sentences with the modal particle “Ba吧” at the end of thesentence.The last part is a conclusion. It is primarily to generalize the main content andviewpoints of the thesis, and points out the deficiency of the thesis and subjects thatneed further exploration in the future.