A Study On English-Chinese Modality Translation Strategies

Modality,mostly carried by modal verbs,modal adjuncts,and metaphors of modality,conveys speakers' opinions,attitudes and stance.English and Chinese both converge and diverge in their way of expressing modal meanings,which necessitates the proper choice of modality translation strategies.When translating the academic monograph of Pragmatics and the English Language,I found that its authors effectively construct modal meanings via flexible application of various English expressions of modality.To well reproduce the modal meanings of the original text,it is imperative that we correctly understand the modal expressions used and make suitable choice of translation strategies.This thesis,based on case studies of the English-Chinese translation of the book and guided by Nida's theory of functional equivalence,seeks to discuss how to accurately reproduce modal meanings to realize functional equivalence regarding modal meanings.It summarizes five main strategies for modality translation,namely transliterating,shifting,transposing,embedding,and extraposing.While these translation strategies may not be the only effective ones,they can be helpful for other translators in dealing with modality translation.