A Corpus-Based Study Of Modality System In Translation Texts By Student Translators

Modality,as an indispensable means of conveying meaning in interpersonal communication,has attracted the attention of many experts in different research fields for a long time.Because of this characteristic,modality is widely used in literary writing.Halliday divides the use of language into three meta-functions,and modality is one of the main means to realize interpersonal meta-function.A lot of scholars have explored modality,few combine translation with modality to explore the use of modality in translated texts.Student translators are the main reserve force in the future translation field.It is the focus of many researches to study the characteristics of student translators to improve their translation ability to meet the market demand.From the perspective of modality,this thesis studies the characteristics of student translators’ use of modality in the translation of novel texts,and explores the ways and characteristics of student translators’ use of modality in Chinese-English translation.This research chooses Halliday’s modality theory as the theoretical framework and one chapter in The Sky Dwellers as the Chinese original text.The texts of student translators are randomly selected from the translations of 30 student translators from a university in Northeast China.In terms of data processing,researchers choose to identify and classify the modality in the corpus according to Halliday’s modality classification.This study includes quantitative and qualitative research methods.The former classifies different modal frequencies through data sorting,while the latter explains the characteristics of modal usage through interviews and case analysis.This study will explore three research questions:(1)What are the types and frequencies of English modality used by student translators in translation texts?(2)What are the characteristics of the use of modal value and modal orientation in translation texts by student translators?(3)What are the potential factors affecting the choice of modality in English translation texts by student translators?Based on the analysis of the data and cases,quantitative methods are used to study the changes of modality use,while qualitative methods are used to analyze specific examples and influencing factors.The following conclusions are drawn1.From the perspective of modal types,the proportion of modulation in student translators’ translations is higher than that of modalization.Compared with the original Chinese text,the proportion of modulation decreases from 73.33% to 54.68%,while the proportion of modalization increases from 26.67% to 45.32%.In the type of modalization,compared with the Chinese novel,the frequency of the two sub-types of probability and usuality in the student translators’ texts also shows an increasing trend,with the increasing frequency of 18.16% and 0.49% respectively.In the type of modulation,compared with the Chinese text,the frequency of the sub-type of obligation in the student translators’ texts has decreased by 11.41%,while the frequency of the category of inclination has decreased by 7.24%.2.From the perspective of modal value,compared with Chinese text,the frequency of modal usage with low modal value increases by 2.94%,while the frequencies of modal usage with median and high values decrease by 0.38% and 2.56%.From the perspective of modal orientation,the use of student translators focuses on subjective implicit and objective implicit orientations,which is the same as the choice of orientation in the Chinese text.3.From the interviews,this study finds three main factors that affect the choice of modality.The first factor is the different language habits.Compared with Chinese original text,student translators believe that English expressions are more objective.In translation,student translators choose to use low-value modal expressions to avoid the interference of subjectivity on readers.The second factor is translation strategy.Free translation includes translation techniques such as addition,deletion and shift.The use of such translation strategy leads to changes in the frequency and types of modality used by student translators in translation texts.The third factor is that students’ grasp of modal expression is not enough,and they rely too much on the use of modal auxiliary verbs,resulting in language rigidity.