Abstract

Modal verbs, as one of the important means of expressing modality, are widely used in both spoken and written languages. Based on the semantic analysis of the modal verbs of English and Chinese by Palmer and Prof. Yi Zhongliang, this paper attempts to conduct a research on the semantic classification and translation features of modal verbs in Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Address. Then we try to analyze the difficulties and challenges in translating English modal verbs into Chinese due to the non-corresponding semantics of those in English and Chinese texts, for which some feasible translation strategies and methods will be suggested. This paper intends to find out the corresponding or non-corresponding modal verbs’ examples in English and Chinese translation texts and carry on comparative analyses of the common modal verbs appearing in the original and the translation texts. Considering the fact that the English modal verbs may not always have its corresponding Chinese equivalents in the English to Chinese translation texts, four English to Chinese translation strategies of the modal verbs are discussed: transformation of the sentence pattern, change of the modal values, change of the modal orientation and integration of sentence pattern and semantics.  

Key words: modal verbs; semantic analysis; English to Chinese translation; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction.1

2 Literature review.2

3 Political speeches and the text under study.4

4 Semantic analyses of modal verbs in the text5

4.1 Halliday’s three modal values and its application5

4.2 Semantic analyses of English modal verbs in the speech.6

4.2.1 Positive grade modal verb CAN7

4.2.2 Inclining grade modal verb WILL.8

4.2.3 Necessitating grade modal verb MUST.9

4.3 Contrastive analyses of English and Chinese modal verbs10

5 E-C translation strategies of modal verbs.14

6 Conclusion15

References17

Appendix.18