10.3. Modality in translation

Modality is an important component of informative structure of a SL text which is connected with all kinds of personal evaluation of what is described in it. According to the traditional approach (see the works of V.V.Vinogradov, V.Z.Panfilov, N.A.Slyusareva, Russian Grammar, 1980, etc) modality can be classified into objective and subjective. In a narrow sense modality is understood as an expression of the meaning of reality or unreality of an action, while in a broad sense it comprises all aspects of subjective attitudes including a speaker’s attitude to the content of an utterance, his addressee, the evaluation of the situation of communication, etc.

A broad approach to modality enables to consider a great variety of means of expressing modality which can be found on word level, word group level, sentence level and suprasegmental level. Hence, modality is expressed in the following ways:

1. forms of words, in particular, mood and tense forms;

2. modal and semi-modal verbs;

3. modal words, phrases, particles, interjections;

4. syntactical means including different types of sentences, emphatic constructions, inversion, etc;

5. voice and prosody in oral speech.

The difficulties of rendering modality in translation are caused by two groups of factors:

• intra-language

• inter-language.

To the group of intra-language factors refer the following:

1. polysemy of most means of expressing modality which can be easily illustrated by English modal verbs (can, may, must, should etc) and Russian particles (вот, же, хоть и т.д.).

2. synonymic means of expressing certain modal shades in SL and therefore the necessity to feel the slightest nuances of modality expressed in different ways, c.f. according to Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English the meaning of obligation / necessity can be expressed by a variety of English verbs including: must, should, (had) better, have (got) to, need to, ought to, be supposed to. E. G.You better go / You’ve got to go / You have to go / You are going to go – they are used in BE and AE conversation with a similar meaning;

3. contextual ambiguity which makes it difficult for a translator to interpret modality unequivocally, e.g. Only legislation can establish tax rates (can can be interpreted as expressing logical possibility, ability or permission.

To inter-language factors accounting for the difficulties of rendering modality refer:

1. the preference for particular means of expressing modality in SL and in TL. English has a highly developed system of modal and semi-modal verbs for this purpose, while Russian is extremely rich in modal particles and words.

2. absence of one-to-one correspondence in the number and character of modal meanings that can be expressed by correlated means in English and in Russian, c.f. English can – and Russian мочь. Very often in their translation it is necessary to resort to uncorrelated means of expressing modality, cf. Could he have said it? – Неужели он сказал это?

In view of these differences it is possible to predict major translation problems involved in rendering modality that are peculiar when translating from Russian into English and from English into Russian.

When translation is made from Russian into English a translator is confronted with the problem of rendering numerous particles and subjunctive mood which in speech often combine to intensify modal meanings. The Academy’s Russian Grammar published in 1982 stresses several features of Russian particles:

1) modal particles make up only part of the class of Russian particles and are defined as language units bringing in various meanings of subjective attitude to what is expressed in a sentence, e.g. ведь, всего-навсего, просто, прямо, гляди, дай-ка и т.д.

2) according to the meanings that they bring in an utterance Russian particles are divided into severalgroups: a) stressing emotional and other kinds of evaluation, b) expressing volition, c) establishing different kinds of relations between a message and the source of a message, its relations with other messages, etc.

3) in speech particles often enter into combinations which form semantically complex units, e.g. ну вот и, да и то, вроде бы и т.д. [Русская грамматика 1982: 727 – 729].

In translation Russian particles are handled in the following ways:

1. they are dropped, e.g. Что дома-то у нас? – How are things at home? Мне-де царь – не указка. The tsar cuts no ice with me. (A. Tolstoy 1982: 154)

2. rendered by an English interjection, e.g. Ты что, бродяга, - кормить здесь расположился? – Hey, tramp … Settled down here to feed your horse? … Да ведь это Маша. – Why, it’s Masha.

3. rendered by an English modal verb, e.g. Наверняка, дети заблудились. – The children must have lost their way.

4. rendered by emphatic forms of words, e.g. Когда же он придёт? – Whenever will he come?

5. compensated by lexical intensifiers, e.g. Мы едем сегодня же. – Today we start without delay.

6) rendered by special syntactical patterns and emphatic morphological forms, e.g. Да, говорите же! – Aren’t you going to speak?

Very often a translator has to resort to a number of means available in English in order to render polyfunctional Russian particles in translation, and yet they are often not so effective as in a SL text, c.f. Что ни день – письмо от жены или матери: без тебя, мол, скучно, скоро ли вернёшься? – Hardly a day went by without a letter from his wife or his mother: “Without you,”it would run, “I’m so bored. Will you be back soon?” (A.Tolstoy, p. 175)

Translation from English into Russian offers a number of problems connected with proper rendering of English modal and semi-modal verbs. In order to retain in a Russian text a variety of modal meanings expressed by English modal and semi-modal verbs a translator can make use of the following means:

1. a Russian modal verb, e.g. I don’t know whether you can or not. – Я не знаю, сможете ли вы … (Т. Драйзер, 7)

2. a Russian modal particle, a modal word or phrase, e.g. There may be something to it. – Может быть, в этом что-то и есть (Т. Драйзер, 38). You must be thinking. – Вы, видно, задумались (Т. Драйзер, 61).

3. lexical intensifiers in Russian, e.g. It is good that the government should have recognized its obligations – Весьма хорошо, что правительство так ясно осознало свои обязательства.

4. syntactical means in Russian including different types of sentences, e.g. Why, you can’t live on it, can you? – Разве можно жить на такие деньги? (Т.Драйзер, 47).

5. a combination of various means available in Russian, e.g. She ought to keep it for a time, anyhow. – Всё равно, пока что надо хоть этого держаться (Т. Драйзер, 40). “I’ll go down Monday and see if I can’t get something”. – «Пойду в понедельник в город и поищу: может быть, что-нибудь подвернётся» (Т. Драйзер, 44).

Modal and semi-modal verbs in an English text are sometimes not translated at all, cf. Well, you never can tell, said Hurstwood. – Как вам сказать, - ответил Герствуд (Т.Драйзер, 38).

Quite often there takes place redistribution in the forms of expressing similar modal meanings in SL and in TL, e.g. ..she said vaguely – a flash vision of the possibility of her not securing employment rising in her mind. - …уклончиво сказала Керри: у неё мелькнула мысль, что она может не найти там работы (Т. Драйзер, 7).