Ways and means of expressing modality in English and Ukrainian

Literature used and recommended

In English and Ukrainian

Ways and means of expressing modality

Lecture 7

Transformation of some idioms in the process of translating.

Many phraseological expressions singled out by V. Vinogradov as unities may reflect national features of the SL (reference to traditions, customs, events, geographical position). Being nationally distinct cannot have in the TL traditionally established equivalents or loan variants. As a result, most of them may have more than one version in the TL. It may be either a regular sense-to-sense variant (an interlinear-type translation) or an artistic literary version with the expressiveness, the picturesqueness.

There must be acknowledged at least 2 main levels of translating the national idioms:

1) the level of the interlinear rendering, i. e., sense-to-sense translation only;

2) the literary /artistic level, which not only the sense but also the expressiveness, the vividness and the aphoristic nature of the idioms should possibly be conveyed as well.

Faithful translatoin of national idioms/phraseologisms is mostly achieved via deliberate transformations performed first at the interlinear level and then at literary level:

- he, that doesn't respect, isn't respected: хто інших не поважає - сам поваги не має; поважатимеш інших - поважатимуть і тебе; the wind cannot be prevented from blowing.

Transformations become absolutely inevitable when the English idioms contain a passive voice structure, the introductory it/there, or some other analytical constructions (with the auxiliary verbs do, does).

1. The lexico – grammatical expression of modality through modal verbs.

2.English modal verbs having not always modal verb equivalents in Ukrainian.

3. Ways of conveying the meaning of subjective modality.

4.Grammatical modality and means of expressing it. Optative, incentive, subjunctive modality.

1. Карабан В.І. Translation from Ukrainian into English. – В.: Нова книга, 2003. –607 с.

2. Комиссаров В.Н. Теория перевода - М.: Высшая школа, 1990.

3. Корунець І.В. Теорія і практика перекладу. - К.: Нова, 2001 - 446 с.

4. Федоров А.В. Основы общей теории перевода. - М.: Высшая школа, 1983.

5. Швейцар А.Д. Теория перевода. -М.: Наука, 1988.

6. Gentzles E. Contemporary Translation Theories. - London and New York. Rout

ledge, 1993.

Modality as an extralingual category expressing the relation of content to reality has common in both 1anguages means of realization:

phonological means (stress and intonation). They have an identical realization in both 1anguages, though in Ukrainian modal particles (аж, хоч, би, і, -но, -то, саме, таки) and modal adverbs (авжеж, адже, певне, все ж, мов, ніби) are mostly preferred here. Jane is sure to be at the party - неодмінно, обов'язково, напевно-таки, напевно ж.

lexico-grammatical means (modal verbs)

lexical means (modal words and expressions) conveying subjective modality;

grammatical means (mood forms of the verb) conveying grammatical modality.