A C-E Translation Report Of The Reconstruction Of Chinese Sociology:Oral History Of 40 Sociologists(1979-2019)(Excerpts):Difficulties And Strategies For Translating Modal Verbs In Oral Text

The C-E translation report is based on the translation of two chapters of The Reconstruction of Chinese Sociology: Oral History of 40 Sociologists(1979-2019).With the aim of faithfully recording the rapid development of Sociology and the Chinese society since the Reform and Opening-up,this book has recorded 40 Chinese sociologists’ oral accounts who have grown up since the restoration and reconstruction of Chinese Sociology.Significantly,due to the characteristics of oral texts,Chinese modal verbs,whose translation plays a key role in the translation quality of the entire book,appear frequently in the book.The report will analyze the translation of Chinese modal verbs under the effect of personal factors,cultural factors and language factors.Firstly,in terms of personal factors,oral narrators often use modal verbs out of physical factors such as the loss of memory or to express personal thoughts and feelings.Secondly,there are cultural differences and language differences between China and the West,which will affect the translation of modal verbs.Therefore,how to balance these factors has become an urgent problem.In order to solve the above problem,the report guided by Halliday’s “modality” studies has tried to propose the strategies as followings: 1)omitting the translation or adopting the literal translation of Chinese modal verbs that are applied by narrators out of physical factors such as the loss of memory;2)preserving modal values or preserving modal types when narrators apply modal verbs to show their personal thoughts;3)preserving modal orientations or altering modal orientations under the effect of cultural differences in subjectivity and objectivity;4)altering modal values or changing the expression forms under the effect of cultural differences in values;5)adopting “three-step” translation strategy for the polysemy of Chinese: identifying modal semantics-choosing appropriate modal values and types-choosing appropriate modal orientations.Through translation practice,it is proved that the above strategies can effectively help the author to measure the influence of these factors on the translation of Chinese modal verbs,find the most accurate translation and then realize the interpersonal function of the oral text.The author hopes that this report will provide useful guidance and reference for the translation of Chinese modal verbs.