Modals

Babel 57: 3 (2011), 283–304. © Fédération des Traducteurs (fit) Revue Babeldoi 10.1075/babel.57.3.03ead issn 0521–9744 e-issn 1569–9668

Translating English modal expressionsAn Arab translator trainee’s perspective

Domenyk EadesUniversity of Salford, United Kingdom

1. Introduction1

Modality is a linguistic category which is concerned with notions of possibility, factuality, and necessity. In English, modality is associated with the system of ver-bal auxiliaries referred to simply as ‘modals’. These forms are known to be diffi-cult structures for the translator due to the subtle and complex nature of their meanings. Previous studies dealing with complexities involved in the translation of modal expressions from English into Arabic and vice versa (e.g. Abdel- Fattah 2005; Badran 2001; El-Hassan 1991) showed that a major source of difficulty for the translator posed by modals stems from their characteristically ambiguous semantics. A single given modal can potentially convey a range of interrelated meanings, and the precise sense intended can be determined only through con-sideration of the broader context of its use. A second difficulty noted in previous studies stems from the significant differences in the formal coding of modality be-tween English and Arabic. In contrast with English, modality in Arabic is not as-sociated with a distinct, unitary formal category, but rather is expressed by means of a heterogeneous set of categories. The present study sheds light on the difficulties in the translation of modal expressions from English into Arabic as experienced by a group of native Arabic speaking translator trainees. Previous studies dealing with the translation of mo-dality from English to Arabic and vice versa focussed primarily on problems as-sociated primarily with the English modal auxiliaries. The present study takes a broader approach, including modal expressions of other grammatical categories in the analysis. The study seeks to determine the nature of difficulties faced by the trainees on the basis of errors in their translations. To do this, a small-scale study was conducted whereby the translation of an English source text (ST) into Arabic

1. Many thanks to Adel Abu Radwan, Omar Atari, James Dickins, and Maria Persson for help-ful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper; any remaining errors of fact or in-terpretation are my own.

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target texts (TT) by a group of native translator trainees in the final year of their degree were examined. Errors in the translation of modal expressions in the trans-lations of each student were analyzed with respect to frequency of occurrence, the grammatical category of the modal expression in the ST, and the grammatical shift required to adequately render the expression in the TT. These factors are consid-ered with respect to the different types of errors with which they correlate. Based on the results of the analysis, reasons for the different types of errors are proposed, and some general strategies for dealing with these problems in the training of the students are suggested.

2. Modality in English and Arabic

2.1. Defining modality

Modality is expressed in English by a structurally distinct ‘system’ of auxiliary verbs, which constitute a basic category within the grammatical system of the lan-guage. Due to the neat formal delineation of modality in English in comparison with many other languages, studies of modality have traditionally employed the English modal system as a basis for defining the category as a universal for the purposes of cross-linguistic comparison (Palmer 1990: 2). However, developments in typological studies in recent decades have seen the emergence of a diversity of approaches to the definition of modality due to the differences in criteria em-ployed, whether semantic, syntactic, pragmatic or different combinations of these. In many languages modal meaning does not coincide with a single formal cate-gory. For these reasons, purely meaning-based definitions of modality without re-course to structural criteria have emerged in recent decades for the purposes of cross-linguistic comparison. This has allowed the inclusion of a significantly great-er range of data in studies of modality than would be possible with structurally-based approaches. The traditional focus on formal criteria in the definition of modality meant that periphrastic alternatives in English to the ‘modal system’ were generally ne-glected in grammatical studies of the language. However, the developments out-lined in the preceding paragraph have meant that more recent studies have seen the inclusion of grammatical categories other than auxiliaries into accounts of mo-dality in English (e.g. Hoye 1995; von Fintel 2006). The following are some of the different grammatical means by which modality is expressed in English:

a. modal auxiliaries (e.g. He can/must/may be home.)b. semi-modals (e.g. He has to/seems to/wants to be home.)c. adverbs (e.g. Perhaps he is home.)

Translating English modal expressions 285

d. nouns (e.g. There is a slight possibility that he is home.)e. adjectives (e.g. It is far from necessary that he is home.) (von Fintel 2006: 1)

The basic semantic/notional classification employed in much of the literature on modality is that of the division between epistemic and non-epistemic types (Coates 1983; Palmer 1986, 2001). Epistemic modality deals with a speaker’s degree of con-fidence in the veracity of a proposition, and is characterized by Coates as modal-ity which is “concerned with the speaker’s assumptions or assessment of possibili-ties and, in most cases, it indicates the speaker’s confidence (or lack of confidence) in the truth of the proposition expressed” (1983: 18). Epistemic modality encom-passes meanings of possibility, prediction, and factuality. These are exemplified in (1a–c) respectively:

(1) a. You may go home.b. There will be rainfall on the weekend.c. Mary could be at home now.

Non-epistemic modality comprises two sub-types: deontic and dynamic modality. These two sub-types can be incorporated into a single general category due to the similarity of their meanings, as it is often difficult to distinguish between the no-tions of permission (deontic modality) and ability (dynamic modality) due to the fact that these meanings often overlap (Coates 1983: 86). Deontic modality is con-cerned with the speaker’s judgment about whether a potential event is permissible or acceptable (Palmer 2001: 7–8), and “is concerned with the possibility or neces-sity of acts in terms of which the speaker gives permission or lays an obligation for the performance of actions at some point in the future” (Hoye 1997: 43). Deontic modality encompasses meanings of permission and obligation, as shown in (2a–b):

(2) a. You may go home.b. You must pay the agent in full.

In contrast, dynamic modality is the real-world ability or intention of the subject to perform the action expressed by the main verb in the clause, and is not tied to the subjective judgment of the speaker (Palmer 1990). This is illustrated in exam-ples (3a–b):

(3) a. Adrian can speak Swahili.b. He could see a car in the distance.

In example (1a) the auxiliary may conveys a sense of possibility (epistemic modal-ity), while in (2a) the same form conveys a sense of permission (deontic modal-ity). In many cases the intended sense conveyed by a modal in a given instance of use is unclear, a characteristic which was referred to by Leech and Coates (1980)

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and Coates (1983) as “indeterminacy”. This means that a single given modal can potentially convey a variety of possible senses, with the precise meaning intended in a given instance being retrievable to the reader only by taking into considera-tion the context in which it occurs. In contrast with the English modal auxiliaries, indeterminacy is not a characteristic of English periphrastic modal expressions or Arabic modal expressions in general (Abdel-Fattah 2005: 44; Badran 2001: 48). In addition to the indeterminate nature of some modal expressions, the sub-tle and fuzzy nature of modal meaning itself is another potential source of diffi-culty for the translator. This was noted by Lyons (1977), who remarked that epis-temic modal meaning does not contribute to the propositional content of a text, but rather involves information about subjective matters of knowledge, belief, or opinion rather than fact. This was also discussed by Palmer (1986: 6), who stat-ed that modality represents “the grammaticalization of speakers’ (subjective) at-titudes and opinions.” Modal meaning is accordingly highly pragmatic in nature, with the precise meaning intended in a given instance of modal use often being dif-ficult to pin down with precise definitions. The highly pragmatic nature of modal meaning was also discussed by Badran (2001) in a study of modality in the translation of Arabic political texts into Eng-lish. Badran argues that as modality is a means by which a speaker can “reflect, re-fract, or obscure their views of reality” (2001: 49). According to Badran, modal-ity represents “some sort of a link, a mediation (or even an obstacle) between the speaker and reality and is thus a carrier of at least part of the speaker’s meanings or intentions” (p. 49). To measure the success or failure of a given translation, Badran considers two distinct parameters with respect to modal meaning: firstly, the type of involvement, i.e. the semantic value of the modal expression; and secondly the degree of involvement, i.e. the strength or weakness of the modal expression, and therefore the degree of power conveyed on behalf of the writer toward the audience. To illustrate this second, highly pragmatic, function of modality, Badran shows that in the English translation of an Arabic political speech that the equivalent of the Arabic “You understand . . . ” (تفهمون [tafhamūn]) was rendered in one translation as “You must understand . . . ” The addition of the modal thus results in a sense of greater power over the audience on the part of the speaker than what is conveyed in the original Arabic text, and so the attitude of the speaker toward the audience is drastically misrepresented in the translation. Accordingly, the successful trans-lation of modal expressions depends upon careful consideration of macro-textual factors (context, register, text-type, author’s intention, etc.) in both the ST and TT. The difficulty posed to the translator in the translation of English modal ex-pressions specifically into Arabic stems from the significant formal contrasts in the way modality is expressed in the two languages. The formal coding of modal-ity in English and Arabic is discussed in the next section.


2.2. The formal expression of modality

Modality is prototypically associated in English with the modal auxiliaries and their periphrastic counterparts, examples of which were shown in the preceding section. The English modal system does not have a defined grammatical counter-part in Arabic. Some of the grammatical means by which modality is expressed in Arabic are as follows:

a. particles (e.g. .قد يعود إىل البيت qad ya`ūd ila lbayt. ‘He may go home.’)b. full verbs (e.g. .يستطيع أن حيمل الكتب yastat.ī` an yaḥmila l-kutub. ‘He can carry the

books.’)c. prepositional phrases (e.g. .األمراض بعض من للوقاية الطبية األعشاب استعامل املمكن من

mina lmumkin isti`māl ala`shābi ṭ-ṭibbiyyah li lwiqāyah min ba`ḍi lamrāḍ. ‘It is possible to use medicinal herbs for protection against some diseases.’)

d. certain grammaticalized metaphors (e.g. ال بد أنه عاد إىل البيت. lā budda annahu `āda ila lbayt. ‘He must have gone home.’ (lit. ‘there is no way out that he went home.’)) (cf. Anghelescu 1999: 130)

Nevertheless, Anghelescu (1999) points out a number of formal properties which are shared by a wide range of Arabic modal expressions. She notes that many forms expressing modal meaning in Arabic belong to the class of verbal expressions re-ferred to by the medieval Arabic grammarians as النواسخ [annawāsikh]. This cat-egory is represented by various preverbal elements which include كان [kāna], إّن [inna], and ظن [ẓanna], and is defined by Owens (1988: 241) as a class of words which “enter a non-verbal sentence (topic and comment) and change the govern-ance relations in it” (i.e. the topic NP changes from nominative to accusative case). Anghelescu (1999) describes a number of distinct grammatical patterns which code modality in Arabic. A highly frequent pattern encompasses semi-grammat-icalized metaphors of the type من املمكن [min almumkin] ‘It is possible’, which con-sist of the preposition من [min] ‘from’ followed by a participle or adjective. These all occur sentence-initially and include: من املنتظر [(min) almuntaẓar] ‘it is expected’ and من الواضح [(min) alwāḍiḥ] ‘it is clear, clearly’, etc. This is illustrated in example (4). The Arabic translation and transliteration are followed by a word-for-word gloss in square brackets.

(4) The idea that the name could have remained a secret was quite unrealistic.كانت الفكرة بأنه قد كان من املمكن أن يبقى االسم رًسا غري واقعية.kānat alfikrah bi annahu qad kāna min almumkin an yabqa lism sirran ghayr wāqi`īyah[it was the-idea that-it had been from the possible that it-remains the name a.secret not realistic]

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Another pattern for the expression of modality in Arabic encompasses grammat-icalized metaphors. Patterns of this type include يف وسعه أن [fī wasìhi an] and يف [lā yasaùnī] ال يسعني it is possible for him; he can”, and“ [fī maqduratihi an] مقدرته أن

“I can’t, I am not able”:

(5) What could he do?وما الذي كان يف وسعه أن يفعله؟wa ma lladhī kāna fī wasìhi an yafàlahu[and what that was in his ability that he.does-it]

In addition to formal contrasts between English and Arabic modal expressions, the greater tendency toward sentence-initial position of Arabic modal expressions, and differences in semantic perspective which characterize the grammaticalized metaphors all constitute significant challenges for the translator.

3. The study

3.1. The subjects of the study

To shed some light on the nature of the difficulty which English modal expressions pose to native Arabic-speaking translator trainees, a study was conducted involv-ing eleven native speakers of Arabic majoring in translation in their final year of a five-year degree at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. All of the participants are fluent in English, having undertaken English language skills courses for the first two years of their degree followed by courses in practical and theoretical transla-tion, linguistics, and English language proficiency. Accordingly, the students were familiar with issues such as context, register, and notions of equivalence etc. (cf. Baker 1991; Hatim and Mason 1990).

3.2. The text

The participants were asked to read and translate a 260-word edited excerpt from “Will global warming trigger a new ice age?”2 The article is an argumentative text which deals with the topic of climate change. The author of the text is an expert in the field of climatic science, and in the article he makes a number of predictions of the possible consequences of global warming in the future. These predictions are expressed in a cautious and measured tone, and the use of modal expressions is crucial in conveying this tone throughout the article. The analysis of the transla-

2. McGuire, Bill. “Will global warming trigger a new ice age?”, The Guardian, UK, Thursday 13 November 2003


tions focused on eleven tokens of modal expressions in the ST, comprising six to-kens of auxiliaries, three adverbs, and two nouns.

3.3. Method

The participants were given the text to be completed within the normal class time of eighty minutes, and the translation was written in Standard Arabic. They were not permitted to use a dictionary during the exercise so as to encourage them to rely on their background knowledge and contextual factors to interpret the text rather than the dictionary (Kussmaul 1995: 25). The dictionary entries of ten po-tentially challenging vocabulary items, none of them modal expressions, were also provided. The types of errors and their frequency were examined to provide some insight into difficulties posed by different types of modals and the different syn-tactic environments in which they occur. It is assumed that such errors would in-dicate shortcomings in the participants’ skills and/or training (cf. Kussmaul 1995; Al-Mijrab 2005). Three general criteria for error assessment are employed, based on Al-Mijrab (2005).3 These are as follows:

a. FrequencyThe frequency of a given error type is considered in relation to the category of a given token and to the total number of participants who have made a particular error. In this regard, Al-Mijrab (2005: 6) remarks that “the high frequency of an error-type means that the teaching method either ignores the students’ areas of dif-ficulty or simply fails to address them correctly.”

b. InterpretationThe criterion of interpretation refers to the accuracy of the translation with re-spect to whether “all the information is included and that nothing is added, omit-ted and/or different (Larson 1984: 489–90). This criterion relates to the traditional paradigm of faithfulness in translation” (Al-Mijrab 2005: 7). Three specific areas are considered with respect to errors in interpretation: Lexical: The choice of modal expression in the TT is inaccurate. This is illus-trated in example (6):

(6) You may leave the office only after you have finished the job.قد تغادر املكتب بعد االنتهاء من هذا العمل فقط.qad tughādir al-maktab ba`d alintihā’ min hādha làmal faqaṭmight you.leave the office after finish from this work onlyBack translation: You might leave the office only after you have finished the job.

3. Two further criteria which were outlined in Al-Mijrab (2005) were deemed not to be relevant in this study; these are intelligibility and generality.

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The Arabic translation in example (6) above misrepresents the English ST due to the fact that the particle قد [qad] denotes uncertainty (epistemic). A more appro-priate choice of modal expression would have been يمكنك (أن) [yumkinuka (an)], which conveys the meaning of permission (nonepistemic) that was intended in the ST. Structural: The scope of modal modification in the TT is inaccurate. This is il-lustrated in example (7)

(7) There is a possibility he is unhappy about your appointment to the Board.إنه غري مرتاح الحتامل تعيينكم يف املجلس.innahu ghayr murtāḥ li-ḥtimāl ta`yīnikum fi l-majlis.he not be.happy about possibility appointment-your to the-boardBack translation: He does not feel happy about the possibility of your ap-pointment to the Board.

In this example, the choice of the modal expression احتامل [iḥtimāl] to mean ‘possi-bility’ is appropriate, but modifies the wrong element of the clause in the TT, thus resulting in a mistranslation. Missing: The sentence in the TT is not modalized. This is exemplified in ex-ample (8):

(8) Constitutional breakdown in the country may lead to secession by the South.إن التفكك الدستوري يف البالد يؤدي إىل انفصال اجلنوب.inna ttafakkuka ddustūrī fi lbilād yu’addī ilā infiṣāli ljunūbthe breakdown constitutional in the-country leads to separation the-southBack translation: The constitutional breakdown in the country is leading to the secession of the South.

The Arabic translation in example (8) contains no modal expression, and there-fore the proposition that “the South will secede” is presented as a factual statement. This contradicts the message of the ST, where the modal may signals that the prop-osition is merely a possibility. A range of modal expressions could be used to de-note a meaning of possibility in the Arabic sentence, e.g. قد [qad], من املمكن [min al-mumkin], يمكن [yumkin], لعل [laàlla] ‘might, maybe, possibly’.

c. NaturalnessAccording to the criterion of naturalness, the translated text is assessed for the ex-tent to which it reflects the idiomatic forms of the TL.


4. Results

The results indicate that the participants showed a broad sensitivity to the inten-tions of the ST author in general terms as well as to modal use. They also generally demonstrated a sound knowledge of the dictionary meanings of each modal ex-pression. The results are shown in Table 1, which shows the specific type of error in relation to word class:

Table 1. Errors in the participants’ translations by frequency and type

Word class Tokens ErrorsAdequately translated

Interpretation Natural nessLexical Structural Missing

Auxil. might (1) 3 0 4 0 4can 3 1 0 1 6must 4 0 1 0 6will 0 0 5 0 6could 2 0 1 0 8might (2) 2 1 2 0 6

Adverb seemingly 1 9 1 0 0really 0 0 4 0 7actually 0 0 5 0 6

Noun possibility (1) 0 0 1 1 9possibility (2) 0 1 0 7 3

4.1. Auxiliaries

Errors in the translation of the auxiliaries by the participants were manifested in the use of inaccurate modal expressions due to misinterpretation of the ST. In each of the following excerpts, the modal expression under discussion is in boldface. All of the translations in the following sections are samples of the participants’ work, each of which is given along with its back translation.

a. However, more recently these warnings have been drowned out by the great glob-al warming debate and by consideration of how society might cope in future with a sweltering planet.

The auxiliary might occurs within a complement clause in this excerpt, and de-notes possibility with respect to the occurrence of the hypothesized future event in

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the predicate it modifies. The modal has an important pragmatic function within the complex sentence here, as it conveys a sense of the author’s neutrality on the issue of whether or not the hypothesized event will actually be realised in the fu-ture. This function was successfully captured in the translations of only three par-ticipants through their use of the forms قد [qad] and يمكن [yumkin] ‘maybe, might’, as exemplified in (9) below:

. . . وكيف أن املجتمع قد يعيش يف كوكب شديد احلرارة يف املستقبل بدال من كوكب جليدي. (9) . . . wa kayfa an al-mujtama` qad ya`īshu fī kawkab shadīd alḥarārah fi lmustaqbal badalan min kawkab jalīdī.. . . how society might live in a sweltering planet in the future rather than a frozen one.

The remaining translations were inaccurate. Three participants employed the fu-ture marker س [sa-], resulting in mistranslation due to the greater sense of certain-ty conveyed in comparison with the ST:

كيف سيحتمل املجتمع كوكب يشتد حرارته. . . . (10) . . . kayfa sa-yaḥtamil almujtama` kawkab yashtadd ḥarāratuhu.. . . how society will tolerate a planet with intense heat.

In four other translations the modal was overlooked entirely, also resulting in a mistranslation due to the increased sense of certainty about the proposition than in the ST:

. . . عىل كيفية تعايش املجتمع مع مستقبل قائم عىل أرض ذائبة. (11) . . . àlā kayfiyyah ta`āyush almujtama` ma` mustaqbal qā’im àlā arḍ dhā’ibah.. . . the way society (will) live with a future on a melting planet.

b. So that the warm surface waters of the Gulf Stream can continue to push north-wards, there must be a comparable, deep return current of cold water from the Nordic seas.

This excerpt contains two modal auxiliaries: can and must. The translations of these forms are discussed in turn in sections b-1 and b-2 below.

b-1 can (dynamic modality)

Various forms in Arabic specify meanings of ability (dynamic modality), most of which are verbs. These are distinguished from each other by subtle semantic con-trasts. Here the modal can conveys a sense of ability which is the result of an in-tervening external force. One verb which can express such a meaning in Arabic is -can, be able’, which takes a complement introduced by the prepo‘ [tamakkan] متّكنsition من [min]. This verb occurred in the translations of five participants, although


in one translation the complement was not introduced with the required preposi-tion, thus rendering the sentence ungrammatical. Mistranslations resulted from the use of lexical items conveying an incorrect modal sense. Three participants employed the modal verbs استطاع [istaṭā`] and قدر [qadar] ‘have the capacity, ability, aptitude’. The use of these forms is inaccurate as they specify dynamic ability which is independent of an outside source, and typi-cally involve an animate agent. Consider example (12):

لكي تستطيع سطوح املياه الدافئة لدى التيار الدافئ أن تكمل من االجتاه نحو الشامل . . . (12) . . . likay tastat.ī` suṭūḥ almiyāh addāfi’ah lada ttayyār addāfi’ an takmila mina littijāh naḥwa ashshimāl . . .. . . so that the warm surface waters of the Gulf stream can end up toward the north . . .

The modal verb يمكن [yumkin] ‘it is possible’ can also adequately convey the in-tended meaning of the modal expression, and was employed by one participant. The mistranslations of this excerpt suggest that the participants did not consider the context beyond the immediate clause in which the modal auxiliary can is used in the ST.4

b-2 must

The modal must was translated satisfactorily by five participants through the use of the modal verb جيب [yajib] or )ال بد )من [lā budda (min)] ‘must, should’. When followed the expression من [min], ال بد [lā budda] ‘should, must’ can convey a dy-namic modal meaning. However, without the preposition, this expression strict-ly conveys an epistemic sense of inference based on a conclusion, i.e. ‘There must be . . . ’ (Abdel-Fattah 2005: 43), and is thus inappropriate with respect to the in-tended meaning of this segment of the ST. This occurred in the translation of one participant:

. . . فإنه ال بد أن يكون هنالك قرينا وهو تيار عميق عكيس بارد من البحار الشاملية. (13) . . . fa innahu lā budda an yakūna hunālika qarīnan wa huwa tayyār àmīq àksī bārid min albiḥār ashshimālīyah.. . . there must (conclusion) be an accompanying deep, cold, opposing current from the Nordic seas.

Three other participants mistranslated this form through their use of the verb which is used to specify obligation (deontic), typically in legal ,[yatawajjab] يتوّجب

4. It is also possible that these inaccurate modal forms were employed due to inadequate knowl-edge of the meaning distinctions of the Standard Arabic modal expressions, which are very dif-ferent from those which occur in spoken Omani Arabic. This issue is discussed below in sec-tion 5.1.

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contexts. These were inaccurate, however, as the modal in the ST is used to convey a cause/effect relationship and not one of moral or legal obligation. Finally, in one translation no modal was provided.

c. [Seemingly, the fact that we are still within an intermediate period during which the ice has largely retreated has been forgotten – and replaced with the wide-spread view that] one good thing you can say about global warming is that it will at least stop the return of the glaciers.

In this sentence, the modal will is used to specify a prediction. Only six of the par-ticipants rendered the modal correctly in their translations, employing the parti-cle س/سوف [sa/sawfa] ‘will’. However, in the remaining five translations the modal was missing altogether, resulting in inaccurate renditions. For instance, in exam-ple (14) the absence of a modal expression conveys a sense of the event being on-going rather than a future prediction:

. . . فإنه يمكن القول نقطة إجيابية عنه، وذلك بأنه يمنع رجوع األهنار اجلليدية عىل األقل. (14) . . . fa innahu yumkin alqawl nuqṭah ījābīyah ànhu, wa dhālika bi ’anna-hu yamna` rujū` alanhār aljalīdīyah àla laqall.. . . there is one good thing you can say about global warming; that is that it stops the return of the glaciers at least.

d. Is this really true, or could the rapidly accelerating warming that we are experi-encing actually hasten the beginning of a new ice age?

In this sentence the modal could specifies possibility (epistemic modality). This meaning was successfully conveyed in the translations of eight participants, who employed the particle قد[qad] ‘may, might’ or the modal verb أن( يمكن( [yumkin (an)] ‘maybe’. However, translations by two participants were inaccurate due to the use of the future marker سوف [sawfa] ‘will’, which conveys an epistemic sense. One other translation was inaccurate as the modal was overlooked entirely. The notably higher ratio of adequate translations for this sample is most likely due to the fact that the modal is syntactically prominent because of its fronted position in the structure.

4.2. Adverbs

In contrast with the translated auxiliaries, errors in the translation of adverbs (and nouns) were not due to a poor choice of modal expression in the TT. This is most likely due to the fact that modal adverbs do not exhibit the same degree of se-mantic indeterminacy as the auxiliaries do. Nevertheless, many renditions of the three sentences containing modal adverbs in the ST were problematic due to either


a misconstrual of the scope of the adverb’s modification or to the fact that the modal expression was missing in many of the translated texts.

a. Seemingly, the fact that we are still within an intermediate period during which the ice has largely retreated/has been forgotten . . .

This sentence proved to be the most problematic for the participants of all of the sentences in the ST. Ten of the eleven translations were inaccurate primarily the scope of modification was misconstrued. The adverb seemingly is a left-dislocated sentential adverb in the ST, and its scope of modification is over the entire com-plex sentence which follows it. Nine of the participants correctly determined that the nearest equivalent to seemingly is the verb يبدو [yabdū] ‘it seems’. This verb takes a direct clausal-complement, and the scope of the modification encompasses only the immediate predicate which follows it and not the entire complex sentence. Accordingly, the grammatical shift involved here results in differences in the scope of modification between the ST and TT modal expressions. Only one participant successfully rendered the sentence into Arabic by making a significant rearrange-ment in the syntax of the clause, bringing the ST main predicate into the position immediately following the modal expression in the Arabic TT. This is illustrated in example (15):

يبدو أنه قد تم نسيان حقيقة أننا ما نزال يف فرتة انتقالية تراجع فيها منسوب اجلليد . . . (15) yabdū annahu qad tamma nisyān ḥaqīqah annanā mā nazāl fī fatrah intiqālīyah tarāja` fīhā mansūb aljalīd . . .It seems to have been forgotten that we still live in a transitory period in which the ice level has retreated.

The remaining translations were inadequate as the predicates were not rearranged in this way. As such, the scope of the modal expression in the translation covered only the predicate immediately following the modal verb, and not the entire com-plex sentence. This is illustrated in examples (16) and (17):

. . . وبدا أننا نعيش يف مرحلة وسطية حيث أن موضوع العرص اجلليدي قد ُنيس . . . (16) . . . wa badā annanā na`īshu fī marḥalah waṣaṭīyah ḥaythu anna mawḍū` alàṣr aljalīdī qad nusiya . . .. . . and it seems that we live in an intermediate period where the issue of the ice age has been forgotten . . .

. . . و يبدو أن وجودنا يف مرحلة بدء تراجع الثلج منيس اآلن (17) wa yabdū anna wujūdanā fī marḥalah bad’ tarāju` aththalj mansī al’ān . . .. . . and it seems that our existence at the period at the beginning of the ice’s return is forgotten now . . .

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One rendition was inaccurate due to misinterpretation of the ST modal expres-sion. In this translation the phrase ومن الواضح [wa mina lwāḍiḥ] “It is clear” was employed, with the result that the prevaricating function of the modal in the ST is misconstrued. Finally, in two translations no modal expression was given.

b. Is this really true, or could the rapidly accelerating warming that we are experi-encing actually hasten the beginning of a new ice age?

Some adverbs can be considered modal as they express a strong commitment to the factuality of the utterance (Hoye 1997: 60). In this respect, Palmer (1986: 92) remarks: “Emphatic affirmation may be treated either as a matter of discourse or as a kind of ‘strong’ epistemic modality expressing complete confidence in, or knowledge of, what is being said.” In this excerpt, modal adverbs are used to con-vey added rhetorical force.

b-1 really

Seven participants successfully translated the adverb really into the adverbs حقا [ḥaqqan], بالفعل [bi lfi`l], فعال [fi`lan] ‘really, truly’. However, four translations con-tained no modal expressions, and thus the same degree of rhetorical force is not conveyed. Consider example (18):

هل هذا هو الواقع أم أن االحتباس احلراري املتصعد الذي نشهده سيعّجل من بداية عرص جليدي جديد؟ (18) hal hādha huwa lwāqi` am anna liḥtibās alḥarārī almutaṣa`ìd alladhī nashhaduhu sayuàjjil min bidāyah àṣr jalīdī jadīd?Is this true, or will the increased global warming we are witnessing speed up the beginning of a new ice age?

b-2 actually

As with really, the adverb actually adds rhetorical force to the sentence. Only three participants translated actually, rendering this with the adverbial phrases يف الواقع [fi lwāqi`] and يف احلقيقة [fi lḥaqīqah]. Eight participants provided no translation of actually, and as such the rhetorical emphasis of the ST is not maintained in the translations, as can be seen in example (18) above. The fact that the adverb actu-ally was more frequently missing in the translations than really, is most likely due to the fact that actually occurs in an embedded clause. This corresponds with the general tendency for modal expressions to be mistranslated or missing in embed-ded clauses.

4.3. Modal nouns

Modal nouns are the least potentially ambiguous of the modal expressions, and


this meant that they caused few problems to the participants. The problems that did occur were mainly stylistic in nature.

a. In the late 1970s and early 80s, scientists debated the possibility that a new ice age was imminent.

The modal noun ‘possibility’ in this excerpt was adequately translated by nine par-ticipants, who employed the nouns إمكانية [imkānīyah] and احتاملية [iḥtimālīyah] ‘possibility’ (i.e. epistemic modality). Only two participants mistranslated the sen-tence: one which in back translation conveyed the meaning ‘ . . . the fact that a new ice age was imminent’, and the other in which the scope of modification is misconstrued:

. . . ناقش العلامء بأنه من املحتمل ظهور عرص جليدي جديد قريبا. (19) . . . nāqash alùlamā’ bi annahu mina lmuḥtamal ẓuhūr àṣr jalīdī jadīd qariban. . . . scientists argued that it is possible a new ice age [would] appear soon.

b. The possibility exists that a disruption of the Atlantic currents might have impli-cations far beyond a colder north-west Europe . . .

This sentence is introduced by a phrase containing a modal noun. The excerpt shows ‘modal harmony’, where modality can be expressed “not simply at one point in an utterance, by a modal auxiliary, but at different points right throughout the clause” (Downing & Locke 2006: 381). In this excerpt, the complement-taking modal noun occurs within a phrase which modifies the expression which follows it, and occurs in conjunction with the auxiliary might. Five participants produced literal translations which were stylistically awkward in Arabic, one of which is shown in example (20):

وهنالك احتامل بأن ارتطام تيارات املحيط األطليس يمكن أن تؤدي إىل . . . (20) wa hunāka iḥtimāl bi anna irtiṭām tayyārāt almuḥīṭ alaṭlasī yumkin an tu’addī ilā . . .. . . and there is a possibility that the collision of Atlantic Ocean currents could lead to . . .

Another translation was problematic due to a misinterpretation of the scope of the modal expression in the ST expression:

. . . وبالرغم من إمكانية استمرار املياه . . . (21) . . . wa bi rraghm min imkānīyah istimrār almiyāh . . . . . . and in spite of the ability of the water to continue . . .

Finally, the ST modal expression was missing in the translation of one participant.

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4.4. Summary of results

The purpose of this study is to examine the translations of various English modal expressions into Arabic by native Arabic-speaking translator trainees and to iden-tify areas of difficulty these structures pose to a group of translator trainees. The results showed that the two types of problems occurred in the translations: firstly, the mistranslation of modal expressions (typically auxiliaries) due to the transla-tor’s misconstrual of its intended sense in the ST; and secondly, the mistranslation or overlooking of modal expressions in the ST due to difficult grammatical shifts or complicated syntax, typically when the modal expression occurs in an embed-ded clause. Previous studies dealing with the translation of modality from English into Arabic and vice-versa have focused primarily on the problems posed by English modal auxiliaries stemming from their indeterminate semantics (e.g. Abdel-Fat-tah 2005; Badran 2001; El-Hassan 1990). The results of the present study show that indeterminacy was indeed a major source of difficulty for the participants, as in many cases participants chose modal expressions which did not accurately reflect the sense conveyed by the modal in the ST. This suggests that the students often failed to consider the context in which a given modal occurred when interpreting its meaning. This was seen, for example, in section 4.1 above, where many partici-pants employed modal expressions which broadly reflected the dictionary mean-ing of the ST modal, but did not accurately reflect the sense intended in the par-ticular context of its use. In addition to problems in the interpretation of modal auxiliaries, other diffi-culties result from the formal differences in the coding of modal meaning between the source and target languages. Frequently the participants did not undertake a required syntactic shift when rendering certain English modal expressions into Arabic. The effect of this was to skew the scope of modification of a given modal expression in the translation, as was shown above in 4.2.a. In some cases this re-sulted in stylistically unnatural forms in the TT, as was shown in 4.3b. Another apparent factor contributing to the degree of difficulty in transla-tion was syntactic complexity. Modal expressions occurring in embedded clauses in the ST were more frequently mistranslated or missing than those occurring in main clauses. Modals are not syntactically prominent in embedded clauses due to their more limited scope of modification than modals in main clauses, and so participants tended to overlook modal expressions in environments. The problem of syntactic complexity in contributing to difficulty in translation was previously noted by Al-Jabr (2006: 216), who remarked: “Syntactic complexity may render inter-clausal relationships in lengthy sentences rather opaque, and hence a large chunk of the text would be misconstrued.” This is to some extent reflected in the


findings of this study as there was a higher rate of errors associated with modals in embedded clauses than in main ones.

5. Discussion

5.1. The translation strategies of the participants

The results of this study show that while the participants possess a generally good understanding of the dictionary meanings of the English modals and their equiv-alents in Arabic, the characteristic ambiguity and indeterminacy of these expres-sions were a major source of difficulty for the students. The precise sense of a spe-cific token of a modal expression in the ST was often misconstrued. In many cases this seems to be due to participants failing to consider the broader context in in-terpreting its meaning. Abdel-Fattah (2005: 45) remarks that three aspects of the translation process beyond the level of the clause are crucial in the translation of modals: text-type conventions, text dynamics (information in the text and audi-ence prior knowledge), and the interpersonal factor (the relationship between the writer and the reader). The various problems evident in the students’ translations suggest that the students did not pay adequate attention to the overall meaning of the ST beyond the level of the clause. Consideration of the meaning of the ST beyond the level of the clause is cru-cial when analyzing the functions of modal expressions. This is for two reasons: firstly, to accurately identify the intended sense of a potentially ambiguous modal expression; and secondly, to determine pragmatic functions of the modal expres-sion such as the ST author’s attitudes toward the proposition expressed and to-ward his or her audience. The adequate rendering of modal expressions thus re-quires careful consideration of macro-textual factors such as cohesion, text type, and the author’s intention. The frequency and types of errors in the translations of the participants show that these factors were not adequately considered when pro-cessing the message of the ST.The shortcomings in the translation strategies of the participants reflect simi-lar problems described by Atari (2005), who examined the translation strategies of translation students at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. Employing the think-aloud protocol technique, he found that students faced problems in transla-tion due to the fact that they tended to analyze the ST at the word or sentence level, while inference and reasoning were the least frequently used strategies. Similarly, Kussmaul (1995) reported a tendency for German-speaking translator trainees to focus on grammatical and lexical complexities at the expense of higher macro-level issues such as coherence and author’s intention. The types of errors that oc-

300 Domenyk Eades

curred in the data analyzed in the present study suggest that similar problems oc-curred among the Omani students. However, in addition to problems stemming from inadequate text-processing skills, another factor contributing to incidences of mistranslation may have re-sulted from weaknesses in the students’ competence in written Standard Arabic. This is evident by the fact that there was a tendency by some participants to em-ploy forms used in spoken Arabic rather than more accurate equivalents that oc-cur only in the written register of the language. The expression of modality in spo-ken Omani Arabic differs significantly from that of Modern Standard Arabic. For example, the auxiliary can (section 4.1.b) can potentially be represented by three separate modal expressions in Standard Arabic: متّكن [tamakkan], استطاع [istaṭā`], or قدر [qadar]. All three of these forms convey notions of ability, although they dif-fer in terms of slight semantic contrasts. In the vernacular Arabic of the students, however, the equivalent meanings of all of these are represented by a single form with a parallel Standard Arabic formal equivalent qadar. As such, interference from the spoken language or inadequate competence in the subtleties of modal meaning and use in Standard Arabic are potential factors hindering the successful translation of modal expressions. Differences between the spoken and written reg-isters of Arabic thus represent an additional factor that can potentially complicate the translation process.

5.2. Recommendations

The findings of this study show that two general strategies are needed to remedy the problems described in the preceding sections. Firstly, trainees require familiar-ization with the concept of modality and the different ways in which it is formally coded in both the source and target languages. Abdel-Fattah (2005: 43) suggests that a useful technique for dealing with this is for the translator to find out what modal category is involved (epistemic or non-epistemic, i.e. deontic or dynamic) when they encounter a modal expression. This would therefore require the famil-iarization of the trainees with the different forms used to express modal meaning in English and Arabic, and the different types of meanings they convey.5 The pau-

5. Abdel-Fattah suggests four techniques for resolving problems stemming from the indetermi-nacy of the English modals. These are 1) Classification of modals: Determining the semantic value of a given modal (i.e. epistemic or non-epistemic); 2) Modal rephrasing: Paraphrasing a modal with its less ambiguous periphrastic counterpart in order to identify the intended mean-ing; 3) Modal retranslation: Checking if the translated word would give the original when re-translated back; 4) Utilizing ambiguity: Employing an Arabic modal expression which is equal-ly as ambiguous as the English; the reader is referred to Abdel-Fattah (2005: 43–44) for details.


city of studies dealing with modality in Arabic means there is a pressing need for further research into this area. In addition to familiarizing students with modal expressions and their mean-ings, the results of this study also reveal that more attention is required on devel-oping the macro-level text processing skills of the trainees. In order to successfully interpret and use modal expressions, the role of modal expressions in the overall cohesion of the text, the expression of the author’s attitudes to the content of the text and the target audience, and other macro-level factors is essential in dealing with the translation of modal expressions. Building awareness of these aspects of the text allows the trainee to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subtle meanings conveyed by the modals in the ST and to understand the different layers of the text at which modality operates in both the ST and TT. In general terms, this study reveals problems resulting from inadequacies in the text processing strategies of the students. Accordingly, future research needs to investigate other problems which may be symptomatic of these deficiencies, as well as effective pedagogical strategies to remedy them.

References

Abdel-Fattah, Mahmoud. 2005. “On the translation of modals from English into Arabic and vice versa”, Babel, 51: 1, 31–48

Al-Mijrab, Ramadan. 2005. “A Product-Based Approach to Translation Training”, Meta, 50: 4, 1–10. http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/019860ar.

Anghelescu, Nadia. 1999. “Modalities and grammaticalization in Arabic” in Yasir Suleiman (ed.) Arabic Grammar and Linguistics. Curzon: Surrey. 130–141

Atari, Omar. 2005. “Saudi Students’ Translation Strategies in an Undergraduate Translator Train-ing Program”, Meta, 50: 1, 180–193

Badran, Dany. 2001. “Modality and ideology in translated political texts”. Nottingham Linguistic Circular 16, University of Nottingham, UK

Baker, Mona. 1991. In Other Words: Coursebook on Translation. New York; London: Taylor & Francis. xii + 304 pp.

Coates, Jennifer. 1983. The Semantics of Modal Auxiliaries. London: Croom Helm. vii + 259 pp.Downing, Angela and Phillip Locke. 2006. English Grammar: A University Course. 2nd ed.

Abingdon and New York: Routledge. xxii + 610 pp.El-Hassan, S. 1990. “Modality in English and Standard Arabic: paraphrase and equivalence”.

Journal of King Saud University, 2. 149–166von Fintel, Kai. 2006. “Modality and Language”, in Donald Borchert (ed.) Encyclopedia of Phil-

osophy, 2nd edition, Detroit: Macmillan Reference. 1–15. URL: http://mit.edu/fintel/www/modality.pdf.

Hoye, Leo. 1997. Adverbs and modality in English. London - New York: Longman. xii + 322 pp.Kussmaul, Paul. 1995. Training the Translator. Amsterdam - Philadelphia: John Benjamins. x +

178 pp.

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Larson, Mildred. 1984. Meaning-based Translation. Boston: University Press of America. x + 537 pp.

Leech, G. N. and Jennifer Coates. 1980. “Semantic Indeterminacy and the English Modals”, in Greenbaum, S. et al. (eds). in Studies in English Linguistics, for Randolph Quirk. London: Longman. 79–90

Lyons, John. 1977. Semantics. Cambridge: C. U. P. xiii + 372 pp.Owens, Jonathan. 1988. The foundations of grammar: an introduction to medieval Arabic gram-

matical theory. Amsterdam - Philadelphia: John Benjamins. xii + 371Palmer, F. R. 1986. Mood and modality. Cambridge: C. U. P. 256 pp.Palmer, F. R. 1990. Modality and the English modals, 2nd Edition. London: Longman. xii + 220

pp.Palmer, F. R. 2001. Mood and modality, 2nd Edition. Cambridge: C. U. P. xxi + 236 pp.

Appendix: The text

Will global warming trigger a new ice age?By Bill McGuire, The Guardian (UK)November 13, 2003

In the late 1970s and early 80s, scientists debated the possibility that a new ice age was immi-nent. However, more recently these warnings have been drowned out by the great global warm-ing debate and by consideration of how society might cope in future with a sweltering planet rather than a frozen one. Seemingly, the fact that we are still within an intermediate period dur-ing which the ice has largely retreated has been forgotten - and replaced with the widespread view that one good thing you can say about global warming is that it will at least stop the return of the glaciers. Is this really true, or could the rapidly accelerating warming that we are experiencing actu-ally hasten the beginning of a new ice age? A growing body of evidence suggests that there is a serious risk of this happening. The problem lies with the ocean current known as the Gulf Stream, which brings warm water northwards from the Caribbean and keeps the temperatures from dropping too low. Scientists are now predicting a future weakening of the Gulf Stream as a consequence of global warming. So that the warm surface waters of the Gulf Stream can continue to push northwards, there must be a comparable, deep return current of cold water from the Nordic seas. The possibility ex-ists that a disruption of the Atlantic currents might have implications far beyond a colder north-west Europe, perhaps bringing dramatic climatic changes to the entire planet [edited for brevity].

Abstract

Modals are a source of difficulty in translation due to the subtle and complex nature of the meanings they convey, as well as the diversity of formal means by which modal meaning is cod-ed from one language to another. The present study sheds light on difficulties associated with


the translation of modal expressions by exploring errors in the translations of a group of native Arabic-speaking translator trainees, and identifies difficulties they experienced in transferring modal meaning from an English source text (ST) to an Arabic target text (TT). Shortcomings in the skills and training of the participants are discussed in the light of these findings, and sugges-tions are given as to how these may be remedied. The results of the study show that while the students generally exhibit a sound knowledge of the dictionary meanings of the modal expressions in the ST, the precise sense of a given modal was often misconstrued and in many cases the modal meaning was missing entirely from the translations. These problems suggest that the participants tended to process the meanings of the ST at the word and sentence level while neglecting broader macro-level meanings conveyed in the text (e.g. cohesion, text type, relationship between author and audience). The study reveals that in addition to the need for students to develop greater awareness of the nature of modality and its expression in both English and Arabic, greater emphasis is needed in the training of the students on the improvement of topdown text processing skills.

Keywords: English modal expressions, Arabic-speaking translator trainees, improvement of text-providing skills

Résumé

Les verbes et adverbes modaux sont une source de difficulté dans la traduction en raison de la nature subtile et complexe des significations qu’ils communiquent et de la diversité des moy-ens formels par lesquels une signification modale est codée d’une langue à l’autre. Cette étude éclaire les difficultés associées à la traduction d’expressions de modalité en examinant les er-reurs dans les traductions d’un groupe de traducteurs stagiaires de langue maternelle arabe et identifie les difficultés qu’ils ont rencontrées en transposant une signification modale d’un texte source anglais vers un texte cible arabe. Des lacunes dans les compétences et la formation des participants sont discutées à la lumière de ces constatations, et des suggestions sont formulées quant à la manière d’y remédier. Les résultats de l’étude montrent que bien que les étudiants fassent preuve en général d’une bonne connaissance du sens des expressions modales dans la langue source tel qu’on le trouve dans les dictionnaires, la signification précise d’un auxiliaire modal donné était souvent mal in-terprétée et, dans de nombreux cas, la signification de modalité était totalement absente dans les traductions. Ces problèmes semblent indiquer que les participants avaient tendance à traiter les significations de la langue source au niveau du mot et de la phrase tout en négligeant les sens plus larges au niveau macro, communiqués dans le texte (par exemple, la cohésion, le type de texte, la relation entre l’auteur et le lecteur). L’étude révèle qu’outre la nécessité pour les étudiants de prendre davantage conscience de la nature d’une modalité et de son expression tant en anglais qu’en arabe, il faut s’attacher davan-tage à améliorer les compétences de traitement hiérarchisé du texte pendant la formation des étudiants.

Mots-clés: Expressions anglaises de modalité, traducteurs stagiaires arabophones, améliorer les compétences de traitement du texte.

304 Domenyk Eades

About the author

Domenyk Eades is Senior Lecturer in Arabic, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sci-ences, University of Salford, United Kingdom. He holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include Arabic linguistics, Arabic/English trans-lation, and Arabic dialectology.Address: School of Languages, University of Salford, Maxwell Building, Salford, Greater Man-chester, M5 4WT, United Kingdom.E-mail: [email protected]

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