Ways of transmitting modal meanings in Dutch-Russian translation: The case of the modal particle maar

Abstract

In this study, we examine the strategies translators have at their disposal to render the meaning of Dutch modal particles in the Russian language. Modal particles are difficult to translate because the meaning of these words is abstract, highly context-dependent and sometimes open to multiple interpretations. Based on parallel Dutch-Russian texts we show which strategies translators use to express the functions of the Dutch modal particle maar ‘but’ in Russian. The modal particle maar is very often omitted in translations, because it has no equivalent in Russian and the image of reality given by the sentence does not become different in a translation when a modal particle is not translated. We find that maar is most often omitted in the function of mitigating the imperative. Translators compensate for the lack of an appropriate modal particle by using verbs with a narrower meaning in Russian which allows them to more accurately describe the drawn context. We also find that in some cases, translators make use of lexical and grammatical transformation such as using prefixes in Russian to soften the imperative, rather than omitting maar completely. In Russian, there are many possibilities to convey modal meaning in lexico-grammatical ways, for example using particles, verbs with a narrower meaning and prefixes that soften the imperative; modal verbs as such can take on the function of expressing modality, and also the verb tense can be used to convey modality.