ABSTRACT
This chapter constitutes the material for all or part of a practical. It deals with a practical problem that has important implications for translation between German and English, namely the difference between the two languages with regard to the use of modal particles – sentential markers whose function is to nuance the illocutionary impact of sentences. The problem is more obvious in translating from German to English, because of the difficulties the translator may experience in finding appropriate ways of rendering modal particles that are evidently functional, i.e. meaningful, in the German ST. On the other hand, the problem is more insidious in translating from English to German, mainly because the translator may overlook the need to supply modal particles in a German TT where there are no such particles in the English ST. The result is often a TT that copies the propositional content of the sentences of the English ST, but feels subtly unidiomatic in German, owing to the lack of modal particles. German sentences tend to contain a greater number and range of sentential particles than English. Where such particles would be appropriate in a German TT – which is not always, but often – the cumulative effect of their absence will be an impression of oddness, even foreignness. There is also a risk in such texts of quite serious errors in the tonal register of the TT.
