Modals and modality in translation: a case study based approach

Abstract: This paper reports on findings from a recent study. On the basis of corpora, two legislative pair texts, cross-linguistic issues around modals and modality in Croatian and English were investigated. In addressing modality in the two texts, the study explored the semantic areas that included obligation, and whether or not something was necessary, desirable, permitted or forbidden. The aim was to capture the translatability of Croatian deontic modals into English, and to describe a possible shift in modality that occurred in translation. An account that describes the similarities and differences in translation of the source text into the target text is provided.