What essentially might be almost certain about climate change : The translation of hedges in popular science

Abstract: This study investigates how hedges are used in an American popular science text about the effects of climate change and to what extent their translation to Swedish is retained or modified concerning modal strength. Furthermore, the study seeks to explain the reasons behind translation choices, which affect the level of modal strength and or linguistics alterations in the target text. The method is both quantitative, where the instances of hedging in the source text are counted and categorized, and qualitative, where potential factors affecting the translation choices are analyzed and interpreted. The results of the study show that hedging devices for the most are retained in translation concerning modal strength. However, an exception is the English modal verb may where the modal strength in six out of eight instances is higher in the target text than in the source text. This study suggests that the vague meaning of modal verbs and the fact that Swedish does not have one apparent translation, with a similar grammatical pattern, could have affected the translation choices. Furthermore, linguistic and text conventional adaptions to the target language may be another factor affecting modifications.