Modality in an Autobiography ‘If I Am Assassinated’ by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in English and Urdu Versions.

Abstract

This study examines an autobiography as a literary genre to: find frequently used modality types; know that how translation equivalence is maintained; investigate that how textual shades are drawn; and explore socio-political implications of modality in source (original English version) and target (translated Urdu version) texts. The study follows and redefines Simpson’s model on modality with respect to existing models which explain how meanings are shaped through modality types. Being a corpus-based study, it utilizes Parts of Speech tagger and AntConc instruments for analysis purpose. It has been found that: deontic and epistemic modalities are in frequent use; translation equivalence is maintained at meaning level; shades are positive which express writers’ objectivity towards political events, certainty through proposition, and political power in a society.