Zur Übersetzung des Modalverbs „mögen“ in epistemischer Verwendung ins Litauische: Eine empirische Untersuchung
Translation of the cases of the epistemic usage of the German modal verb mögen into the Lithuanian language: empirical research

Summary/Abstract: The German modal verb mögen, when used epistemically, expresses a low degree of probability. The article aims to clarify how this verb could be translated into the Lithuanian language and what are the trends in the usage frequency of different equivalents. The article presents a pilot research based on 100 excerpts from contemporary German literature, where the verb mögen is used epistemically, and the corresponding translations of the literary works into the Lithuanian language. It has been translated into the Lithuanian language by twelve different translators. This increases the objectivity of the research as it allows to reject the possibility that the final result of the research is the outcome of the decisions made by one or two individual translators. The excerpts do not recur, therefore they are not compared with each other. All translation variants can be divided into sixteen categories. It has been established that the most frequently recurring equivalents (a total of 50% of all cases) are the verb galėti and the modal words gal and galbūt. The modal words matyt, galimas daiktas and tikriausiai were used less frequently. The research has revealed that in a significant number of the translations the degree of probability was either not reflected at all or reflected too high. The article continues the research of the translation of modal verbs thus, in conclusion, it can be stated that the tendencies of the translation of the verb mögen into the Lithuanian language differ from that of the German modal verb müssen, which expresses a high level of probability (cf. Droessiger, 2009).

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