Analyzing Translation Acceptability and Techniques of Modality Verb Phrases in The "Common Questions" Section of The PayPal Website

This study analyses the translation techniques and acceptability of modality verb phrases in the “Common Questions” section of the PayPal website. The study aims to categorize the type of modality verb phrases based on Palmer’s (1990) and Alwi’s (1992) theory. The translation techniques were based on theory from Molina and Albir (2002). The translation quality was based on the theory by Nababan (2012). This study uses a descriptive qualitative method. A Focus Group Discussion was used to collect data, which was then analyzed. The aim is to find the type of modality verb phrases, translation techniques, and translation quality in the “Common Questions” section of the PayPal website. This research found that from 101 data, the dynamic modality has 53 data (52%), the epistemic modality has 43 data (43%), and the deontic modality has 5 data (5%). The translation techniques used to translate verb phrases with modality are: 1) Literal, 2) Transposition, 3) Amplification, 4) Linguistic Amplification, 5) Reduction, 6) Compression, and 7) Borrowing. The Focus Group Discussion (FGD) result shows that translating the acceptability of modality verb phrases in the “Common Questions” section of the PayPal website is less acceptable, with a total score of 2,3. Overall, modality verb phrases in the “Common Questions” section of the PayPal website result in inappropriate, unclear, and unnatural translations.

Keywords: modality verb phrase, translation technique, translation quality, PayPal website, acceptability