Particles, Interjections and Exclamations with the English Imperatives as a Problem of Translation
Particles, Interjections and Exclamations with the English Imperatives as a Problem of Translation

Summary/Abstract: Particles, interjections and exclamations have a variety of structural, stylistic and pragmatic functions in human discourse. Their use in written dialogue gives it colour, rhythm and authenticity. In English the particles and interjections are relatively few in number, and have rather restricted textual functions, compared to Bulgarian or Russian. The exclamations, on the other hand, especially those referring to God and His kingdom, are much more numerous and can precede or follow the imperative utterances, often used as vocatives or in combination with vocative forms. This asymmetry is likely to cause a number of problems for translators who work from and into these languages. In this paper I discuss the semantic and pragmatic functions of particles, interjections and exclamations such as well, why, oh/aw, for God/Heaven/Christ’s sake, etc. with imperative utterances from English literary texts and their translations into Bulgarian. Building on the use of similar devices in original Bulgarian texts, I shall also suggest some ways of overcoming the various problems they cause for translators.

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