Arabic-L: TRANS:Indirect Speech Responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 04 Sep 2001
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1) Subject: Indirect Speech Response
2) Subject: Indirect Speech Response

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1)
Date:  04 Sep 2001
From: Jackie Murgida <jmurg at star.net>
Subject: Indirect Speech Response

On indirect speech, I think that if the original is indirect, the
translation should be indirect. Translating from Arabic into English (whcih
is what I do), that means rendering "qaala innahu sa-....." as "He said that
he would..." I can't imagine a situation when it would be ok to switch it to
direct speech and first person: He said, "I will..." because it definitely
would be misleading, making it seem like a verbatim quote, rather than the
author's report of what the person said.

Of course, a translation can never be a "verbatim" quote, but we can be as
accurate as possible.

Hope this helps.
  Jackie Murgida

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2)
Date:  04 Sep 2001
From: Waleed Al-Amri <waleed at talk21.com>
Subject: Indirect Speech Response

The difference in choice between direct and indirect quotation is highly
functional in hard news reports (c.f. for instance Waugh, L. (1995)
³Reported Speech in Journalistic Discourse: The Relation of Function and
Text². Text, 15, 1. and Zelizer, B. (1989) ³ ŒSaying¹ as collective
practice: Quoting and differential address in the news. Text, 9, 4.) and any
mix up between them could probably mean a mix up in the ideological stand of
the news institution or to put it mildly  in its policy.

However, the particular case which you ask about, i.e. the blurring of the
line between the newsmaker's own voice and that of the sources (secondary
and primary discourse, respectively) is a far reaching one. This case is
widely recognised in Critical Discourse Analytical writings (c.f. Bell, A.
(1991) The Language of News Media.  Oxford: Blackwell). Generally, it is
employed by the news editors to pass their opinion in a way that absolves
them from responsibility from what is being said.

My suggestion is that you translate it as it is in the original and leave it
for the editors of the news institution you are working for to adapt it to
the institution's policy (ideology).

I hope I have answered your question. If you have anything to discuss
regarding this translation task please do not hesitate to contact me.

Waleed Al-Amri

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End of Arabic-L:  04 Sep 2001