20122: DeGraff: Re: Chamberlain's errs on Aristide's "resignation" speech (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Michel DeGraff <degraff@MIT.EDU>


I find puzzling Chamberlain's statement that:

> The argument about the "if" clause (did he _really_ resign? etc) is
> misguided.  The "si" preceding-clause construction in French/Creole
> is not (or very rarely) to be translated by "if".  It's a statement
> of fact, nothing conditional.

I would be most interested in Mr. Chamberlain's sources on the
peculiar semantics that he attributes to the word _si_ in Haitian
Creole.

Question for Chamberlain: How would conditionals---such as "if it's my
resignation that will avoid a bloodbath"---be translated in Haitian
Creole?  Presumably Haitian Creole speakers are able to conceive of,
and express, hypotheticals.

I myself as a Haitian Creole speaker disagree with Chamberlain's
statement that _si_ in my native language "is not (or very rarely) to
be translated as "if"...".

Here is a run-of-the-mill example from my native Haitian Creole
whose semantics seems quite different from Chamberlain's:

   Si w pa gen signal, w a fe` l ave`k dwe`t
=  If you don't have signalling lights, you'll do it with your finger

(Lyrics from a popular carnival song a few years ago.)

In that example, _si_ is readily translated as _if_.  Similar
examples are commonplace.

As for:

> So the US embassy (and CNN's) translation:
>
> "For that reason, tonight I am resigning in order to avoid a bloodbath. I
> accept to leave..."
>
> is more accurate than than the AP/Valdman one:
>
> "For that reason, if tonight it is my resignation that will avoid a
> bloodbath, I accept to leave..."

Absolutely not.  Here Valdman is right and Chamberlain, along with the
US Embassy and CNN, is wrong.

In effect, Aristide's "resignation" is fully conditional, within the
scope of an hypothetical, namely "if [said] resignation will avoid a
blood bath".  The US Embassy's translation is inaccurate and appears
tendentious.

> Notta "corporate media" plot in sight!

Si nou pa fe` atansyon...  [please fill in with your favorite apodosis]

Caveat lector!

                                 -michel.
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