English Language Question

[CapnCrunch]

I was just reading an article and came across this quote from someone (See the bold below). My question is, why is "allow" in brackets? I've seen this before, but never really figured out why its like that.

Was "allow" not actually spoken by this person?
Was it hard to understand this person, so someone just assumed thats what he meant?


"Saddam did not (allow) freedom in our land,"

[Mitsu3000gt]

I always thought that was used for clarification, if the source did not actually say that word, or the word they used wasn't as clear as the proper English word that would normally be in that place in the sentence.

[cet]

Yes, usually brackets indicate where a quote has been added to by the author, most of the time to make the quote more clear. See Indicating Additions to Quotations with Brackets here for a more complete definition: http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/quotes2.htm

[spikerS]

sometimes it is used when something is translated. a word may not be able to be translated directly into english, so a substitute is used, and shown in parenthisis.

Other times it was a word omitted by the speaker, and the publisher will insert the missing word.

[CapnCrunch]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
I always thought that was used for clarification, if the source did not actually say that word, or the word they used wasn't as clear as the proper English word that would normally be in that place in the sentence.

Thats what I'm thinking. Either they said;

"Saddam did not freedom in our land," or
"Saddam did not hargbbbbldadaddadaaddadall freedom in our land,"

[stealth131]

the part in brackets was not said by the person who said the quote, it is added in for clarification for the reader to better understand.

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by spikers
sometimes it is used when something is translated. a word may not be able to be translated directly into english, so a substitute is used, and shown in parenthisis.



i choose this, especially common regarding a quote from a person no speaking the english language to the reporter, because in some languages the intention is there in the sentence without the actual word that describes it

[Kloubek]

It is indeed to indicate where the author has clarified the sentence for the reader. Either the person speaking did not say the word, and they are inserting it to provide context, or the direct translation requires the clarification to provide a full understanding.

[spike98]

Originally posted by CapnCrunch

"Saddam did not hargbbbbldadaddadaaddadall freedom in our land"

Might be the cold medication but this made me LOL

[dexlargo]

It should be square brackets to indicate the change, not parentheses.

And I doubt it's inserted in a translation - usually if translating, they'll just put in the proper word or words that are the closest fit, and not put parentheses. Where it might be translation is if the speaker is largely using English, but then uses the arabic word for 'allow', then it would be correct to use the square brackets to replace the arabic word used with the English word that would be understood by the reader.

I think it's likely that the speaker was a non-native English speaker and used a confused English word or words in that place in the sentence, and the writer modified the quote it to make it more readable.