Politeness Strategies in Interrogation Speech Acts: A Translation Case Study of A Murder Is Announced
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1605.07Keywords:
illocutionary acts, politeness strategies, interrogation speech events, quality translation, pragmaticsAbstract
This study investigated the translation of illocutionary acts and politeness strategies within interrogation speech events. It uses Agatha Christie's novel A Murder Is Announced and its Indonesian translation as a case study. The research addresses a gap in existing literature, which primarily focuses on politeness in formulaic language and lacks a detailed analysis of more complex, context-driven speech acts like interrogations. Employing a qualitative descriptive method, the study utilizes document analysis and focus group discussions to examine how speech acts are used and how politeness strategies are maintained or shifted in translation. The research assesses translation quality based on accuracy, acceptability, and readability. The findings reveal that the most frequent interrogation purpose is confirming questions, statements, and evidence, followed by obtaining information. The dominant speech act is the representative, while the directive speech act, with commands, asking, and advice, is primarily used for suppressing suspects. Across most speech events, the bald-on-record politeness strategy is dominant, reflecting a preference for direct communication. The study also found that while many illocutionary acts and politeness strategies are preserved, some shifts occur, particularly from negative politeness to bald-on-record, due to cultural differences. These shifts, often caused by discursive creation and reduction techniques, can negatively impact translation quality by reducing accuracy and acceptability.
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