Abstract
Comment clauses (or parentheticals) are a type of clauses which are syntactically disconnected from the clause to which they are attached and which are syntactically incomplete (lack complementation).They show a reflection of the main clause,commentary or assessment on the main clause and hence show more spatial flexibility, lower tone, and semantic independence .
 The present study focuses on comment clauses as pragmatic markers and the implicit meaning carried by these clauses .The problem is that most translators overlook this type of clauses because of their unawareness of the implied meaning carried by such clauses,especially when they translate them.It is hypothesized that the interpretation of comment clauses is situational.To prove this hypothesis, ten texts have been arbitrarily selected from Shakespeare's Othello translated into Arabic by four well- known translators, namely: Jabra Ibrahim Jabra Muhammed Mustafa Badawi, Ghazi Gamal and Khalil Mutran. The study concludes that the interpretation of comment clauses depends largely on the situation in which they are used.The study also discloses that the failure in translating such clauses is due to the unawareness of the implicit meaning that the comment clauses carry (whether in spoken or written). Finally,the study recommends that translators should carefully deal with comment clauses wherever they come across them,for such a type of clauses could form a slippery area.
Highlights
Brinton (2008 :2) defines comment clauses as pragmatic markers : phonologically short items that are not syntactically connected to the rest of the clause and have little or no referential meaning but serve pragmatic or procedural purposes
The change that lexical items and constructions are subject to in certain contexts to perform grammatical functions and, if grammaticalized,they continue to develop new grammatical functions."As grammaticalizing elements, they are in a state of likely instability and apt to change.", comment clauses are subject to a process of development from their classic ' first person form ' ( e.g., I think ) to modified forms I would think, I'm thinking (Kaltenbock, 2010 :2).That is, I think which is deemed a central comment clause has developed from a marker of epistemic modality, expressing lack of speaker's commitment, to a pragmatic marker serves meta discourse functions
This section is limited to analyzing ten texts which have been arbitrarily selected from Shakespeare's Othello translated into Arabic by four well known translators, namely : Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Muhammed Mustafa Badawi,Ghazi Gamal and Khalil Mutran .The model used in this analysis is Newmark's semantic/ communicative translation .The evaluation of the translation in our analysis will mainly depend on the realization of the function of the comment clause according to the situation
Summary
Biber et al (1999 :197,864-86) comment clauses express personal feelings, attitudes, value judgments, or evaluation. Peltola (1982,1983:103) comment clauses are "meta communicative": "they comment on the truth value of a sentence or a group of sentences, on the organization of the text or on the attitude of the speaker". Further , Dehe adds that comment clauses can serve as "mitigators" i.e modifying, correcting, reinforcing or softening a speech act done by the host sentence. Their function can often be realized and they can be substituted by adverbs such as probably , possibly , certainly , or attitudinal adverbs such as luckily , happily , , surprisingly , without changing the meaning of the utterance. That is to say that comment clauses have been treated as 'epistemic adverbials' ' pragmatic markers', and ' meta discourse markers
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