English translation: ('conditional' - suggesting diplomatic tone)
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07:38 Oct 7, 2010
English to English translations [PRO] Government / Politics /
English term or phrase:would certainly
I have to translate a conclusion of a member of an investigation committee (non-native speaker of English), and as the subject is highly sensitive (the reason why I can't give more context, sorry!), I want to make sure to get the meaning absolutely right. So how do you understand "would certainly" in the following sentence:
These actions would certainly deserve strong disciplinary measures to be taken against them by the relevant authorities ...
To me, this sounds a bit like indirect speech, though it's not. Does the speaker mean "these actions certainly deserve disciplinary measures" or rather "these actions should be punished by disciplinary measures"? Thank you for your comments!
Explanation: If it is a sensitive document as you state, I suggest the author is simply expressing "remoteness" - trying to make his conclusion more diplomatic or milder.
Instead of saying what he thinks "these actions have to be punished", he is being diplomatic through the use of 'remoteness' - in English this is expressed with the same auxiliaries and verb forms as the conditional.
So in your target language you need to use an appropriate linguistic construction to convey this diplomacy. Maybe a conditional, or a 'subjunctive' (which English has lost), or another construction such as "some might think", "it would be understandable if some think" ...
Thank you all for your great help! Unfortunately points can't be split, so I going to award them to Craig who got the most agrees. I hope that's ok with you all :-) 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
Thank you for your input! I know that the context is scarce, but as I said in my original question, I can't give you more due to the nature of this document. Your comments still help me a lot, though.
We certainly need more context (i.e. the surrounding sentences) when it comes to evaluating the use of the conditional in English. The "condition" is often implied, not obvious or directly stated. And to understand what the author is implying, well, we need to read the rest of the text.
Explanation: It is conditional. It refers to actions which have not yet been taken, but if they were, they would certainly deserve strong disciplinary measures to be taken against them by the relevant authorities ...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 55 mins (2010-10-07 08:33:18 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
In that case, "would" should be omitted.
Jack Doughty Local time: 02:06 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 48
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you, Jack. That's exactly my problem: These actions were actually taken, so the conditional doesn't work here.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
