How could you possibly do an linguistic analysis in a translated transcript? I'd say that is not possible exept for a few cases (e.g. look at the number of rhethorical questions or so). If you want to analyse it linguistically of course you have to analyse the source i.e. untranslated (having in depth knowledge of the language). An 'experimenter' bias is introduced if you translate the speech yourself - that is true.

Hope this helps. I could probably help you more if i knew what your research topic and your source language is as well as your mother tongue.

Best X.

Thanks Xaver Koch. It is Linguistic analysis of President Pervaiz Musharraf's speech delivered in Urdu (and English in the part where he started addressing international audience) .My mother tongue is Punjabi and I was taught Urdu as the first language and the analysis has to be done in English.

And what about CDA of the same? Can it be done with translation?by me or by someone on internet?

So Musharraf's speech is given in Urdu and in English. Languages you both sufficiently speak.That is good. Do you also happen to have studied English and Urdu linguistics? If not it would be good to find someone to assist you to compare the linguistic features related to your research question (e.g. compare means to express something in one language as compared to the other)

Of course you write your analysis in English but the linguistic analysis has to be done based on Urdu linguistics for the Urdu part and based on English linguistic for the English part (if the languages differ with respect to the feature analysed). What specifically is your research question - the structure or phenomenon your interested in? Or is it just a descriptive analysis?

There are transcription rules for Urdu orthography to English (see file attached) to include readable transcriptions in your paper.

Best X.

Dear Shazia Aziz,

Schäffner’s article is quite instructive – I’ve pasted the reference/ abstact & link below.

Kind regards,

Paul Chaney

Schäffner, C. (2012) Unknown agents in translated political discourse, Target, The Known Unknowns of Translation Studies, pp. 103-125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/target.24.1.07sch

ABSTRACT: This article investigates the role of translation and interpreting in political discourse. It illustrates discursive events in the domain of politics and the resulting discourse types, such as jointly produced texts, press conferences and speeches. It shows that methods of Critical Discourse Analysis can be used effectively to reveal translation and interpreting strategies as well as transformations that occur in recontextualisation processes across languages, cultures, and discourse domains, in particular recontextualisation in mass media. It argues that the complexity of translational activities in the field of politics has not yet seen sufficient attention within Translation Studies. The article concludes by outlining a research programme for investigating political discourse in translation.

Thanks Xaver. Yes I have M.Phil in Applied Linguistics with one module on translation as well,but yes, doing analysis of the Urdu part is a thing needing care.

And thanks Paul it seems to be very interesting article driving attention to an ignored area/dimension of discourse analysis.

I completely agree with the answers above that a linguistig analysis of a translated text is impossible. However, there are CDA techniques that might be applied to translated texts as well (albeit of course with great care). These are more oriented towards analysing the discursive structures and do not focus on lingustic means. I'm especially thinking of frame analysis or an analysis of the dimension of 'thematisation', 'authorisation' and 'membership' (Frank Tonkiss) here. Of course I don't know if these tools get you anywhere close to your research question...

I wouldn’t say a linguistic analysis of a translated text is impossible, but it depends on what your research question is as to whether this is a good idea or not.

In translation/interpreting research, for example, linguistic analysis might be carried out on both the original and translated text to compare the two texts in terms of semantics, lexicogrammatical patterns, etc.

I have recently conducted an analysis on an English translation of a Greek text. But it was done as a pilot/exploratory study to help narrow down the number of features to concentrate on when I move to analysing the original Greek text with the help of someone more experienced in Greek analysis than I am. The purpose of the analysis is to identify structural boundaries in the texts. There are many problems with doing the analysis on the English text, but as a starting point it is helpful to do this.

If your analysis has to be done in English, I would suggest choosing a text that is entirely in English for this task.

The difficulty in using a translated version is that there is no clue as to the "dog whistle" and other encoded speech, with which political discourse is loaded. So you would first have to understand both the overt and hidden messages in the speech, not just as a native speaker of the language, but of the type of political speech being used. 

For a qualitative and theoretical discussion of power dimensions in political speech, Maurice Bloch's "Political Language and Oratory in Traditional Society" is a classic.

But, echoing questions above, what are you looking for? 

Also agreeing with Xaver Koch, your understanding and analysis of the speech has to be in Urdu. You will then after the fact of analysis, explain those findings in English in your paper.

Why does Musharraf change to English? Is he repeating the same thing, code-switching, or what? Does he use English phrases throughout or all together?

To analyze a political speech in a critical sense, see Norman Fairclough (CDA). His work is very useful and interesting,  if you're interested in language as a social praxis, and not simply as a formal system of rules.

Thank you all for your enlightening comments and suggestions

Eleanor H. Wynn as I mentioned earlier, he switches to English when addressing the international audience justifying his course of action.He is not repeating his points though.

Hi Shazia, just regarding the switches between English and Urdu, this in itself could be a very interesting part of the analysis. Does he really only use English phrases and words to address an international audience, or are there potentially other reasons sometimes, such as using English for emphasis, dealing with specific subject matter, simply as a result of a lexical gap (eg using an English term where perhaps the Urdu equivalent doesn't come easily to mind). Is he more likely to use one or the other language for a particularly emotional point? An analysis focusing on code-switching could be really interesting.

Best of luck with your analysis and I'd love to see the final product!!

Laura

Thanks Laura.This too is a good idea.But the point is, he switches just to address the foreign audience, the super powers and gives them examples from their history to justify his stance.Otherwise in the Urdu part, there are switches to English only when specific jargon is concerned like SUO MOTO, etc.

Interesting! The times I have watched Pakistani politicians, political advocates, siasat-focused journalists etc speaking, I always have the impression that there is a little more code-switching than that, even when the intended audience was predominately Urdu-speaking/local (but maybe I am wrong). In that case, it is an interesting choice in itself that he avoids this so uniformly. Is it one particular famous speech of his that you are analysing? 

P.S. I agree with the earlier responses - even though the speech is in another language, you are usually best off analysing the original data (and be sure to include the relevant excerpts in the text of your analysis in Urdu, followed by English translation for the benefit of your readers). 

Good luck and please let us know if you publish the final product :-)

Yes I will read it once again from this perspective, too.But as far as I remember, there is not much for typical siasi purpose.Yes, definitely, it is under review.I shall share it here when published.Thanks for the wishes.

Hi Shazia,

Were you successful in your analysis? I would love to see the results or have an update :)

plz study

A Critical Discourse Analysis of President Musharraf’s Speeches: Legitimizing War on Terror”

Laura Smith-Khan, here is the result. Just published

https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/view/6940

Laura Smith-Khan