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rebbel's avatar

A question on quoting (people in news articles). [Details inside].

Asked by rebbel (35553points) January 13th, 2012

Yesterday I read a small news article on a sports website in which the subject was tennis player Rafael Nadal’s injury.
He was quoted in the article, and the sentence was as follows:
“My shoulder is good,” the 10-time grand slam champion told a clutch of reporters, whose attempts at further questions were thwarted by handlers. “Hopefully (I am ready). I will try my best.”
My question is about the I am ready bit in the sentence.
I can not see to what it relates.
Not to “My shoulder is good” (if it was they could have written it there, “My shoulder is good, I am ready).
Not to “I will try my best” either.
It could be related to “Hopefully” but why then put it between brackets (“Hope” sounds like one is not sure, while “I am ready” sounds as if one is pretty darn sure)?
Or was it something he said whispering.
Or did he maybe mumble it and the writer of the article worded it like so?
To what is “I am ready” referring?
Any writers here that have an idea what is going on there, in that sentence?
Is there a word for this kind of notation?

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6 Answers

submariner's avatar

The mumble theory would be my guess. The player said something unclear, and the writer used the parentheses to indicate that that was what the writer thinks the player meant.

janbb's avatar

It is an odd construction and unclear what the writer intended. Either the writer put in parentheses what he thought Nadal meant but had omitted or what he thought Nadal had mumbled. Presumably, the journalist thought he meant “I hope I am ready.” It is more common for a writer to put something that is left out of a quote but should be there in brackets ([....]) rather than parentheses.

dappled_leaves's avatar

As @janbb stated, you would normally see square brackets used for this, but it might be a case of organizing the interview so that it makes more sense for the reader. For example, this:

Interviewer: Are you ready?
Nadal: Hopefully. I will try my best.

would become, in print:

“Hopefully [I am ready]. I will try my best.”

submariner's avatar

As for what it is called, it could fall under the rubric of paraphrasing.

sinscriven's avatar

I would agree with @janbb and @dappled_leaves .
It looks like an editorial addition to add context to his response that isn’t present in the article.

Since you don’t read/see/hear the interviewer asking him if he’s ready, you would have to include ”[I am ready]” to make sense of it.

marinelife's avatar

I am ready (to play). It was an interjection.

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