Direct speech. "Oh, good gracious me!" said Lucy "Look at him" said Mr Emerson to Lucy

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1 Direct speech The narrative experience is inevitably based on a compromise between the writer and the reader: both parties accept this fictional convention. But, if we look at direct speech with a less deeply involved attitude we can see that the presence of the narrator which uses an introductory verb to present direct speech already implies a filter, a degree of intrusion.

2 Direct speech "Oh, good gracious me!" said Lucy "Look at him" said Mr Emerson to Lucy "Very well, dear," said Miss Bartlett, with a faint flush of pleasure. "Things I didn't want," he said crossly.

3 Direct speech In the examples direct speech is introduced by the narrator with a different filter: the neutral attitude of example 1), where the verb say introduces direct speech changes into a more personal introduction in example 2) where the character s attitude is interpreted or described. " You know," the young man urged, "that I have always one thing to say." In the previous example the narrator can detail the character s attitude by using a semantically marked introductory verb.

4 Direct speech "Oh, what have I done?" "You have fainted." "I - I am very sorry." "How are you now? What we have here is a scene, a dramatic performance where the regular alternation of the characters lines clearly points to the locutor. No explicit indication is therefore necessary.

5 Direct speech Despite the different introductions, all the examples show that by using direct speech the narrator avoids the responsibility of what is being said: the narrator is neither interpreting or filtering but is just reproducing the words uttered by the characters, and the characters are the only ones to be held responsible for what is being said.

6 Direct speech But this is fiction and, therefore, can we swear that what the narrator says is the absolutely faithful reproduction of the characters sentences? Just think, for instance, what may happen when the narrator revives a scene in a flashback. And it is always to the narrator that the perspective, and therefore the interpretation of a scene should be traced back.

7 Direct speech As a matter of fact, what we have are two levels in the enunciation: the quoting and the quoted words. At the first level there are the quoting or introductory words, with the I and the You. At the second level there are the quoted words, with their intrinsic order of I and You. But, since there is this double level, even direct speech is a form of quoted or reported speech which is taken to represent its original wording by means of a narrator that gives voice to the characters.

8 Indirect speech Indirect or reported speech makes use of different strategies. This kind of speech is not the exact reproduction of a character s words, rather it is a sort of translation, adaptation of their words. It does not respect form and meaning, but just meaning, with the reformulation of the original speech. What we have now is just one level of enunciation, that of quoting speech. Quoted speech is no longer autonomous, and even the marks which characterize quoted speech are no longer there: no exclamation marks, no interrogatives, no imperatives. We have just the act of communication that transfers a given meaning but gets rid of its connotation.

9 Indirect speech He said: "You were mad ever to touch the thing He said I was mad ever to touch the thing He said he/she was mad ever to touch the thing He said rather vaguely: "How annoying for you!" he said rather vaguely it should be annoying for me. He said rather vaguely it should be annoying for him/her.

10 Indirect speech The reorganization of speech in reported speech is therefore an attempt at reproducing meaning, sometimes by means of expressions which are similar to the original ones. What is difficult, in this case, is to understand whether the subjective personal hints which the words convey are to be attributed to the original locutor or to the narrator.

11 Indirect speech Different types of can be used to convey different information: a first group of verbs includes those verbs with a descriptive value, such as repeat, or announce. The second group includes those verbs which imply a value judgement either positive or negative - on the part of the locutor about what is being said. This group includes verbs such as reproach, pretend.

12 Indirect speech Only the verb say is definitely neutral. Choosing a given verb means giving a personal view: verbs such as state, declare, continue, are not neutral but they do not imply a value judgement. Verbs such as admit, grant, allow, confess imply a more definite perspective and have a stronger semantic value.

13 Free Indirect speech The focus of Free Indirect Speech is mainly on its mode of projection (verbal or mental projection) that combines features of quoting and reporting - a blend of both direct and indirect speech - representing two degrees of remove from the original source. Words, thoughts, feelings, and sensations are evoked by means of a paratactic structure, where the projected clause has the form of an independent clause retaining the mood of the quoted form (Halliday 2004:465).

14 Free Indirect speech Nonetheless, this complex form of citation is a report, and not a quote. The shift in time and person (from present to past, from first person singular to third person), together with the presence of emphatic markers, produce an overlap of the narrator s and the character s voice.

15 Free Indirect speech Free Indirect Speech cannot be thoroughly or even partially ascribed to either the narrator or to the character. Indeed, what is sensed is a fusion of voices which results in a combination of perspectives. The character s imprint is nonetheless evident in this blend, and it can sometimes be traced back to the presence of the emphatic markers which are typical of orality, i.e. exclamations, questions, etc.

16 Free Indirect speech The resulting polyphonic effect is so vivid that it can hardly be renounced. In fact, although it is the narrator who ultimately keeps control of the narrative act, it is the character s perspective that breaks into it, making the speech attribution become slightly hazy. A sudden variation in register, as if the balance were suddenly altered, the backshift in time, the use of the third person, and of emphatic markers, all represent discreet features which make Free Indirect Speech an aesthetic and therefore stylistically relevant device, which any translator of literary texts should value.

17 Free Indirect speech So clever Not so good as usual I thought it most unfair, said Mr Benson and Miss Rosseter, discussing the Saturday Westminster. Did they not compete regularly for prizes? Had not Mr Benson three times won a guinea, and Miss Rosseter once ten and sixpence? Of course Everard Benson had a weak heart, but still, to win prizes, remember parrots, toady Miss Perry, despise Miss Rosseter, give tea-parties in his rooms ( ), all this, so Jacob felt without knowing him, made him a contemptible ass. (1992:89)