Verbal confrontation and the uses of direct speech in some Old English poetic hagiographies

2007 ◽  
pp. 247-264
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Direct Speech

Parenthetical reporting clauses in the history of English: the development of quotative inversion

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA CICHOSZ
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Old English ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Annotated Corpora

This study is a corpus-based diachronic analysis of English reporting parentheticals, i.e. clauses introducing direct speech, placed after or in the middle of the reported message. The aim of the investigation is to trace the development of the construction throughout the history of English, establishing the main factors influencing the choice between VS and SV patterns (i.e. with and without quotative inversion respectively), showing how various reporting verbs were increasingly attracted to the construction, and demonstrating the gradual morphological reduction of the main reporting verbs: quoth and say. The study is based on syntactically annotated corpora of Old, Middle, Early Modern and Late Modern English, and uses other corpora to illustrate more recent changes. The study reveals that reporting clauses do not show regular quotative inversion with all subject types until the Early Modern English period and links this development to the emergence of the comment clause with say. It is also claimed that quotative inversion is not directly derived from the V-2 rule and that parenthetical reporting clauses have functioned as a separate construction since the Old English period.

On the presence or absence of the conjunction þæt in Old English, with special reference to dependent sentences containing a gif-clause

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-238
Author(s):  
Norihiko Otsu
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Old English ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Structural Similarity ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Shed Light

This article is a corpus-based investigation into the presence or absence of the conjunction þæt in dependent sentences containing a gif-clause in Old English and attempts in the process to shed light on the historical development of indirect speech. Encumbered by the addition of the gif-clause, a complex dependent sentence reveals facts about indirect speech that a simple dependent sentence cannot. Firstly, the article draws attention to a great number of instances of the zero form (the þæt-less construction) in which the dependent sentence is accompanied by a gif-clause, and, noting its structural similarity to direct speech, ascribes the zero form's origins to direct speech. Secondly, it is pointed out that in Old English, constructions with þæt still clearly reflect the influence of direct speech and closely resemble the zero form in structure. Thirdly, all this is attributed to the fact that OE prose was still unregularized and retained traits of spoken language, which may have made it difficult to accommodate a complex dependent sentence.

Ælfric's use of discourse in some saints' lives

1976 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 83-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Waterhouse
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Translation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Broad Category ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

A writer can put direct speech into the mouths of the characters within his story or he can report their speech indirectly, and his use of different methods of presenting or suggesting their speech is one of his most potent means of creating characterization and of controlling the effect of his story. In general the character who is given direct speech is more dramatically effective, more ‘real’, than the one who is represented through indirect speech; on the other hand, the many gradations within the broad category of ‘indirect speech’ allow the writer much more scope in the variety of function and the subtlety of effect that can be created. This is as true of early writers as of the modern novelist, and Ælfric is one who was clearly aware of the potentiality of both direct and indirect speech in reinforcing the message which he wished to bring home to his audience. This can be illustrated especially well from the saints' lives which he derived from Bede, where the source is more exactly known than it usually is and where comparison is possible not only with the Latin but also with the earlier Old English translation.

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