Language shifts in free indirect discourse

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emar Maier
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Context ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Formal Semantic ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Direct Discourse ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Mixed Quotation

AbstractFree indirect discourse is a way of reporting what a protagonist thinks or says that is distinct from both direct and indirect discourse. In particular, while pronouns and tenses are presented from the narrator's perspective, as in indirect discourse, other indexical and expressive elements reflect the protagonist's point of view, as in direct discourse. In this paper I discuss a number of literary examples of free indirect discourse in which the narrator slips into the language, dialect or idiolect of the protagonist. I argue that the leading formal semantic analyses of free indirect discourse, which rely on semantic context shifting, fail to account for such language shifts. I then present an alternative account that treats free indirect discourse as a form of mixed quotation.

scholarly journals Derogatory terms in free indirect discourse

2021 ◽  
pp. 349-378
Author(s):  
Isidora Stojanovic
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Underlying Theory ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Mixed Quotation

Free indirect discourse (FID) is a style of reporting speech and thought that combines third-personal narration with direct, first-personal discourse. Expressive terms, such as “idiot” or “asshole”, are known to occur in FID. When so used, the pejorative content reflects the protagonist’s rather than the narrator’s point of view. This chapter broadens the discussion of derogatory terms in FID by investigating occurrences of slurring terms, such as the N-word. The two main approaches to FID, namely the two-context approach and the mixed-quotation approach, are discussed in light of these novel findings. The chapter shows that both are able to account for the data; however, the choice between them imposes constraints on the underlying theory of derogatory terms.

The ‘dual voice’ of free indirect discourse: a reading experiment

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Bray
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Reading Process ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Cognitive Poetics ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Narrative Style ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Reading Experiment

The emergence of cognitive poetics has focused attention on how stylistic features are processed by readers. One area ripe for empirical investigation in this respect is point of view. Little attention has previously been paid in cognitive science to the specifics of how point of view is identified during reading. This essay reports on an experiment designed to examine how readers respond to a narrative style that has attracted a great deal of interest from both stylisticians and literary critics: free indirect discourse. The experiment tested two questions in particular: (1) Do readers hear a ‘dual voice’ when reading passages of free indirect discourse? and (2) What kind of ‘contexts’ influence the identification of point of view? Some critics have noted the importance of the preceding co-text in deciding whose point of view is present in ambiguous passages; this experiment suggests that the succeeding co-text might also be relevant. This in turn has implications for the flexibility of the reading process, especially when more than one point of view may be present.

The use of deictic reference in identifying point of view in Grazia Deledda’s Canne al Vento and its translation into English

Target ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Johnson
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Functional Model ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Grazia Deledda

Point of view in narrative has been identified in literary stylistics through the use of deixis, modality, transitivity and Free Indirect Discourse. These findings have also been applied to literature in translation (Bosseaux 2007). This article focuses on deictic cues in the narrative structure of Canne al Vento by Grazia Deledda in the original Italian and the English translation, following an earlier study focussing on constructing a particular point of view through mental processes of perception, the translation of which did not always reflect that point of view (Johnson 2010). Data emerging from a corpus-assisted study is examined qualitatively using a systemic-functional model in order to assess to what extent the point of view constructed by these cues in the ST is conveyed in the novel in translation.

scholarly journals Switches between Direct and Indirect Speech in Ancient Greek

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emar Maier
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Formal Semantic ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Semantic Framework ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Mixed Quotation

AbstractI propose a uni ied semantic analysis of two phenomena characteristic of ancient Greek speech reporting, (i) the unmarked switching between direct and indirect discourse, and (ii) the use of οτι ('that') as a quotation introduction. I accommodate these phenomena in a formal semantic framework, where both can be modeled uniformly as instances of mixed quotation.

Narrated perception revisited: The case of Jane Austen’sEmma

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Pallarés-García
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Narrative Technique ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Objective Fact ◽  
And Function

Jane Austen’s Emma (1816) is generally considered an ambiguous and unreliable narrative in terms of point of view (Morini, 2009: 53–57; Wallace, 1995: 77–97). These qualities are often attributed to the extensive use of free indirect discourse (Finch and Bowen, 1990: 5–6; Mezei, 1996: 72–75). This article aims to demonstrate that another narrative technique is also responsible for the ambiguity and unreliability of the novel. ‘Narrated perception’ (NP) portrays the sensory perceptions of a fictional character by describing events as they are experienced by that character (Fludernik, 1993: 305–309). NP has been pointed out by some critics to be a distinct narrative technique, but in general perception is included within the broader category of free indirect discourse (FID), and occasionally as an aspect of free indirect thought (FIT). This article suggests that there are some subtle differences between NP and FID/FIT, and thus it can be beneficial to examine NP separately. In fact, NP is frequently similar to pure narration in terms of form and function. As a case study, this article presents a stylistic analysis of a number of passages containing NP in Emma which do not typically feature in studies of FID/FIT. The analysis provides textual evidence of (1) the presence of Emma’s sensory perceptions within what looks like narration, (2) the close connection between perception, thought and emotion, and (3) the difficulty of distinguishing between perception and narration in some cases, which suggests the potential of NP to mislead the reader by presenting as a seemingly objective fact what later on turns out to be Emma’s mistaken assessment.

Becoming-Animal Cinema Narrative

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Rothermel
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Animal Perception ◽  
Film Language

This chapter connects distinctive animal territories to specific uses of film language through a series of case studies, most notably Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar (1966), Michelangelo Frammartino’s Le Quattro Volte (2011), Bela Tarr’s The Turin Horse (2011), and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012). Significantly, becoming-animal cannot be represented by conventional point-of-view and shot-reverse-shot editing (the structural mainstay of filmic suture), because it ties the animal to the conventional (and thus delimiting) human vectorial space of Deleuze’s action-image. Instead, inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s seminal essay, ‘The “Cinema of Poetry”’, the chapter notes that all four filmmakers resort to a form of free-indirect discourse, whereby animality fills up the film from the inside as formative of the representation rather than rendering the subject within the structure of representation. Not unlike T.S. Eliot’s objective correlative, where the character’s subjectivity is presented objectively in and through the mise-en-scène as well as individual focalisation (in this case the character is also on-screen), animal perception is able to be expressed by a form of camera self-consciousness, what Deleuze calls ‘cinema a special kind of cinema where the camera makes itself felt.

scholarly journals A semantic analysis of dual voice in a literary style

Diacronia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ștefan Oltean
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Direct Discourse ◽  
Literary Style ◽  
Narrative Style ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Mental Events ◽  
Literary Narrative

This article proposes an account of dual voice in free indirect discourse (FID), a point-of-view narrative style used mainly in literary narrative for the representation of verbal events, and of verbal or non-verbal mental events (see Oltean, 1993). First, it sums up in a nutshell the issue of what constitutes FID, without dealing in detail with what distinguishes it from “normal” indirect discourse and direct discourse (see, for this matter, Ehrlich, 1990; McHale, 1978; Oltean, 1993). Next, it addresses the issue of dual voice associated with this discourse mode, after which it gives an outline of the analytical framework. Finally, it provides a description for an FID sentence selected from English literary prose, with a view to furnishing evidence for its dual nature.

Computing perspective shift in narratives

2021 ◽  
pp. 325-348
Author(s):  
Márta Abrusán
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Rhetorical Structure ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Indirect Discourse

Natural language allows changing the point of view in narrative texts without overt perspective-shifting operators. A well-known example of such a perspective shift is free indirect discourse. But how do hearers (readers) know that they need to change the point of view in the first place? And when there are reasons to believe that the point of view is not that of the narrator, how do they know whose perspective is being developed? These questions have been rarely addressed in the literature, with the notable exceptions of Wiebe (1990, 1994) and Hinterwimmer (2019). This chapter reviews these proposals, adds a few new observations about the importance of rhetorical structure, and proposes to incorporate all the previous insights into one unified framework.

Narrative and point of view

2021 ◽  
pp. 221-254
Author(s):  
Samuel Cumming
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Narrative Time

This chapter launches a simultaneous investigation of the conventions of temporal progression and subjective point of view in narratives. Historically, the two have been seen as mutually exclusive, as in Plato’s opposition of diegesis and mimesis, and Benveniste’s of histoire and discours. More recently, Mimo Caenepeel proposes, in the same vein, that subjective clauses of free indirect discourse do not (generally) advance narrative time, and suggests that this is because stative aspect, which does not (generally) induce a temporal update, is obligatory for clauses with a subjective point of view. The chapter will critically examine this interesting proposal.

A Plea against Monsters

2016 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emar Maier
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Role Shift ◽  
Mixed Quotation

Inspired by Schlenker’s (2003) seminal Plea for Monsters, linguists have been analyzing every occurrence of a shifted indexical by postulating a monstrous operator. The author’s aim in this paper is to show that Kaplan’s (1989) original strategy of explaining apparent shifting in terms of a quotational use/mention distinction offers a much more intuitive, parsimonious and empirically superior analysis of many of these phenomena, including direct–indirect switches in Ancient Greek, role shift in signed languages, free indirect discourse in literary narratives, and mixed quotation.

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