Speech and thought representation in English

Více o knize

This book provides a linguistically grounded typology of speech and thought representation in English, based on a systematic study of deictic, syntactic, and semantic properties from both literary and non-literary sources. It reexamines the concept of ‘free indirect discourse,’ often seen as a catch-all for forms that are neither direct nor indirect speech. By focusing on deixis, particularly pronoun and proper name usage, the book distinguishes between character-oriented free indirect discourse and a narrator-oriented ‘distancing’ indirect type, which is structured from the narrator’s deictic perspective. Unlike free indirect representations that align with a character’s viewpoint, the distancing type allows narrators to appropriate character discourse for their own purposes, potentially introducing irony. This distinction offers new insights into the ‘dual voice’ approach to free indirect discourse. The book also explores subjectified uses of clauses like "I think," which function as hedges rather than expressions of cognition. It argues that these speaker-encoding uses involve an interpersonal structure, while non-subjectified cases are analyzed through interclausal complementation without relying on the contentious concept of ‘reporting verb.’ This monograph is targeted at researchers and graduate students interested in the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of reported speech from a constructional perspective.