Lesson Speech

4 Presentation

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
• identify complex processes of deriving speech
presentation; and
• apply knowledge on the different forms of speech
presentation and its effect to various
presentational forms.
Introduction:
Welcome to Lesson 4! In this lesson, you will have to learn that writers of fiction have
a fairly wide range of presentational choices at their disposal when presenting the speech of their
characters. Thus, you can see how our canonical assumptions concerning the degrees of
faithfulness to an original of the different speech presentation categories give rise to particular
effects when those categories are used by writers in novels and short stories.

In addition, as you go along the topic, we can observe a range of fictional extracts to
explore in more detail the uses and effects of the speech presentation categories. Lastly, we’ll
see also the difference and aid of speech presentation and thought presentation scales.

Activity Observe how a certain speech derived into a thought. Try

to compare the major shift of the speech and thought
presentation of Column A and Column B.

ORIGINAL A B
1. He wondered, “Does she still He wondered if she still He felt unsure of her love
love me?” love him, for him.
He said that he would He promised to return
2. He said, “I’ll come back here
come back there to see her
to see you again tomorrow.”
again tomorrow.
 How will you compare the changes presented in Column A and
Column B?

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Analysis
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Abstraction
FIVE BASIC KINDS OF SPEECH PRESENTATION

1.1 Narrator's Representation of Voice (NV)

Completely under the narrator's control, and with a perspective so 'distanced'

from the speech presented that all we know about that speech is that it occurred (e.g.
'They conversed quietly with one another.'), perhaps with some general indication of
the topic of the talk (e.g. 'He was saying something about his trip.').

1.2 Narrator's Representation of Speech Acts (NRSA)

 Completely under narrator control (like the narrator's characterization of events,
states and actions); however, a particular act of speech is now being represented,
although in a pretty minimal way.

"Speech Act" is the term used to designate ACTS performed by saying

something e.g. complaining, instructing, questioning, pleading, arguing. cf. She
insulted him. In the Narrator's Representation of a Speech Act (NRSA), we are told
what act of speech was used. We may also get some indication of the subject matter
talked about e.g. She told him about his bad breath. With NRSA, then, the report of the
speech is minimal, and completely under the control of the narrator. NRSA usually
contains:

o an indication of what speech act was used; and

o (plus, optionally) what topic is talked about.

NRSA is the speech presentation category which connects the scale of speech
presentation with the straightforward narration of action. Narrators represent actions
(NRA). NRSA is speech action, action performed by saying things (e.g. 'He ordered the
prisoner's execution', 'He stated his demands'.

1.3 Indirect Speech (IS)

In addition to the speech act(s) the character uses we are also given the
propositional content of his/her utterance but in the narrator's words.

The Propositional content of a sentence is the core meaning or statement

expressed independent of the words used to express it. For example, what is the core
statement made in the following sentences?

It's raining heavily.

It's raining cats and dogs.
It's pissing down.
It's bucketing down.
Il pleut a verse.

You might say any of these sentences, and I could reasonably report them all in
Indirect Speech as "You said that it was raining heavily".

Thus indirect speech, like NRSA, is speech filtered through the narrator. This
results in relative distancing of the reader from the character compared with Direct
Speech (see below). IS contains:
o what speech act was used;
o what proposition was conveyed by what was said.

1.4 Direct Speech (DS)

DS contains the actual words and grammatical structures which the
character used in the original utterance, not those of the narrator. Hence, apparently,
only minimal filtering through the narrator occurs (though, of course, in the novel,
unlike real-life speech reporting, there was no original speech which is being reported
by a third party - the author makes it all up). In the extreme versions of DS even the
inverted commas and/or the introductory reporting clause can be omitted, thus reducing
the amount of narrator filtering to zero. DS contains:
o what speech act was used;
o what proposition was conveyed.
o what words and structures were used by the character to utter the
proposition.

1.4.1 The Relationship between Original and Direct/Indirect Speech

In the simplest forms of IS and DS there are two clauses, the reporting clause,
which belongs to the narrator, and the reported clause, which is a representation of the
speech being reported. The two clauses belong to two different discourse situations --
the reporting clause relates to the situation where the narrator is talking to the reader,
and the reported clause relates to a previous discourse situation where a character said
something to another character.
You can "translate" an original utterance into DS/IS by operating a series of
rules:
Into DS
1. One normally repeats the exact words used by the original speaker in
between inverted commas.
2. The reporting clause is used to identify the speaker (and, optionally, the
addressee). It also gives the appropriate verb of speaking.
Into IS
1. No inverted commas occur around the reported clause and there is no
comma separating the reporting clause, if there is one.
2. Introduce an introductory conjunction (normally that) at the beginning of
the reported clause. Sometimes this conjunction is grammatically optional,
sometimes obligatory.
This change represents an important grammatical difference in the
status of the REPORTED CLAUSE. It has main clause status in DS but
subordinate clause status in IS.
3. Change any original non-statement grammar form (e.g. interrogative,
imperative) to statement form (declarative) and remove related punctuation
marks (e.g. question marks and exclamation marks).
4. Remove any specially coloured lexical items (e.g. swear words) and do not
use abbreviated verb forms or deviant spellings which may otherwise in DS
have been used to represent non-standard pronunciation, conversational
style, etc.
5. Change all deictic markers (e.g. tense, pronouns, time references) which
relate to the original speaker in the embedded speech situation so that they
now relate to the narrator who is reporting the clause.

Example A:

Original: Are you coming back here to live next year?

DS: He asked his sister, "Are you coming back here to live next year?"
IS: He asked his sister whether she was returning to live there the following
year.
(Note: the highlighted words are all deictic markers in the IS version which have
been changed from the DS version)
 Example B:
Compare also:
DS: "Why, it was only last night, Sir," whispered Kit's mother, "that I left him
in little Bethel."
IS: Kit's mother whispered (that) it had been only the night before that she had
left him in Little Bethel.
(Note how "why" and "Sir" have been removed because they are inappropriate
to the IS representation.)

1.5 Free Indirect Speech (FIS)

Free Indirect Speech (FIS) is a mixture of DS and IS features. As a result it is

often very ambiguous as to whether it represents faithfully the words of the character
or whether it is the narrator's words which are being used. Very often there will be no
reporting clause, and so the reported clause achieves main clause status as in DS. But
usually the tense and pronouns, but not necessarily the other deictic markers, stay
appropriate to the narrator, not the character. However, any mixture of DS and IS
features counts as FIS.

Any of the following could be FIS representations of the Dickens quotation

above.

1. It had only been last night that she had left him in Little Bethel
[Tense and pronoun appropriate to IS, but main clause status of the speech
reported and use of near deictic last night appropriate to DS]
2. Why, it had only been last night that she had left him in Little Bethel.
[As above, but in addition, the use of the initial why, typical of speech, makes
this FIS representation a bit more free than (1)]
3. Why, it had only been last night, Sir, that she had left 'im in Little Bethel.
[This example is still a mixture of DS and IS features, and so counts as FIS, but
it is even more free than (2), because of the addition of the vocative Sir,
associated with speech, and the non-standard spelling IM, indicating dialect
pronounciation]

Hence, examples (1) - (3) are increasingly more free, showing the range of FIS
possibilities. FIS contains:

1. What speech act was used;

2. What proposition was conveyed.
3. What words and structures were used to represent that proposition ?
 A SUMMARY OF SPEECH PRESENTATION IN PROSE STYLE

{<------ Narration -------->}

{<------------- Speech Presentation ------------>}
NRA..............NV...........NRSA.................IS....................FIS......................DS
Narrator Control over speech Character
<------------ -------------->
Control representation Control
Less <------------------- Closeness to "Original" -------------------->More

SPEECH PRESENTATION AND POINT OF VIEW

1. If the author wants to make his characters seem independent of the narrator, he will
use direct speech. If a character says things which are patently false or silly, he will
seem to condemn himself out of his own mouth.
2. Any move away from the DS end of the scale brings with it the feeling of narrator
interference.
3. NRSA and IS feel like forms which are heavily controlled narratorially, because the
words used are not those of the characters.
4. FIS has some narrator interference but also the feeling that some of the words at
least are those of the character. This mixed characteristic thus gives the
contradictory qualities of control and vividness, and is often, as a consequence, used
as a vehicle for irony (though note, irony in a novel can be achieved in other ways
too).

THOUGHT PRESENTATION

The same categories of presentation are available to an author when

representing the thoughts of his characters. These categories [Narrator's Representation
of Thinking (NT), Narrator's Representation of Thought Acts (NRTA), Indirect
Thought (IT), Free Indirect Thought (FIT) and Direct Thought (DT)] can be defined in
exactly the same way linguistically as for the equivalent speech presentation categories.
But the effects of one mode choice or another are different from those for speech.
Typically we tend to feel in the course of reading that Direct Thought is the
representation of conscious thought on the part of the character, whereas Free Indirect
Thought feels more like the representation of subconscious thought. Note that with DT
or FIT, you feel that you are getting the character's process of thought represented,
because of the assumption, borrowed from speech presentation, that you are getting
(completely with DT, and partially with FIT) the "original" words and structures that
the character used to do the thinking. This will not be the case with IT or NRTA, and
so you will feel much less close to the character, and that the narrator is interposed
between you and the character.
 SPEECH PRESENTATION

Alternatives What is presented? Example

NARRATOR Narrator's Merely that speech e.g. He talked on
CONTROL/ Representation of occurred, perhaps and on.
PRESENCE Voice (NV) with an indication of E.g. In a hoarse
[NV is called NRS general topic. voice he muttered
(Narrator's something
Representation of indecipherable about
Speech) in Short his boss.
(1996)
Narrator Represents Speech occurred e.g. She gave him
the Speech Act +The Speech Act his marching orders
(NRSA) (perhaps with an
indication of topic)
Indirect Speech (IS) Speech occurred e.g. She insisted
+Act e.g. that he should
+Propositional e.g. go.
Content
Free Indirect Speech Speech occurred e.g. She looked from
(FIS) +Act him to the door.
+Propositional Why didn't he get
Content lost?
+??Actual words &
structure used??
CHARACTER Direct Speech (DS) Speech occurred e.g. "Why don't you
CONTROL/ +Act get lost!" she
PRESENCE +Propositional shouted.
Content
+Actual words
& structure
used

Instructions: The passage below is from a popular romance novel entitled “Peach” by Elizabeth
Adler. In the novel, Lais and Peach are two sisters who are alone on a cruise ship together,
travelling from America to France. Peach is five years old. Lais, who is in her late teens, is
meant to be looking after her. But she is more interested in having a good time dancing in the
ballroom of the ship, and so is hastily putting Peach to bed in their cabin, before going back to
the ballroom. Using your Speech Presentation checksheet, for each sentence, or part of a
sentence, note down the mode of speech presentation you think is used. The speech
presentation modes you are looking for are DS, FIS, IS, NRSA and NV. (Note that you may
find more than one category in some sentences.) Some sentences do not involve speech
presentation at all, and you may find it helpful to label these with 'N' for Narration.
Passage:
Lais unlocked the cabin door and pushed her inside. 'Come
on then, into bed with you.' She pulled off Peach's pretty
white dress hurriedly.
Peach sat on the edge of her bed sliding off the little red
slippers. 'What about my teeth?' she asked, thinking of her
mother.
'In the morning,' called Lais, already at the door.
'But Lais. Where are you going?' Peach sat up in bed
anxiously. She still wore her vest and knickers and her socks.
There was no sign of her nightie, or a drink of milk or
anything. And where was Teddy?
Lais hesitated then hurried back across the room and hauled
the teddy bear from beneath a pile of clothes. 'There,' she
said. 'Now go to sleep.'

References
Short, Mick (1996) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose, London: Longman,
chapter 1, pp. 1-35.

Carter, Ron (1993) 'Between languages: grammar and lexis in Thomas Hardy's "The Oxen"',
in Peter Verdonk (ed.) (1993) Twentieth-century Poetry: From Text To Context,
London: Routledge, chapter 5, pp. 57-67.

Leech, Geoffrey N. (1969) A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, London: Longman, chapters
1 and 2.

Short, Mick (1993) 'To analyse a poem stylistically: "To Paint a Water Lily" by Ted Hughes',
in Peter Verdonk (ed.) (1993) Twentieth-century Poetry: From Text To Context,
London: Routledge chapter 1, pp. 5-20.

Simpson, Paul (1997) Language Through Literature, London: Routledge chapter 2, pp. 23-59.

Verdonk, Peter (1993) 'Poetry and public life: a contextualised reading of Seamus Heaney's
"Punishment"', in Peter Verdonk (ed.) (1993) Twentieth-century Poetry: From Text To
Context, London: Routledge chapter 9, pp. 112-33.

Widdowson, Henry (1983) 'The Conditional Presence of Mr Bleaney' in Ronald Carter (ed.)
Language and Literature, London: Allen & Unwin chapter 1, pp. 18-26.

Closure
Congratulations! You have made the fourth lesson completely. It is expected that you
were able to understand the lesson. Just continue to read intensively and extensively!