Speech

Presentation
Variation in
Speech
Presentation
it allows authors to indicate
how important a piece of
speech is

Indirect Speech appears to be a

backgrounding, and Direct Speech a
foregrounding, device.
Categories of
Speech
Presentation
 Event Narration

NRA NRS NRSA IS FIS DS

Speech Presentation
Narrator's
Representation
of Action (NRA)

This category is to account for sentences of physical

description and action, where speech is not presented at
all: Actions, Events, description of states, Character
perceptions
Narrator's
Representation
of Speech (NRS)

This category merely tells us that speech occurred,

without any indication of what was said.
Narrator's
Representation
of Speech Acts
(NRSA)

With this category we get a little closer to what is said.

We are given what speech acts are performed, and
perhaps some indication of the topic of the talk.
Indirect
Speech

The speaker is the person doing the reporting.

Direct
Speech (DS)

This is where characters speak directly for themselves,

without being 'filtered' through the narrator.
 Direct Speech (DS)
vs
Indirect Speech (IS)
1. Linguistic Form
2. Effects and Function
She said, 'I'm sorry I
can't stop right now.'

She said she was sorry

but that she couldn't
stop right then.
The words of Direct Speech are
clearly those of the character
concerned.

The words of Indirect Speech, on the

other hand, usually belong to the
narrator.
 DS IS NRSA NRS
the speech acts used
the propositions stated
the words used to produce those speech acts and propositions.
Free Indirect
Speech (FIS)
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.
Kate looked at her bank statement. “Why did I spend my money
so recklessly?” (DS)
Kate looked at her bank statement. She asked herself why she’d
spent her money so recklessly. (IS)
Kate looked at her bank statement. Why had she spent her
money so recklessly?
Example
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.'
Elizabeth Adler's Peach
[NRA] Lais unlocked the cabin door and pushed her inside.
[DS] 'Come on then, into bed with you.'
[NRA] She pulled off Peach's pretty white dress hurriedly.
[NRA] Peach sat on the edge of her bed sliding off the little red
slippers.
[DS] 'What about my teeth?' [NRT] she asked, thinking of her
mother.
[DS] 'In the morning,' [NRA] called Lais, already at the door.
[DS] 'But Lais. Where are you going?'
[NRA] Peach sat up in bed anxiously.
[FIS] She still wore her vest and knickers and her socks.

[N-FIT] There was no sign of her nightie, or a drink of milk or

anything.
[FIS] And where was Teddy?
[NRA] Lais hesitated then hurried back across the room and
hauled the teddy bear from beneath a pile of clothes.
[DS] 'There,' [NRA] she said. [DS] 'Now go to sleep.'
Thought
Presentation
The categories of thought
presentation are the same as
for speech presentation, however, do
not have exactly the same effects
He spent the day thinking.
(Narrator's Representation of Thought (NRT])

She considered his unpunctuality.

(Narrator's Representation of Thought Acts [NRTA])

She thought that he would be late.

(Indirect Thought [IT])

He was bound to be late!

(Free Indirect Thought [FIT])

'He will be late', she thought.

(Direct Thought (DT])
NRS NRSA IS FIS DS

Moving away from the norm

 NRT NRTA IT FIT DT

Moving away from the norm Moving away from the norm
Direct Thought
(DT)
Has the same linguistic form as the
soliloquy in drama, which is
notoriously ambiguous as to whether
the character involved is thinking
aloud or talking to the audience
Often used to represent
imaginary conversations
which characters have with
themselves or others, which is
presumably why it so often has
the flavor of conscious thinking.
DT is often presented without
quotation marks to distinguish it
from DS presented with them.
Free Indirect
Thought (FIT)
It was a provocation, that's what it was, thought the Colonel. Here
he was on his deathbed, preparing for oblivion, and she
sits over there reading Parson Noah's latest pamphlet.

(Julian Barnes, A History of the World)

The Colonel thought that it was a provocation that while he was
on his deathbed, preparing for oblivion, she was reading Parson
Noah's latest pamphlet. (IT)
'It is a provocation, that's what it is,' thought the Colonel.
'I am on my deathbed, preparing for oblivion and she sits over
there reading Parson Noah's latest pamphlet.' (DT)
We feel close to the character,
almost inside his head as he
thinks, and sympathize with his
viewpoint.
(1) His hands were weary. (2) He brooded over his long, white
body, marking the ribs stick through the sides. (3) The hands had
held other hands and thrown a ball high into the air. (4) Now
they were dead hands. (5) He could wind them about his hair
and let them rest untingling on his belly or lose them in the valley
between Rhianon's breasts. (6) It did not matter what he did
with them. (7) They were as dead as the hands of the clock, and
moved to clockwork.

(Dylan Thomas, 'The Visitor')

FIT form combines the position of
the character and narrator
Thank you