Language shifts in free indirect discourse
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Emar Maier
Abstract
Free 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.
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Frontmatter
- Person and perspective in language and literature
- Articles
- Narrating the unspeakable. Person marking and focalization in Nabokov's short story ‘Signs and Symbols’
- The use of second person pronouns in a literary work
- The development of free indirect constructions in Dutch novels
- Language shifts in free indirect discourse
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Frontmatter
- Person and perspective in language and literature
- Articles
- Narrating the unspeakable. Person marking and focalization in Nabokov's short story ‘Signs and Symbols’
- The use of second person pronouns in a literary work
- The development of free indirect constructions in Dutch novels
- Language shifts in free indirect discourse
