Reported Speech/Thought in Spoken Czech as an Object of Corpus Research Cover Image

Reprodukce řeči/myšlení v mluvených projevech jako předmět korpusového výzkumu
Reported Speech/Thought in Spoken Czech as an Object of Corpus Research

Author(s): Jana Hoffmannová, Zuzana Komrsková, Petra Poukarová
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: reported speech; reported thought; introductory construction; direct/indirect/free indirect speech/thought; reproduction of the speech

Summary/Abstract: The article explores reported speech/thought in spoken Czech, especially reproductions introduced with various forms of říct/říkat (to say), with data provided by the Czech National Corpus. Most reproductions were introduced by the imperfective verb říkat (past and present tenses, first and third persons). By contrast, reproductions of thought were much less numerous and almost invariably involved the first person. We found twice as many examples of direct speech than indirect speech, and interesting transitional forms, some of which can be described as free indirect speech. Pauses separating introductory constructions from reproductions appear to be more typical of direct than indirect speech, but are generally infrequent, suggesting a lower degree of segmentation of spoken language. Sometimes, reproductions of the speech of others were signalled with reduced introductory constructions, with verba dicendi substituted by signals other than verbs, whereas reproductions of one’s own speech were normally introduced witha verbum dicendi.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 15
  • Page Range: 3-25
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Czech