Inner speech
Direct speech
1) direct speech:
- uttered speech
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-a quotation of the spoken utterance
-reflects natural communication
- a specific form of social contact
- forms: dialogue, monologue
S. Hill A Bit of Singing and Dancing
- An easy mistake, a perfectly understandable mistake. Mr. …
- Please do not feel at all …
- Curry. Amos Curry.
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- … embarrassed.
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- I’m looking for a quiet room with breakfast. It seemed so hopeful. Park close. Such a comfortable address.
G. Greene The Comedians
“That’s. I didn’t. Nerves y’know. Highly strung. A sort of madness, it was. Can’t imagine now how I did it, ‘cos I’ve never been that sort of chap, though, mind you, I’ve always had temper if I got properly roused. Still, I don’t know how I came to do it, I don’t, really I don’t. Must have been properly mad at the time. Seems strange now, I can tell you, ‘cos don’t feel anything about it now, nothing at all.”
- the analogue of the oral type of speech
- reflects emotions by using:
• conversational words, slang, vulgarisms, exclamatory words
· laconic sentence structures
· repetitions, inversion, emphatic sentences
· phonographical devices (graphons)
- has a certain intonational structure
А. Белый. Петербург
И на бритом, багровом лице проиграло:
- «?»
- «!»
- «!?!»
Совершенно помешанный!
2) inner/interior speech of characters
- the personage’s narration of his/her own thoughts
-the author does not interfere
-the reader participates in the inner psychological life of the character
Types:
a.inner monologue
-a lengthy piece of the character’s meditations
- slows down the development of the plot
- 1stperson narration
- speech peculiarities of the character
He looked at his watch and thought, I wonder if Andres got through to Golz? If we are going to blow it I would like to breathe very slowly and slow up the time again and feel it. E. Hemingway
b. short insets of inner speech
- immediate mental and emotional reactions
- marked by dashes, brackets or dots
… the small straight nose and a cowlick in one eyebrow that sends a little fan of hairs the wrong way and seems to express a doubt. Amazing, genes. J. Updike
К.Паустовский Северная повесть
Он хотел услышать в комнатах женские шаги, но ничего не доносилось, кроме стука стенных часов и отдаленных гудков автомобилей. Где же она? Он хотел дождаться ее …
c. stream of consciousness
- disjoined flow of the character’s associated ideas, memories, sense impressions
- the author is removed from the stream of the inner speech
- influenced by psychological studies
Mr. Bloom put his head out of the window.
Gasworks ... Whooping cough they say it cures. Good job Milly never got it. Poor children! Doubles them up black and blue in convulsions. Shame really. Got off lightly with illnesses compared. Only measles. Flaxseed tea. Scarlatina, influenza epidemics. Canvassing for death. Don’t miss this chance. Dog’s home over there. Poor old Athos! Be good to Athos, Leopold, is my last wish. They will be done. We obey them in the grave. A dying scrawl. He took it to heart. Quiet brute. Old men’s dogs usually are. (J. Joyce)
functions of characters’ speech:
Øcolours the text with the tone of spontaneity
Øcontributes to the effect of reality, authenticity
Øadds to the reader’s knowledge about the character
Øintroduces a character’s point of view
Øserves as a personage’s self-characterisation
Øcreates a psychologically complex character
Ødepicts the inner world of the character
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