Гальперин И. Р. Стилистика английского языка

Represented Speech

There are three ways of reproducing actual speech: a) repetition of the exact utterance as it was spoken (direct speech), b) conversion of the exact utterance into the relater's mode of expression (indirect speech), and c) representation of the actual utterance by a second person, usually the author, as if it had been spoken, whereas it has not really been spoken but is only represented in the author's words (represented speech).
There is also a device which conveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of the character, thus presenting his thoughts and feelings. This device is also termed represented speech. To distinguish between the two varieties of represented speech we call the representation of the actual utterance through the author's language uttered represented speech, and the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character – unuttered or inner represented speech.
The term direct speech came to be used in the belles-lettres style in order to distinguish the words of the character from the author's words. Actually, direct speech is a quotation. Therefore it is always introduced by a verb like say, utter, declare, reply, exclaim, shout, cry, yell, gasp, babble, chuckle, murmur, sigh, call, beg, implore, comfort,
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¹ Попов П. С. Суждение и предложение. – В сб.: Вопросы синтаксиса русского языка. М., 1950, с. 20.
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assure, protest, object, command, admit, and others. All these words help to indicate the intonation with which the sentence was actually uttered. Direct speech is always marked by inverted commas, as any quotation is. Here is an example:
"You want your money back, I suppose," said George with a sneer.
"Of course I do – I always did, didn't I?" says Dobbin.
(Thackeray)
The most important feature of the spoken language – intonation – is indicated by different means. In the example above we have 1) graphical means: the dash after 'I do', 2) lexical: the word 'sneer', and 3) grammatical: a) morphological – different tenses of the verb to say ('said' and 'says'), b) syntactical: the disjunctive question – 'didn't I?'
Direct speech is sometimes used in the publicistic style "of language as a quotation. The introductory words in this case are usually the following: as... has it, according to..., and the like.
In the belles-lettres style direct speech is used to depict a character through his speech.
In the emotive prose of the belles-lettres style where the predominant form of utterance is narrative, direct speech is inserted to more fully depict the characters of the novel. In the other variety of the belles-lettres prose style, i.e. in plays, the predominant form of utterance is dialogue.
In spite of the various graphical and lexical ways of indicating the proper intonation of a given utterance, the subtleties of the intonation design required by the situation cannot be accurately conveyed. The richness of the human voice can only be suggested.
Direct speech can be viewed as a stylistic device only in its setting in the midst of the author's narrative or in contrast to all forms of indirect speech. Even when an author addresses the reader, we cannot classify the utterance as direct speech. Direct speech is only the speech of a character in a piece of emotive prose.
We have indirect speech when the actual words of a character, as it were, pass through the author's mouth in the course of his narrative and in this process undergo certain changes. The intonation of indirect speech is even and does not differ from the rest of the author's narrative. The graphical substitutes for the intonation give way to lexical units which describe the intonation pattern. Sometimes indirect speech takes the form of a précis in which only the main points of the actual utterance are given. Thus, for instance, in the following passage:
"Marshal asked the crowd to disperse and urged responsible diggers to prevent any disturbance which would prolong the tragic force of the rush for which the publication of inaccurate information was chiefly responsible." (Katherine Prichard)
In grammars there are rules according to which direct speech can be converted into indirect. These rules are logical in character, they merely indicate what changes must be introduced into the utterance due to change in the situation. Thus the sentence:
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"Your mother wants you to go upstairs immediately" corresponds to "Tell him to come upstairs immediately."

When direct speech is converted into indirect, the author not infrequently interprets in his own way the manner in which the direct speech was uttered, thus very often changing the emotional colouring of the whole. Hence, indirect speech may fail entirely to reproduce the actual emotional colouring of the direct speech and may distort it unrecognizably. A change of meaning is inevitable when direct speech is turned into indirect or vice versa, inasmuch as any modification of form calls forth a slight difference in meaning.
It is probably due to this fact that in order to convey more adequately the actual utterances of characters in emotive prose, a new way to represent direct speech came into being – represented speech.
Represented speech is that form of utterance which conveys the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer but retains the peculiarities of the speaker's mode of expression.
Represented speech exists in two varieties: 1) uttered represented speech and 2) unuttered or inner represented speech.