Abstract
This article utilizes the theory of narrative style which is interesting from both the standpoint of literary stylistics as well as from that of the theory of communication. In this framework, the relation of a narrator to a reader is the basic relationship underlying all narrative structures. According to this basic relationship a number of ways of narration are differentiated or, as Mc Hale (1978) calls them represented/reported discourse. This article endeavours a systematic analysis of the stylistic devices used in fictional writing for the representation of a character’s speech and thought. So, the present study attempts to analyze the interaction between categories of speech and thought presentation in James Joyce’s Dubliners by applying Leech and Short Model (2007). Excerpts of 2000-word length have been selected and manually tagged to have the accurate annotation keeping in mind the contextual potential to recognize discourse categories in Joyce fiction and then corpus software AntConc (Laurence Anthony, 2018) was used to get quantitative results. Since fictional texts display the tendency to move between categories of speech and thought presentation as well as between the modes within one category and its demarcation is a real challenge to the researchers. The practical part of research was done on the basis of short stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners. Special emphasis is given to variations between the two modes as well as to the instances of ambiguity created by their interplay.
Highlights
It is difficult to imagine an example of a narrative that does not contain a reference to or a quotation of someone’s speech or thoughts
In contrast to speech presentation, the direct forms of thought presentation are not the most frequent ones, these are the categories of discourse presentation which receive most attention in the literature
The establishment of category NI out of the thought presentation scale is on third number and would have two main advantages
Summary
It is difficult to imagine an example of a narrative that does not contain a reference to or a quotation of someone’s speech or thoughts. The way we perceive a story depends upon the ways discourse is presented It depends on author’s choice how s/he conveys discourse—be it speech or thought which is reported in a special way and with a specific degree of faithfulness and verbatimness to the previous discourse. At the intra-textual level, the narrator compiles the speech, thought of others by reporting the exact words or the content of what was said and giving them in a specific mode of discourse presentation. Such discourse presentation is the intrusion of the voice of one speaker or writer in the discourse of another Because of the different functions and effects that go hand in hand with the chosen mode, the narrator becomes a translator and a figure who commentates on the discourse of others
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
