Abstract
In the domain of non-direct discourse, which extends over the variety of modes of reporting, Free Indirect Discourse (FID) takes up a significant part. The formal properties of this mode, a mix of Indirect Discourse (ID) and Direct Discourse (DD) properties conveying the stance of a figure other than the narrator, have been an object of heterogeneous research since the turn of the 19th century with regard to modern European literary diction, but were looked into only sporadically and partially for Greek and Latin. Here an attempt is presented at establishing the pertinent features – grammatical, lexical, synsemantic, and text-structuring – of each of the subtypes of the Latin FID via data gleaned from historiography, epic poetry, speeches, and letters. Poorly stocked with indexicals, both referential and non-referential, and consequently relatively infrequent in Latin, this mode of reporting is counterbalanced by traditional rhetorical patterns that enable a “dual voice” in literary texts. The present delineation of framing and transitions from mode to mode, of grammatical shifts and of DD elements imported into FID, at the same time narrows down the domain of full-fledged Latin oratio obliqua.
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