Abstract
Abstract In this paper our focus is on analyzing register variation within fiction, rather than between fiction and other registers. By working with subcorpora that separate text within and outside of quotation marks, we appromixate fictional speech and narration. This enables us to identify and compare linguistic features with regard to different situational contexts in the fictional world. We focus in particular on the novels of Charles Dickens and a reference corpus of other 19th-century fiction. Our main method for the register analysis is Multi-dimensional Analysis (MDA) for which we draw on altogether four dimensions from two previous MDAs. The linguistic distinctions we identify highlight similarities between fictional speech and involved registers such as face-to-face communication, and between narration and more informational and narrative prose. In addition to the detailed information on register features that characterize speech and narration, the paper raises more general questions about the ability of register studies to deal with situational contexts within fiction.
Highlights
Fiction has often been included in register studies
Through a comparison of the subcorpora based on dimension scores for individual texts, we identified register differences between speech and narration along the dimension of ‘Involved’ versus ‘Informational’ production
This dimension, Biber_D1, which previous research has shown to be robust over a large number of studies, enabled us to compare fictional speech and narration with other registers
Summary
Fiction has often been included in register studies. So far, there has been little large-scale research focused on linguistic variation and associated functions within narrative fiction, and in particular novels. While Biber and Conrad (2009: 156) only briefly touch upon the demographic change and the growth of the reading public across the 18th and 19th centuries that might have had an impact on linguistic features in the novel, Underwood (2019: xii) points out that “quantitative literary research starts with social evidence about things that really interest readers of literature – like audience, genre, character, and gender” Some of this social evidence does relate to the communicative situation and purpose of fiction that will affect linguistic choices. In his comprehensive study of register variation, Biber (1988) includes fiction and compares it to other varieties such as telephone conversations, interviews, press reportage or official documents His analysis of linguistic features indicates that fiction is a special case, where a text-internal physical and temporal situation has to be taken into account. This focus, is crucial to enable an initial comparison that can serve as a baseline for future studies
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