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Bilgewater: Speech & thought presentation
Task D - Our answer
As the previous sentence 'She is getting up' refers to the Principal,
we can easily infer that she is talking, even though there is no reporting
clause in the extract. The mode of presentation in S 51 is DS (all of
the deictic properties are appropriate to the Principal), but without
inverted commas. This makes the DS seem less dramatic than the DS in Task
B, which fits well with the positively polite and supportive remark she
makes. The rest of the extract is free indirect speech (FIS). The deictic
properties of the sentences are mixed. Some of them are appropriate to
the Principal (e.g. the proximal deictic verb 'come' and the distal 'far
far north'; and the evaluative lexis 'hopes' comfortable). But the pronouns
are appropriate to the 1st-person narrator and the present tense is appropriate
to both (the narration is in the present tense at this point in the passage).
The FIS mode distances us from what is said while giving it a 'flavour
of the original', which is appropriate for the representation of what
the Principal says which is effectively presented through the viewpoint
of the candidate, who is now both a character and the narrator in the
passage.
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