The
passage below is from a popular romance novel. Lais and Peach are two
sisters who are alone on a cruise ship together, travelling from America
to France. Peach is five years old. Lais, who is in her late teens, is
meant to be looking after her. But she is more interested in having a
good time dancing in the ballroom of the ship, and so is hastily putting
Peach to bed in their cabin, before going back to the ballroom.
Using your Speech Presentation checksheet, for each
sentence, or part of a sentence, note down the mode of speech presentation
you think is used. The speech presentation modes you are looking for are
DS, FIS, IS, NRSA and NV. (Note that you may find more than one category
in some sentences.) Some sentences do not involve speech presentation
at all, and you may find it helpful to label these with 'N' for Narration.
You can compare your analyses with ours by clicking on each sentence
in turn. We have labelled each part of the text with what we think is
the relevant category by putting our analysis in square brackets immediately
before the relevant part. We have added comments, where appropriate, after
our analysis of each sentence.
Now note down why you think the author has made
the choices he or she has decided upon - i.e. assess what effect(s) those
choices have on you, the reader (e.g. in terms of manipulating your sympathies).
Then compare your thoughts with ours.
Our commentary:
The speech presentation in the passage is almost all in DS. There are
virtually no attempts to use the modulating effects of variation in
modes of speech presentation. This makes the presentation of the speech
seem simple and straightforward, and helps to bring out the perfunctory
way in which Lais is 'looking after' her younger sister (which is also
seen in what she does, or rather does not do - she does not let Peach
brush her teeth, does not give her a drink and does not find her nightie
for her).
The
one exception to the DS 'rule' in the passage is the use of FIS for
Peach's question about the whereabouts of her teddy, something which
is clearly important for her. The distancing effect produced by the
FIS form is presumably to help us see that Lais is not much interested
in the question. But this 'local' strategy seems strangely at odds with
the fact that elsewhere in the passage we are allowed to see inside
the mind of the Peach, the five-year old. Indeed, until we read Lais's
response at the end of the extract, we could be forgiven for thinking
that 'And where was Teddy?' is a question that Peach asks silently to
herself, rather than something which she says out loud. This speech/thought
ambiguity does not seem to be for any useful purpose in the passage
either. So, it looks as if this writer might not be quite in control
of the discourse presentational forms she is using.
Note how our discussion of this passage has involved us a little in
exploring the presentation of character thoughts as well as speech.
This is something we will explore a bit more in the Thought presentation
page, the last page of this overall topic.
Next:
Task B - For God's sake stop rewriting our Bible
The
one exception to the DS 'rule' in the passage is the use of FIS for
Peach's question about the whereabouts of her teddy, something which
is clearly important for her. The distancing effect produced by the
FIS form is presumably to help us see that Lais is not much interested
in the question. But this 'local' strategy seems strangely at odds with
the fact that elsewhere in the passage we are allowed to see inside
the mind of the Peach, the five-year old. Indeed, until we read Lais's
response at the end of the extract, we could be forgiven for thinking
that 'And where was Teddy?' is a question that Peach asks silently to
herself, rather than something which she says out loud. This speech/thought
ambiguity does not seem to be for any useful purpose in the passage
either. So, it looks as if this writer might not be quite in control
of the discourse presentational forms she is using.