PROSODIC CHARACTERISTICS OF DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY REPORTED SPEECH IN SPOKEN DISCOURSE IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH AND FRENCH TV TALK SHOWS

Broadly speaking, directly reported speech and indirectly reported speech are said to be distinguished from ordinary narrative speech primarily by means of the pitch change, loudness change, as well as the change of tempo. Since the distinction between reported speech and unreported speech is not always signalled by lexical means, the only way to set apart 'quoted dialogues' from the current speaker's own talk is to use these changes on prosodic level. By way of illustration, we investigate these phenomena in conversations in English and French TV talk shows.