The dynamics of reported dialogue in narrative

Abstract

The storyline of a narrative may be advanced as much by reported dialogue as by the recital of other sorts of interaction. In reported dialogue the main functions of the formula of quotation (QF) is to tie the speech acts which consitute dialogue explicitly into the storyline, and to identify the speakers and addressees as participants within the slate of participants which characterizes the story. There is a bewildering variety of ways in which the speaker and/or addressee may be related to the speech act; these are briefly indicated. But the formal variety which is encountered is not entirely explained by the sheer need of participant identification and tracking, i.e. by simply identifying who-said-what-to-whom. Further functions are indicated. The claim is made here that mention/non-mention of speech act participants—over and beyond the textual needs of participant identification and tracking—is indexical of the intensity of participant interaction in dialogue. I attempt to substantiate this claim in reference to English, Totonac (Mesoamerica), Kagan-Kalagan (Philippines) and Biblical Hebrew (ancient Near East).