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Quotations between direct discourse and pure quotation

par De Brabanter, Philippe
Editeur scientifique Nsakala, Maurice Lengo;Bena, Jonas Makamina ;Mukengeshay, Djeh Katombe
Référence Pas à pas sur les traces d'un mentor, Mélanges en mémoire du professeur Félix Ndoma Ungina, Espérance, Paris
Publication Publié, 2023-06

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Résumé :

In this paper, I show that the boundary between two ‘varieties’ of quotation, direct discourse and pure quotation, is fuzzy in English. I start by identifying prototypical features of direct discourse and pure quotation as they emerge from the rich array of examples used in the relevant literature. This allows me to operationalise the notions ‘direct discourse’ and ‘pure quotation’ and identify typical profiles for each. Thus equipped, I consider data from both the quotation literature itself and from a personal corpus, and point up the existence of a broad range of quotations that do not fit nicely in either category, as they display composite profiles. I go on to draw some implications for two dominant views in quotation studies. The existence of intermediate cases of quotation is consistent with the predominantly formalist family of views that largely acknowledge a basic semantic and syntactic uniformity between direct and pure quotation. By contrast, it may seem to compromise the predominantly functionalist family of views that insist on the semantic and sometimes syntactic kinship between direct quotation and indirect discourse.