PDF Download, 1114 KB

N i c h o l o s B r o w n l e e s( e d . )
News Discoursein
EorlyModernBritoin
S e l e c t e dP o p e r so f C H I N E D 2 O O 4
Offprint
PETE RLA NG
B e r n ' B e r l i n' B r u x e l l e s .F r o n k f u r t o mM o i n . N e w Y o r k . O x f o r d. W i e n
r s B N3 - 0 3 9 1 0 - 8 0 5 - 0
u s- r s B N0- 8204- 8 0 2 5 -8
O P e t e r L o n g A G , I n t e r n q t i o n o l A c o d e m i c P u b l i s h e r s ,B e r n 2 0 0 6
H o c h f e f d s t r o s s e3 2 , P o s t f o c h 7 4 6 , C H - 3 0 0 0 B e r n 9 , S w i t z e r l q n d
i n f o @ p e t e r l o n g . c o mw, w w . p e t e r l o n g . c o m w
, ww.peterlong.net
Aronens H. Jt.crEn
"but 'tis believedthat
: Speechand
ThoughtPresentationin Early EnglishNewspapers
1. Introductionl
(l)
Our Advices from Warsawsay,that theCzar haspromisedthe King of Poland,
not only to maintainthe Saxonand other Forceshe shalltake into his Service
in orderto prosecutcthe War againstSwedcn,but alsoto sendto his assistance
a g o o db o d y o f H o r s c ;b u t ' t i s b e l i e v e dt h a tt h c N o b i l i t yo f P o l a n dw i l l o b l i g e
thern to put an end to thc War. which is apparcntlyfornentedby the French
Court. to prevent the sevcral Princesengagedthcrein, fiom taking part with
the EmperoragainstFranceand Spain.( 1701ept00072)
(l)
.lessie'sagcntLucy Braziersaid last night:
( 2 0 0 . 1 s u n 0 8 0) 9
(3)
"this is nonscnse"but Davies could not
It is thought Erikssontold Davies
conflnn that to investigatinglawyer PeterNorbury. (2004sun0809)
"lt was touchand go."
In extract( 1) from TheEnglish Post of 1701the readeris informed of
events in Russia and Poland,2but the author does not report these
I
2
My thanksgo to the audienceof the Conferenceon HistoricalNcws Discourse
(CHINED) fbr useful f-eedback
and to Barb Breustedt.Anja Janoschkaand
Patrick Studerfbr a very careful reading of a drafi version of this paper.The
usualdisclaiuersappty.
The ref-erences
of the cxtractsfrom the early ncwspapersfollow the file natnes
of the ZEN corpus.The first four digits indicatcthe year of publication.The
follon,ing three charactcrsabbreviatethe title of the newspaperaccordingto
thc list given in the appendix.The remainingdigitsrcfer to the individualfile.
are given in the same fotmat.
Refbrcncesto the modern onlinc ne\Ä,spapers
exccptthat the last fbur digits give the month and the day of the publication
datc of the individual newspapcr.Sourcesare abbreviatcdas follows: cui :
C l u n ' c n It n t e l l i g e n c e i ' d p: t T h e D a i l y P o s t / e p t: T h e E n g l i s hP o s t / e v m:
Er ening Mai\ i \gz : London Gaz-ette/pu\ : The Pub\ic Lcdger i ind : The lndcpcndcnr.Online Editionisun : The Sun Online.
t06
Andrea.sH. .Juc'ker
events directly, he first refers to letters, or 'oadvices"from Warsaw
which report on promisesmade by the Czar to the King of Poland in
order to enlist them for his purposes.Then the author refers to public
opinion("but 'tis believedthat ...") to reportthatthe nobility of Poland
apparentlydoes not oblige to the Czar's wishes. In many ways this
form of indirect reporting is typical of newspapersin the late seventeenthand in the eighteenthcentury.
Extracts(2) and (3) are more typical of a modern newspaper,a
down-marketnewspaperin this case.The newspaperreportsutterances
of a newsmaker,or of a representativeof a newsmaker.The readeris
given a soundbite. However,extract(3) also showsthat the distancing
style of TheEveningPost from l70I still persists.Here the main content
of the sentenceis also attributedto an anonymoussource.
In fact we are dealing here with two different but related
phenomena.On the one hand, we can see that newspapersrely on
different sourcesfor their information, and they refer to thesesources
to authenticatethe information. On the other hand, newspapersquote
statementsand utterancesfrom important peoplebecausethe utterance
itself is a newsworthy event. In one casethe interest focuseson the
reported information, in the other it focusesnot only on the content
but also, and perhapsprimarily, on the speechevent.The two phenomena are,of course,closely related.In both caseswe are dealingwith
reported speech,and theoretically the same linguistic means can be
employedto indicate speechreporting.
In this paperI want to explorethe forms and functionsof speech
reporting in newspapersfrom the late seventeenthand the eighteenth
century.This covers the formative years of the developmentof daily
newspapers,and it coversthe scopeof the ZEN corpus,i.e. the Zurich
EnglishNewspapercorpus(seeFries1994,1997,Fries/Schneider
2000
for details).In addition I will contrastthesefindings with someobservations of current usagebasedon a small corpusof British online newspapers.
Spaet'lt utttl Th oughl P resenttttiort
107
2. Reportedspeechand talking heads
They can be criticized,
Uttcrancescan be madethe subjcctof otherutterances.
questioncd,commentedon, or simply be reported.Languagecan be usedto
ref-ertolanguage.We can talk abouttalk.This is true of all naturallanguages
and is. indecd,a fundamentalfeaturcwhose absencedisqualifiesany sign
as a hurnanlanguage.(Coulmas1986:2)
syster.n
The term "reported speech" is here used as a cover term of direct
speech,indirect speech,and for the narrativereporting of speechacts.
This classificationis basedon the model of Speechand ThoughtPresentationdevelopedby Leech and Short (1981:ch 10). ft is usefully
summarizedin Shortet al. (1996; for categorydefinitions and appropriate examplessee I 16ff.; seealso Seminoet al. l99l and Shortet al.
1999).
Extracts(2) aboveand (4) give examplesof direct speech,which
is characterisedby a reporting clause(Jessie'sagent Lucy Brazier sctid
last night and he said) and by inverted commas.
(4 )
"The flrst thing, of course,is the saf-etyof the creq but I am surein due course
qucstionswill bc askedaboutwhat happened,"he said.(2004ind0809)
Extracts(5) and (6) give examplesof indirectspeech,which is characterisedby a reporting clause(a spokesmanforthe I',lationalTrustsaid
andFA executivedirector David Davies claims), the lack of inverted
commas,and tenseconcord (in (5) both the reporting clauseand the
reportedclauseare in past tense,and in (6) both are in presenttense).
Extract (6) also shows a deictic adjustment.The quoted speakeris
referredto as he in the reportedclause,where in the original sentence
he would have used the first person pronoun I. In many casesthe
reportedclauseis introducedby the subordinatorthat (or a small number
of other subordinators,such as what, ,f o, whether). In my data of
early newspapersalmost three quarters of all instancesof indirect
speechwere introducedby a subordinatorwhile in my dataof modern
online newspapersonly a third of all instancesof indirect speechwere
introducedby a subordinator.
r08
lnclreu.sH. Jut'ker
(,s)
Last night, a spokesmanfor the National Trust said the future of the fbrest,
which attracts250,000visitorsa yearandcontains850 ancienttrees,including
pollardedhornbeamsand oaks,was too importantto ignorc.(2004ind0809)
(6)
FA executivedirectorDavid Daviesclaims he cannotremembcrthc prccise
words Sven used when quizzedabout Faria Alam. (2004sun0809)
In many casesparts of direct speechare insertedinto indirect speech,
as in extract(3) aboveor in extract(7).
(7)
Mr Gornall said fellow crew were "very gratefulto be alive" aftcr thc tcrrifying
cxpcrienceand were philosophicalaboutthe failed mission.(2004indO809)
The words "this is nonsense"in (3) and "very grateful to be alive" are
claimedto be verbatim quotationswhile the rest of the reportedclause
indicatesthe propositional content but not the actual wording of the
originalutterances.
Collins (2001: l3 -14) callssuchmixed formatsof
direct and indirect speechcasesof "slipping".
Extracts(8) and (9), finally, areexamplesof a narrativereporting
of a speechact. In these casesthe original wording of the reported
speechact is only alluded to. We hear of an "allegation about lack of
action in the bedroom", but we are not given the precisewording of
this allegation,and we learnthat Nancy "spoke [. . .] abouther passionate love life with Sven", but we are againnot told the precisewording.
(8)
Faria'sallegationaboutlack of actionin the bedroomis likely to be the rnost
hurtful for lawyer Nancy.who pridesherselfon her sexy image.(2004sun0809)
(e)
Shortly befbre the FA sex scandalbroke Nancy spoke on TV about her
passionatclove lif-ewith Sven.(2004sun0809)
Leechand Short'smodel, which was developedto accountfor reported
speechin fictional texts, is more complex. It also accountsfor "free
direct speech"and "free indirect speech",which, as the namesimply,
are freer forms of direct and indirect speech.Free direct speechlacks
either the reporting clauseor the inverted commas,while free indirect
speechlacksthe reportingclausebut showsthe sameconcordof tenses
and the samedeictic choicesas indirect speech.For the purposesof
the dataunderanalysisin this paper,the categories"free direct speech"
and "free indirect speech"were not needed.
109
Speet'h und Thougltt Preserttation
The different modes of reportedspeechdiffer in terms of their
faithfulnessclaims.With direct speechthe writer atteststo the accuracy
both of the propositional content and of the actual wording of the
reported speechand thereforealso to the accuracyof the speechact
value. In the caseof indirect speechthe writer does not attestto the
accuracy of the actual wording but only to the accuracy of the
propositionalcontent and the speechact value. And in the caseof the
narrativereporting of a speechact the writer attestsonly to the accuracy
of the speechact value.This is summarisedin Table l.
i,:,,:,uo1',"rr-*a *ncl,
oi,".,rp"..n
Narrativerepresentation
o f s p e c c ha c t
sp"trt, *,
,
v ttl u e _ l
o"a
P,"l"n,*,,rr,,tl-Wo'ni,
stt' ucture
c ontent _
'#- --l -#"'-1"'*-l
)
s
l
v
.
t
N
o
]
fyes
Yes
No
^o
No
No
i
Tablc l. Faithtulnessclaims in threediffcrentforms of reportedspeech.
Short/Wynne/Semino(1999: 55) statesthat in a corpus of modern
British newspapersspeechreports are actually more frequent than
reports of actions and descriptions.Broadsheetnewspapers,such as
The Independentor The Times,rely mostly on indirect speechand
narrative reports of speechacts, while tabloid newspapers,such as
TheSun or the Daily Mirror,rely more on direct speechand free direct
speech.He also reports that instancesof direct speechwere by and
largeaccurate.
"both a universal
Collins (2001: I ) claimsthat reportedspeechis
of the language capacity and a pervasive phenomenonin ordinary
languageuse." Peoplereport what other people have said, and every
languagehas some means, usually Severaldifferent ones' to report
He pointsout that how(representor evoke)actualor fictive messages.
the original utterance,
to
imitate
is
meant
speech
reported
ever closely
from the original.
extent
it is always an imitation that deviatesto some
It is meant to evoke a mental image. Collins (2001: 10-16) argues
strongly againsta purely syntacticanalysisofreported speech.Different
modes of reporting form a scale. In many casesinstancesof direct
l
il0
Artdreu.sH. Jucker
speechandindirectspeechcannotbe distinguishedifthere areno deictic
elements.
colette Moore (2002) investigated reported speech in Early
Modern slanderdepositions.Thesedocumentswere largely written in
Latin, but the alleged slanderousutterancewas given in its original
English wording, that is the switch to reported speechwas also a
switch from Latin to English. She also reports some very interesting
casesof a conflation of direct and indirect speechin which deictic
elementswere given both in the form appropriatefor direct and for
indirectspeech,as in "Thou or he [...] didst or did pisseor makewater
in the widdowe Tylles backside, and thou didst shewe me or he
did sheweme (the said GeorgeBaily) thy pricke or his pricke [...]"
(Moore 2002: 409).
Allan Bell (1991: 205) investigatedreportedspeechin media
language.He is interestedin the functions of reported speechor of
"talking heads"
and their functionsin the different massmedia channels.
o
o
o
o
o
Film and voice of newsmaker(television)
Voice of newsmaker(radio)
Direct quotation of newsmaker(press)
Indirect speechof newsmaker
Unattributedembeddingof newsmakercontent
The first three are variationsof direct quotationsconditionedby the
technologyof the medium. Radio includesnot only verbatim content
but also intonationand voice quality.Televisionin additionalso includes
gesturesand facial expression.Bell postulatesthe following three
functionsof the use of direct speechin the massmedia (Bell 1991:
207-209):
e Newsmaker'sown words as incontrovertiblefact
. Distanceand disown, to absolvejournalists from endorsement
o Add the flavor of the newsmaker'sown words
with indirect speechthe journalist is in control of focusing the story.
He/she can combine information and wordings from differentpartsof
an interview. Bell is talking of modern news media.In early newspapers
the situation is different.
lll
Speech und Thought Presentation
3. Data
The current study focuseson the formative yearsof the English newspapersin the late seventeenthand the eighteenthcentury.At the end of
the seventeenthcentury newspapercensorshipwas abandoned,and
the end of the eighteenthwas in many respectsa turning point for
Englishnewspapers(seeFries 2003).It is alsothe periodthat is covered
by the ZEN corpus (the Zvich English Newspaper corpus), which
was usedas a database(seeFries 1994, 1997,2003,Fries/Schneider
2000, auf dem Keller 2004: 34-40). For the current project text'
s a m p l e sf r o m 1 6 7 1 , 1 7 0 I , 1 7 3 1 , 1 7 6 la n d 1 1 9 1h a v eb e e nc o l l e c t e d
and analysedmanually. In addition a small referencecorpus of two
online newspapersfrom 2004 has also been compiled. Table 2 gives
an overview of the corpus size.
Nttmber o.fv'ords
l'eur
Nev'spaper
1 6 7|
Current Intelligence
Lortdon Ga:ette
2558
2265
17 0 1
The Engli.shPost
London Ga:ette
2372
1947
r73l
The Dailv Post
London Gazette
t 76 l
The Public Ledger
Lonclon Ga:ette
1791
Everting Mail
2004
The Online Sun
The I nclependent,Online Eclitiott
T-
4t77
652
1__
--l
3016
2494
_l
l 2003
1967
2803
T a b l eL S i z co f c o r p u ss a m P l e s . r
The historicalnewspaperswere searchedcomprehensively,though advertisctexts'
mentsand sectionsthat consistedonly of lists or largely standardised
such as lost-and-found.announcementsof births, deathsand weddings wcre
o1-ritted.The rnodcrn online newspaperswere searchedless systematically.
Generallylongerarticlesfrom the home newssectionwere selcctedfbr inclusion in the corpus.
n2
Andrea.sH. Juc'ker
4. Dimension
For early English newspapersa distinction must be made between
reported speechthat was used to authenticatethe trustworthinessof
the reportedeventsand reportedspeechthat reproduceda newsworthy
utteranceof a newsmaker,such as an announcementby the Pope, a
statementby a king, or an order issuedby a military leader.As I will
point out below this is a distinctionthat would be difficult to maintain
for modern newspapers,but for the early English newspapersunder
investigationthere is a clear distinction betweenthesetwo types.
4.I . Authenticatingspeechreports
In the following examplesthe newspapersusereportedspeechto relate
someevents.The newsworthycontentis carriedin the reportedspeech
while the reporting clausegives the sourceof the information and thus
authenticates
the informationitself.In (10), the sourceof the information is in lettersfrom Milan, while in ( I I ) the information is attributed
to shipsthat havearrived from Constantinople.Both are indicationsof
the ways in which news travelled in the seventeenthand eighteenth
century.In ( 12) the information is attributeddirectly to an unspecified
sourceat the placeof origin ofthe news:"They write from Cadiz[...]"
Extract ( 13) is particularly interestingbecausehere the information is
attributedto unspecifiedsources'"and 'tis said,[...]" The readerdoes
not learnwho said so. It may be public opinion or rumours,or it may
be a single informant who passedon the information.
(f 0;
Our Letters /iom Milan ^ed_r',
that the Prince of Vaudemont,and Count Tesse
t h e F r e n c hG e n e r a l .a r e a b o u t m a k i n g a L i n c o f F o r t i f i c a t i o nr o u n d t h a t
Principalityfbr its betterSecurity,thatthe FrenchForceswhich latelyLandcd
at Final,are put into Quartersof Refrcshment,and that most o1-thernwill be
postcdnear Cremona.a Frontier towards the VenetianTerritories.
(l70lept0005l)
(ll;
Tltree.ship.;urriv'edot Rngusct.from
Constantinoplenffinn, that lie has takcn
the way of Sophia.and dcsignsLlpon Poland;otheradvicesinform. that he is
113
Speec'h u nd Tltougltt Preserttatiort
gonefbr Belgradeto makesomeattemptupon Hungary,to which the applications of the discontentedparty there may have invited hirn; but to rvhat
placesoeverhe intends.his principalaim is saidto be eitherby enteringupon
fiesh action. to give some employmentto the Ottoman fbrces.which [....]
(167lisz005l8)
il2)
Tha.rwt'ite.fiontCudi- thut 25 French Men of War were expectedin that Bay,
wlrich. 'tis said. will be ernployedin raisingthe Siegeof Ceuta,but it seents
probable.that they are to continueat Cadiz,upon a more ImportantDesign.
( 17 0 1e p t 0 0 0 5I )
( 1 3 ) Six new Frigatsare building at Toulon,antl 'tissaitl, orderswill be given out
fbr building othcrsin other Porls,the King havingset up a resolutionto seem
Sornc-bodn
y o w a t S e a .( 1 6 7 1 c u i 0 0 0 0 3 )
Table 3 gives an overview of the frequency of the different types of
authenticating
speechactsin the samplecorpusof earlyEnglishnewspapersused for this srudy.
Tt'pa t tl u tt t lt ctt I i c'ttt i tt g speech ctct
Unidentified
Frequettc:1,
56
Perc'ettt
4(t"Ä
Frorn [place]
20ol'
Lettersfiorn
220
Letters
40Ä
tsoat 6
Nc'uvsactori repofier
2%
Tablc 3. Difierenttypesof authenticating
speechactsin carly Englishnewspapers.
The category"unidentified", which comprisesalmost half of all the
examples,refersto casessuch as extract(13) above,which attribute
"From
the information to an unnamed source.The category
[place]"
refersto examplessuch as (12), where the information is attributedto
"Lettersfrom
a specificplacewithout mentioningletters.The category
fplace]" refersonly to examplesin which both lettersand the place of
"Boat"
origin of theselettersare mentioned,as in (10). The category
is usedfor all casesin which shipsor boatsarementionedasthe source
of the information irrespectiveof whetherthe placeof departureof the
"News actor/reporter" is very rare
boat is given or not. The category
114
{nclreus H. Jucker
becausegenerallynews actorsare only quotedwhen the quotedspeech
act itself is at the centre of interest(see next section),but it is not
always easyto decidebetweenthe categoriesin this case.
4.2. Reporting o/'newsworthyspeechacts
In the following extractsthe centreof interestshifts from the reported
informationto the fact that the speechact was madeitself.It is probably
newsworthy that the King will assistHolland and Denmark but what
makesthe news is the fact that the King has made a declarationto this
effect(extract( 14)).In extracts(15) and (16) the readerlearnsof orders
that havebeengiven.
(14)
The Kittg ha.sclet'loredthat he will assistHolland and Denmzrrkagainstany
whorlsoer,'er
that shall rnakeWar aqainstthem. (1671cui00003)
(l,s)
TlteStute.s
likewisegave ordersto their strand-master,
who is the properofficer
on thatoccasion.to intcrposein hoistingDutchcolourson board,and in saving
the wreck; but it was too late, for bcforc thcsc ordcrs could be executed,she
was on fire, and consurnedto the low watermark,which as shc keclcd.was on
crneside destroyedto nearthe keel. (1761pu100334)
(16)
All the Military Officersure orderedto be with their respectiveRegimentsby
the 25tr'of March next,and all the Captainsto havetheir Cornpanies
compleat
by that Tirne.under Pain of being cashiered.(1731192.06949)
Table 4 gives an overview of the sourcesthat are mentioned in this
type of reportedspeech.
Sou rce,s
Frequenc.t,
Percent
Uniclentifled
Ncw'smakcrs
Table 4. Difl-erenttypes of sourcesin the reporting of newsworthy speechacts in
carly Englishnew,spapers.
Speer'lt artd Tltottgltl Pre.senttttiott
ll5
Newsmakersarepeoplelike the Popeor the King, who arethe makers
of the news. Their announcementsand declarationsare newsworthy
eventsin themselves,asin extract(14). Sometimesnewsworthyspeech
acts are attributedto unnamedofficials as in ( l5), which mentions
"the
states"as the origin of someordersthat were given. And in ( l6)
ordersarereportedwithout giving a sourceofthese orders.The implied
origin is, of course,thosein commandover the officerswho received
the order.
"reporting newsworthyspeechacts" I also
Under the headingof
include casesthat havebeencalled "narrativereportingof speechact"
by Shorret al. (1999; seesection2 above).In thesecasesthe newspaper
reportsa speechact that was madeby a newsmaker,while the content
of the original speechact is no more than alludedto. The speechact
verb itself gives sufficient indication of its contents,and it is more
important to learn who made the speechact and to whom.
( 1 7 ) Thc Popc l"tas.sttntmonedthe Bishop of Saluzzo, who was fbrmerly his
to come to Rome.and hasmadethe Abbot Conteria Nativeof this
Conf.essor.
C'ity,Secretaryto the Collegeof Cardinals.( I 701cpt0005I )
( 1 8 ) The [-ord Raby who is going te t'ongrtrtulcttethe King of Prussiaon his
C'oronation.and thc House of Hannover upon Nomination to the Succession of thc Clrownof England,will set out hencenext Week fbr his Journey.
(1701ept00072)
In ( l7) the Popesummoneda Bishop and in ( l8) the Lord Raby congratulatedthe King of Prussia.The readerdoesnot need to know the
precisewording or a more extensiveparaphrase.
The speechact verbs
"to summon" and "to congratulate"are informative enough.
5. Reportingverbs
In the earlyEnglishnewspapers
ofmy corpusa wide varietyof reporting
verbs are used to introduce reported speech,as can be seenfrom the
following examples.
4rtdreusH. Jucker'
116
(l e )
Lcttcrs from Stockholm .sa,r'.
an Expresswas come thither over Land from
Lir,'onia.who brings a Confirmationof the King of Swcdcn'sVictory, and
udcl.s.
thar'tis computedthat the Muscoviteshavc lost above40000 Men in
their late Expeditionin Livonia,as well in thc AttacksagainstNarva,as in the
l a t e R o u t o f t h e i r A r m y b e f b r et h a t P l a c c .( 1 7 0 1 1 9 2 0 3 6 6 8 )
( 2 0)
By a Ship arrived at Bristol from St. Christopher'sthere is Advic'e.that thc
John of London; Capt. Wcst. was safely arrived at the said Island.after forty
D a y s P a s s a g e( .1 7 3l d p t 0 3 5 2 7 )
( 2 1)
'l-ht,.t'
tt'r'ite./i'onCudi: thut 25 Frcnch Mcn of War were expectedin that Bay.
'tissuid.
which.
w i l l b e e m p l o y e di n r a i s i n gt h e S i e g eo f C e u t a .b u t i t s e e m s
probable.that they are to continue at Cadiz, upon a more Impor-tantDesign.
(1701ept00051)
(2 2 )
Since his Gracc thc Lord Lieutenanthas been drawn so f-arhence fbr the
'ris
thoLrghthe willyet go farthcr
reducernentof thc Garrisonof Garickfergus,
to Derry, and from thencc fctch a circuit by Galloway befbre his return to
D u b fi n . ( l 6 l l c u i 0 0 0 0 3 )
Table5 showsthe reportingverbsthat areusedin authenticatingspeech
acts.
Slteet'lt reprtrtittz verb.s
Frequenc'.t
Pert'ent
Sar'
Nominirl
Ht'tlt'
,4dvi.se
Believc
Llf ite
Tltittk
Tell
Leut'tt
/ s.sure
4
Retrtot'l
.J
O t h c r s : u c ' q u u i r t t ,udd. uf/irm, be t'ertuirt^
( o n r p l t I e . t ' o r t f i r m , irtlbrm, make us believe.
n t e n I r o t l. . \ u p p o . \ e . tuke rtoti c'e, untle rstund
l8
Total
speechactsin carly EnglishnewsTable5. Spccchrcporlingverbs in authenticating
papcrs.
Speec lt u ttd Thougltt Pre.sentcttiort
nl
"Nominal" refers to casesin which the reportedspeech
The category
"advice"
is not introducedthrough a verb but through a noun such as
as in (20) or "reports". Apart from this nominal category,say andhear
are the most frequently used verbs. Together they comprise 50 per
cent of all the authenticatingspeechacts,and none of the other verbs
comprise more than ten percent.In Section 7, however, I will show
that my sample of Modern English newspapersrelies on even fewer
verbs.The verb say is ubiquitouswhile the diversity of other reporting
verbs has decreasedsharply.
It is noteworthy in this list of reporting verbs that there are no
counterfactualverbs llke claim, which would indicate the reporter's
explicit distancingfrom the contentof the reportedspeech.If a reporter
"reports say" or "we aretold", the stancetowardsthe
usesphraseslike
reportedeventsis neutral. The reporterhas only hearsayevidencefor
the events, but he does not indic ate any doubts that the events are
"we areassured
reportedaccurately.If the reporterusesexpressionslike
"it appearsthat",,the distancemay be somewhatbigger, but
that" or
there is still no explicit doubt that the reportsare accurate.However, if
"claim", the reporter
reportedspeechwere introducedby a verb suchas
would expresssome considerabledoubt as to the accuracyof the
reported events.The only possible example of such a counterfactual
"make us believe", which occurs in the
reporting verb is the phrase
D a i l y P o s to f 1 7 3 1 .
(13)
PrivateLettersfiorn the Frontiersof the FrenchNetherlandstake Notice.thal
the Frencharestoringthe Magazinesof the Fortify'd Placesbelongingto them
thereaboutsrvith all possibleDiligence.Others fion'r Paris x'ould make us
arecarryingon at Brestand Toulon for the Equiprnent
hclieye.that Preparations
of a large Squadron.( 1731dpt03649)
In this casethe authorseemsto be distancinghimself from the contents
of the letters from Paris, which apparentlyare less trustworthy than
the private lettersfrom the Netherlands.
I ltt
Andreus H. Jucker
6. Thought presentationin early newspapers
It might be expectedthat thought presentationdoes not occur in
newspaperreportsin contrastto fiction wherethe authorhasprivileged
accessto the thoughtsof the characters,
but as Short/Wynne/Semino
(1999: 46) point out, thought presentationsdo occur in newspaper
reports,and indeedthey arequite numerousin my dataof earlyEnglish
newspapers.
(211
'li.s
The StatesConvoy for Constantinoplc, thought.will bc going hcncc thc
(
1Oth of next month. | 67 I cui00003)
(2,s;
Tis helieverlthat a Convoy will be suddenlyfitted up and sent away for thc
L e v a n t .a n d a n o t h e rf o r S p a i na n d P o r t u g a l(.l 6 7 l l g z 0 0 5 l 8 )
(26)
and nonc of thc vacantOfficcs or Placcswill be disposedof till his An'ival
'ti.s
hcrc.whoscPrcscncc, .suppos'rl.
will allaytheprivateDiscontents
of several
r,l
of thc Grandccs. ho cannot but rnake Melancholy Reflectionsupon the
conditionthis wise andpotentNation is like to be recluced
to, by the Treachery
of a f-ew'FrenchPaftisans:( I 701ept0005
I)
(21)
IIc tltoughtthc Ilouse shouldbe every day summoned.in orderthat a proper
(1791evrn00327)
and full attcndancernight be the consequence.
Theseexamplesshow that we are not dealingwith inner thoughtprocessesthat arenot accessibleto the outsideworld, but in quotationsQa)
to (26) the reportedspeechrelatesnot facts but conjecturesabout the
future.Thus the verbs"think", "believe" and "suppose"hereintroduce
attributedor unattributedopinionsaboutcoming events.In extract(27)
we are given the expressedopinion of an individual Member of Parliament who talks neitherabout factsnor about conjecturesfor the future
but of his desiresand wishes.He wants parliamentto conveneevery
day for meetings.
I19
Speeclt tttttl Thought Pre.serttcttittrt
7. Modern newspapers
In order to get a contrastingpicfure of modern newspapers,a small
corpusof online newspaperswas investigated(August 2004). In spite
of its limited size it alreadyindicatesvery clear and interestingdifferencesto early newspapers.It opensup, I believe,a rangeof fascinating
researchquestionsthat could be tackledin a more comprehensiveway.
The siruation in modern English newspapersis very different
from the early English newspapersinvestigatedabove.First of all there
is a pervasiveuse of direct speech.In fact, in the samplecorpusof The
Sunthereare 9.15 instancesof direct speechper 1000 words and in
the samplecorpusof TheIndependent7 .49 instances.The findings of
Shortet al. (1999:55) that up-marketnewspapersrely more on indirect
speechand narrativerepresentationsof speechacts,while down-market
newspapersrely more on direct speechseemto be confirmed in my
data,butthe databaseis not largeenoughto yield statisticallysignificant
differences.
,\ev'.strtuper
Direc't
Indirect
speeclt
.speec'h
Tlte Ortlitte Surt
The Irtdepenclertt,
Ottlirtc Editiotr
7.49
Mired
5.08
2 . 0 3-t]]l I
8.92
/..t+
1 t t
i
|
1.53
r
t r
/..t+
Tablc 6. Difftrent types of reportedspeechin modern English newspapers.
Secondly,the distinction introducedabove between authenticating
speechrepresentationsand the reporting of newsworthy speechacts
can only usefully be applied to early newspapers.For modern newspapersthe distinction is mostly blurred. In extract(28), for instance,it
does not make senseto talk of a newsworthy speechact made by an
importantnewsmaker.Neither doesit make senseto talk of authenticating speechreporting. The reportedspeechdoesnot relate any events
that need to be validated. It expressesan evaluationof the situation.
The function is to relate attestedopinions.
120
(2tt)
Artclreu.sH. Juc'ker
lrt onlookai'said:"He lookedvery concerned."(2004sun0i109)
Modern newspapersoften use a mixed format of reportedspeech,that
is to say a direct quotationconsistingof one or more words in inverted
commasis insertedinto what is technicallyindirectspeech(seeSection
2 above).Extracts (29) and (30) are relevantexamples.
"effing cow".
(29)
Barbara,66, w,asfuming over his clairnsthatJessiccallcdher an
(2004sun0809)
(30)
Mr Gornall said f'ellowcrew were "very gratefulto be alive" afterthe terrifying
experienceand were philosophicalaboutthe fäiled mission.(2004ind0809)
Finally, modern newspapersdiffer from early newspapersin the vast
range of sourcesthat are quoted directly or indirectly. In addition to
the newsmakersthemselvesa broadrangeof peoplemore or lessclosely
associatedwith a newsmakeror with a reportedeventare given a voice
In extract(3 I ), FariaAlam andNancy Dell'Olio
in modernnewspapers.
"love rivals"
"newsmakers"
areboth
of the story.They areportrayedas
who are both said to have had affairs with the England soccercoach
Sven Goran Eriksson. The story is about them and their comments
who
abouteachother.In (32) TheSun quotesan official spokesperson
production
team
speakson behalf of an organisation,in this casethe
"friend" of a
of a famous English TV soap. In (33) an unnamed
newsmakeris quoted.
( 3 1 ) In explosiveintcrvicu,swith two Sundaynewspaperc,
Furiu said of Nancy:
"Not only doesshelook like a dragqueen,shehas latchedon to sornconewhcr
clearly docs not love her." (2004sun0809)
( 3 2 ; An EastEnder.sspokesx'ornensaid last night: "Jessieneedsto rest. Both cast
and crew sendbestwishesfbr a spcedyrecovery."(2004sun0809)
( 3 3)
15, said:"She will obviously be very hurt by what has
..1t'lose/i'iend o.f'triunc'),,
been said.What woman wouldn't'1"(2004sun0809)
Modern newspapersalso quote other sources,such as institutions or
anonymousgroupsof like-mindedpeopleas in (34) and (35). In (36)
a personis quotedwho is neithera newsmakernor in any way connected with a newsmaker,but he may be seenas a representativeof an
Speeclt uttcl Thougltt Presetttatiort
t21
anonymousgroup of people- in this casepeople directly affectedby
developmentsin Frenchtourism.
(34)
Tltetru,\tsaidthatwoodlandwas an increasinglyprecious"greenlung" ln one
o { ' t h e f ä s t e s t - d e v e l o p i nagr e a si n t h e c o u n t r y ." N o i s e a n d p o l l u t i o n w i l l
significantlycomprorniseits ability to perfbrmthis role." (2004ind0809)
(3 5 )
Ettyinttrmerttali.st.s
havelong arguedthatthe rise in air pollutionwould endanger
one of the bestexamplesof a "medievalhuntingforest"anywherein Europe.
(2004ind0809)
(36t
SergeLufitte, a hotelier v'ho nttt.sthe upntarketDomaittede I'Enc'lctsat Gonles
in tha Luhörcn,said:"About 5 per cent of my visitorsare Amencan,against
35 per cent in 2001. This year I have had to reducc room prices by €40."
(2 0 0 4 r n d O 8 0 9 )
Newspapersalso quote the proverbial man or woman in the street.In
extract (37) TheIndependen/ quotesan unnamed"tourist".
(37)
Arnericansattractedby the commemorationsin Juneof the 60th anniversary
"terror-fatiguc"of D-Day - bolstered.as one touristput it, by a dcgrceof
havc raiscdarrivalsfrom thc US by 13.5pcrcent in the first half of this year
comparedwith the sameperiod in 2003.Today'sParishotelstatisticsfor June
and July are expectedto confirm the trend.(2004ind0809)
However, some of the old strategiesstill persist.In extract(38) The
Independent quotes "reports", which are reminiscent of the letters
quoted by the early English newspapers.And extracts(39) and (a0)
report unidentified sourcesby the phrases"She was believed" and
"He was said".
(38)
R e p o r t . sl u . s tv ' e e k a l s o s a i d t h a t f - i v e a l - Q a ' i d a m i l i t a n t s w c r c o n t h c r u n a f i c r
cscaping capturc in last Tuesday's raids. (2004ind0809)
(391
S/rcrlri.shelieveclto be holidayingwith Rornebusinessrnan
Silvio Anibali,46,
who has been at her side since she left the UK after splitting with Sven.
( 2 0 0 4 s u n 0 8 0)9
(40)
An ullegetlsenior British al-Qa'ida agent,Abu Eisa al-tlindi. is repnrtetlly
arrong thoscdctaincd.He v'as .sttidto havc bccn involvcd in a plot to attack
I lcathror.'r,
airport. detailsof which wcrc ttllegerl/r,discovcrcdon thc computcr
of MoharnmcdNaecrnNoor Khan, 25, an al-Qa'idasuspectrecentlyarrested
i n P a k i s t a n(.2 0 0 4 i n d 0 8 0 9 )
122
ArtdreosH. Juc:ker
Table 7 gives a breakdown of the sourcesthat are quoted by modern
English newspapers.Newsmakersmake up the largestgroup with 41
per cent, followed by spokespersonswith 2l per cent. The other
categoriesall compriseroughly ten per cent each.
Sources
4t%
Newsmaker
Spokespcrson
Representativeof an anonymousgrollp
Unrdentified
Othcrs
Institutions
8
801,
Tablc7. Diffcrcnttypesof sourcesin reportedspeechin modem Englishncwspapers.
As pointed out above, in my small sample of modern English
newspapers,only a very small range of speechact verbs is attestedin
contrastto the considerablybigger diversity of speechact verbs in the
"say" is the most frequentone in
early English newspapers.The verb
both the early and the modern papers' but its percentagehas risen
from 25 per cent to 55 per cent. Table 8 lists all speechact verbs that
comprisethree or more per cent of all instancesof reportedspeech.
Speet'h reporting
vcrb
Fretluettc.t'
.5ar'
57
.4dd
5
Perc'ettt
55"
Tell
Adntit
,1t'sue
C.luint
I tt.si.gt
Others
Table8. Speechreportingverbsin modernEnglishnewspapers.
3ol'
Slttt't'h u tr([ Tlt( )tt.qltI Pt'c'.tt'ttItt I i t ttt
123
It is striking that more than half of all instancesare madeup by "say",
a quarter is made up by just six verbs with percentagesfrom three to
five per cent and the last quarter is made up by verbs that occur only
onceor twice in my data.Obviously alargercorpuswould revealmany
differences in detail to this picture, but it is unlikely that it would
"say" as a speechreporting
challengethe singularposition of the verb
verb.
8. Conclusion
In early English newspapersreportedspeechwas usedfor two distinct
purposes.On the one hand,it was usedto authenticatethe trustworthinessof information. The reportedeventswere signalledto be reports
"'tis
from correspondents
or reportsof public opinion ("'tis saidthat",
believedthat" and so on). And on the other hand,newspapersreported
important utterancesmade by newsmakerssuch as the Pope,kings or
other dignitaries.In modern newspapersthis distinction is difficult to
maintain.The rangeof sourcesthat are quoted in modern newspapers
is much wider than in the early newspapers.Anybody can become a
newsmaker,and anybody'sopinion can be deemedinterestingenough
to be printed, such as the onlooker who happenedto be an eyewitness
of a newsworthy event or the tourist who might possibly be affected
by a newsworthy event.
The early newspapersin my sample corpus cover a period of
120years.In this paperI havetreatedthis periodas a coherentwhole.
This is a simplification that glossesover marked changesin early
newspapers.In fact only the London Gazetteis representedin more
than one subsample.In theseformative yearsof the newspapertrade,
most newspaperswere only publishedfor fairly short periods of time
before they ceasedpublication again. Each newspaperhad its own
characteristicfeaturesthat differed from other newspapers.My data
revealedwhat appearedto be diachronicdevelopmentswithin the 120year period, but thesechangesmay well be the result of the skewed
The EveningMail of 1791,,for instance,contains
sampleof newspapers.
t24
Andreo.vH. .Jucker
only parliamentaryreporting,which is very different in style from the
earliernewspaperswhich, for legal reasons,relied entirely on foreign
news. Larger sampleswould need to be analyzedin order to get a
more even picture of the development.
However,in contrastto the modern newspapers,the early newspapersare reasonablycoherent.The focus of all theseearly newspapers
is on the reporting of events, and these events are told through the
on the otherhand,
reportsfrom reliablesources.In modernnewspapers,
the focus has shifted to people and their opinions. Newspapersstill
report events,but they seemto be more interestedin people'sopinions
of theseevents,and thus they give their readersstatementsand opinions.
While early newspaperstold their readerswhat happened,modern
newspaperstell their readerspeople'sopinionsaboutwhat happened.
References
auf dem Keller, Caren 2004. TextualStructuresin Eighteenth-century
I,'lewspaperAdvertising. A Corpus-based Study of Medical
Advertisementsand Book Advertisements.Aachen: Shaker.
Bell, Allan 1991. TheLanguogeof NewsMedia. Oxford: Blackwell.
Collins, Daniel E . 2001. Reanimated Voices.SpeechReporting in a
Historical-Pragmatic Perspective.(Pragmatics& Beyond New
John Benjamins.
Series85). Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
Coulmas,Florian 1986. ReportedSpeech:Some GeneralIssues.In
Florian Coulmas(ed.)Direct and Indirect Speech.Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1-28.
Fries,Udo 1994.ZEN - Zurich EnglishNewspaperCorpus.In Kytö,
Merja/Rissanen,Matti/Wright, Susan(eds)Corpora Acrossthe
Centuries. Proceedings of the First International Colloquium
on English Diachronic Corpora. St.Catherine'sCollege Cambridge 25-27 March 1993.Amsterdam:Rodopi, l7-18.
Fries,Udo 1997.The Vocabularyof ZEN: lmplicationsfor the Compilation of a Corpus.In Hickey, Raymond lKytö,MerjalLancashire,
Ian/Rissanen,Matti (eds) Tracing the Trail of Time:Proceedings
Speet'lt utrd Tltoughl Pre.sentutiort
t25
from the SecondDiachronic Corpora Workshop.Amsterdaml
Atlanta,GA: Rodopi, I 53-166.
Fries,Udo 2003.Corpuslinguistikund die erstenenglischenZeitungen.
Rede zum Dies gehaltenam Dies academicus2003 vom Prorektor Lehre Prof. Dr. Udo Fries.(Zircher Universitätsschriften
5). Zürich: Universitätsleitungder Universität Zirich.
Fries,,Udo/Schneider,Peter2000.ZEN: PreparingtheZurich English
NewspaperCorpus. In Friedrich Ungerer (ed.) English Media
TextsPast and Present.(Pragmatics& Beyond New Series80).
John Benjamins,3-24.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
Leech,GeoffreyN./Short, Michael H. 1981.Style in Fiction. A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. (English LanguageSeries13).London: Longman.
Moore, Colette 2002.ReportingDirect Speechin Early Modern Slander
Depositions.In Minkova, Donka/Stockwell,Robert(eds)Studies
in the History of the English Language. A Millennial Perspective.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter,399176.
Semino,Elena/Short,Mick/Culpeper,Jonathan1997.Using a Corpus
to Test a Model of Speechand Thought Presentation.Poetics
25,ll-43.
Jonathan1996.Using a Corpus
Short,Mick/Semino, E,lena/Culpeper,
for StylisticsResearch:Speechand Thought Presentation.In
Thomas,Jenny/Short,Mick (eds) Using Corporafor Language
Research.Studiesin Honour of GeoffreyLeech.London: Longm a n .l l 0 - 1 3 1 .
Short,Mick/Wynne, Martin/Semino, Elena 1999.ReadingReports:
DiscoursePresentationin a Corpus of Narratives,,with Special
AnneReferenceto News Reports. In Simon-Vandenbergen,
Marie (ed.)English Wa VariousMedio, specialissueof anglistik
62, 39-65.
& englischuntercicht