Question- in- the- Narrati ve

Questions, being both structurally and semantically one of the types of sentences, are asked by one person and expected to be answereu j another. This is the main, and the most characteristic property 01 i question, i.e. it exists as a syntactical unit of language to bear 1 s pai ular function in communication. Essentially, questions ^{be on}ej°_{t is} spoken language and presuppose the presence of an mterlc they are commonly encountered in dialogue. The questioner is pr< not to know the answer. „+,,_rp nf

(Question-in-the-narrative changes the real nature 01 a question and turns it into a stylistic device. A question in tl rrai is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually t

It becomes akin to a parenthetical statement with strong emonw implications. Here are some cases of question-m-the-nan from Byron's 'Don Juan":

1) "For what is left the poet here?

For Greeks a blush — for Greece a tear.'

2) "And starting, she awoke, and what to view?

Oh, Powers of Heaven. What dark eye meets she theret 'Tis— 'tis her father's— fix'd upon the pair.

As is seen from these examples, the questions asked questions (see p. 244), do not contain statements. But being by one who knows the answer, they assume a semi-exclamatory г as in 'what to view?' _f -,_n\\.

Sometimes question-in-the-narrative gives the impression с mate talk between the writer and the reader. For example

"Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did How could it be

otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don t know 1

years." (Dickens)

Question-in-the-narrative is very often used in oratory. This is i ex^ plained by one of the leading features of oratorical style- fl я t ten-

sired reaction to the content of the speech. Questions here chain the alien tion of the listeners to the matter the orator is dealing with and P^rex it from wandering. They also give the listeners time to absorb %n, been said, and prepare for the next point. .

Question-in-the-narrative may also remain unanswe

"How long must it go on?- How long must we suffer? Where i

end? What is the end? (Norris)

These sentences show a gradual transition to rhetorical questions. There are only hints of the possible answers. Indeed, the

235

questions.

Represented Speech

There are three ways of reproducing actual spech: a) repetition of the exact utterance as it was spoken (direct s p e e с h), b) conversion of the exact utterance into the relater's mode of expression (i n-direct speech), and ^(representation of the actual utterance by a second person, usually the author, as if it had been spoken, whereas it has not really been spoken but is only represented in the author's words (represented s p e e с h£)

There is also a device whicn conveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of the character, thus presenting his thoughts and feelings. This device is also termed represented speech. To distinguish between the two varieties of represented speech we call the representation of the actual utterance through the author's language uttered represented speech, and the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character — unuttered or inner represented speech.

The term direct speech came to be used in the belles-lettres style in order to distinguish the words of the character from the author's words. Actually, direct speech is a quotation. Therefore it is always introduced by a verb like say, utter, declare, reply, exclaim, shout, cry, yell, gasp, babble, chuckle, murmur, sigh, call, beg, implore, comfort,

¹ Попов П. С. Суждение и предложение.— В сб.: Вопросы синтаксиса русского языка. М., 1950, с. 20.

236