Particles as Speaker Indexicals in Free Indirect Discourse

Free indirect discourse (FID) is one of the many varieties of reported speech. It is commonly agreed that passages in FID have to be interpreted relative to two context parameters , the narrator context C and the context of speech/thought of the protagonist c. While temporal and local shifting indexicals have received ample discussion in the literature, shiftable reference to the speaker is a largely neglected phenomenon, to the exception of Sharvit (2008). I offer an analysis of German speaker oriented particles as a shifting indexicals which reveals how particles can be used to indicate speaker shifts in free indirect discourse. 1. Free Indirect Discourse in English and German Reports in free indirect discourse are characterized by a specific use of tenses, grammar and speaker oriented indexicals. The following shows an English example. (0.) (a) Tom woke up, sweating. (b) Tomorrow was Christmas, and he had completely forgotten to send his wishlist to Santa Claus. (adapted from E. Zimmermann, 1991) The (b.) sentence seems in part worded by the external narrator and in part by Tom, who is understood the be the speaker or thinker of (b.). For instance, (0.b) uses he to refer to Tom and the simple past was to talk about a day that is characerized as tomorrow from Tom’s point of view. English shows this mixed use of indexicals in indirect speech. (0.b) is however not an instance of ordinary indirect speech because it is not embedded under a verbum dicendi (said, worried, cried ...), there is no parenthetical phrase with such a verb (..., worried Tom, ...) and the passage is understood as a thought, not an utterance by Tom. Such reports of speech and thought are called free indirect speech in English. Free indirect speech is characterized by shifted uses of indexicals. The present article investigates the function of German particles as shiftable indexicals. Specifically, we will take a look at some German particles that serve to convey information about the speaker, and the speaker-addressee relationship. Before turning to the topic of the paper, let me briefly outline some basic facts about German free indirect speech and thought. Reports of indirect speech and thought in German systematically occur in two versions. Indirect speech (embedded or non-embedded) is normally presented in a Konjunktiv form with Konjunktiv I and II being used pretty interchangeably, see Fabricius Hansen and Sæbœ (2004). If a protagonist’s mental contents are conveyed in the indicative mood in German, the passage is unambiguously interpreted as free indirect thought (‘erlebte Rede’). The following passage is nicely explicating this, because it is explicitely stated at the end that Kluftinger isn’t talking but only thinking. Konstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS) URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-0-398167 Erschienen in: Sprache und Datenverarbeitung : international journal for language data processing ; SDV ; 35/36 (2012). S. 99-119