Characteristics of Free Indirect Speech in English Literature

Abstract

This article deals with such a linguistic phenomenon as free indirect speech. The main goal is to clarify the basic principles of positioning of this type of speech in the text, to identify its stylistic features and grammatical structure. Within the framework of the work, descriptive, comparative-historical, comparative and semantic-stylistic methods of language research were used. The results of the analysis of grammatical reference books, as well as British and American fiction made it possible to define free indirect speech as a frequently used stylistic device with characteristic features of direct and indirect speech, but at the same time unique in semantic, syntactic and emotional component. Moreover, the cases of the transition of direct and indirect speech into non-direct speech are considered and analyzed, the main causes and principles of this phenomenon are identified. Special attention is paid to the semantic component in the expression of syntactic relations. The hypotheses were confirmed by the examples of written texts from the classical period of British and American literature (Galsworthy, Dreiser, G. Wells, J. K. Jerome). The research will expand the comprehension of free indirect speech in English literature and, perhaps, encourage linguists to study this phenomenon in modern spoken language.