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In:Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts: In honor of Merja Kytö
Edited by Ewa Jonsson and Tove Larsson
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 97] 2020
► pp. 63–78

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Chapter 5
Saying, crying, replying, and continuing

Speech reporting expressions in Early Modern English

 | Mid Sweden University
 | University of Kansas
Published online: 5 October 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.05wal
This chapter investigates the form, frequency, and function of speech reporting expressions in Early Modern English, such as quod she in “I perceiue now [$ (quod she) $] how mishap doth follow me” (CED, D1FGASCO, 1573). We focus on the use in the prose fiction texts in Periods 1 and 3 in A Corpus of English Dialogues 1560–1760 (CED). The study points to developments over time, in the distribution of individual verbs as well as groups of verbs with similar functions. Variation is also evident in the word order of the speech reporting expression in relation to the represented speech and in the internal order of the speech reporting expressions (subject+verb or verb+subject).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Material and methodology
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Individual speech reporting expressions and functional categories
    • 4.2Structural characteristics of speech reporting expressions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (26)
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GRUND, PETER J.
2023. Disgusting, obscene and aggravating language: speech descriptors and the sociopragmatic evaluation of speech in theOld Bailey Corpus. English Language and Linguistics 27:3 ► pp. 517 ff. DOI logo
GRUND, PETER J.
2025. Gasping, chuckling, wheezing, bellowing and co.: the development of speech representation verbs in Late Modern English. English Language and Linguistics ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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