Indirect speech in literary works. Valgina N.S., Rosenthal D.E., Fomina M.I. Modern Russian language - file n1.doc

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The concept of direct and indirect speech

Own direct speech

The basics of Russian punctuation

The main functions of punctuation marks

In the modern punctuation system of the Russian language, punctuation marks are functionally significant: they have generalized meanings assigned to them, fixing the patterns of their use. The functional significance of characters guarantees their reproducibility in similar semantic and grammatical conditions, their recognition when reading a text, understanding of its meaning, i.e. provides the manifestation of the social essence of punctuation.

In terms of their common functions, the signs are primarily distinguished separating  (period; question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, ellipsis) and emanating  (two commas, two dashes, brackets, quotation marks). The punctuation mark also functions as a paragraph - writing from a new line.

Separating punctuation marks divide the written text into semantic-grammatical parts.

By their functional qualities, they are close comma, semicolon, period. These signs are put when listing syntactically equivalent units: homogeneous members of a sentence and parts of a sentence (comma, semicolon), individual sentences (dot).

Qualitative proximity of these signs, i.e. their functional commonality makes it possible to use a comma, a semicolon, and a dot as a certain gradation system, if this takes into account the difference in the degree of separability of the text indicated by them. Wed: The Gulf of Bothnia was chained with ice. Tall pines crackled with a cold. The constant wind blew dry snow from the ice  (Paust.). - The Gulf of Bothnia was chained with ice; tall pines cracked with frost; the incessant wind blew dry snow from the ice. - The Gulf of Bothnia was chained with ice, tall pine trees cracked from a cold, a constant wind blew dry snow from the ice.  The possibility of such replacements indicates the commonality of the qualitative potential of these signs. And at the same time, it is precisely this property of signs that makes it possible to use their “quantitative” difference: reducing the degree of semantic cohesion of the shared components of the utterance - from comma to semicolon and to point. It is these differences that make it possible to fix parts of sentences that are larger, more basic, and indicate the internal division of these parts. For instance: The sky was heavy and gloomy, droplets barely visible with an eye rained from it relentlessly; the sad elegy in nature around me was emphasized by two broken and ugly winds and a boat tilted upside down at their roots  (M. G.). With general functional significance, these signs turn out to be different in strength of action. That is why commas often find themselves between homogeneous members within a sentence, and semicolons - at the junction of complex sentences, respectively, dots - between sentences. Although with a particular complication of the structure of homogeneous terms of a sentence, it may be necessary to separate them with a more significant sign than a comma (the position of a semicolon), and, on the other hand, commas will turn out to be quite sufficient division signals in a complex sentence if the structure complex sentence  transparent, not complicated by internal secretions.

However, the apparent functional similarity of these signs does not at all mean their identity. For example, an experiment with the interchangeability of a comma and a semicolon fails with homogeneous terms connected by opposing relations. The semicolon is suitable only when transferring enumeration relationships. Therefore, a semicolon, in comparison with a semicolon, is a sign of more limited use. A regularity is revealed: a comma can always be put in place of a semicolon (such a sign may be less expressive, but by no means erroneous), but not every comma can be replaced with a semicolon. The same is with a dot: a comma (albeit with some inconvenience for the perception of the text due to its excessive complexity) can replace the dot and combine sentences into one complex, but the dot is not always able to be qualitatively similar to a comma. Wed: At one time I seriously thought of becoming a sailor. But soon the dream of writing supplanted everything else.  (Paust.). - At one time I seriously thought of becoming a sailor, but soon the dream of writing supplanted everything else.

So, a comma, a semicolon, a point are lined up in a functionally combined series, which is a gradual ascent from the sign minimally separating homogeneous syntactic units (comma), through the sign of "medium divisibility" (semicolon) to the sign, dividing text on separate units of expression (period). But such a generalized similarity with a quantitative difference does not at all mean semantic identity, which is revealed when identifying the unidirectionality of interchangeability of signs: interchangeability is possible with directivity from point to point semicolon and comma and is not always possible with directivity from comma to semicolon and to point.

Ellipsis  Along with the general separation function, it has a number of specific, diverse meanings, which most often reflect the emotional coloring of speech. This is a sign that conveys understatement, understatement, interruption of thought, often - its difficulty, caused either by great emotional stress, or by reasons of a different plan, for example: “The star has fallen ...” said Meyer, wrapping himself in his coat.  (Ch.); “Such and such, my dear ...” he began again, looking tenderly at the investigator  (Ch.); - And I left ... gone where my eyes look  (Ch.); “What are you thinking, honey?” “About children, about you ... about your life.” I’ve survived a lot, Alyosha. As you begin to remember, as you begin ... Lord, my God! - She laughed  (Ch.).

Ellipsis can convey the significance of what has been said, point to subtext, hidden meaning, can emphasize alogism. For instance: That's the way he is  [Manuel] i remembered: a short man with a curly, broad, blue-black beard on a smart thin face - alone on the field ... And behind his back shots were already heard - the shootout from the city center shifted to the airport ...  (Coms. Truth); Rain ... as punishment  (Coms. True).

Colon  warns of subsequent clarification and clarification. This function of the sign is revealed by different meanings: causation, justification, disclosure of content, specification of the general concept. For instance: The bright day came: the snow lay on the earth, the clouds melted in the sky, the sun seemed  (Sew.); Garth turned his head to the window, and a hunch came true: calmness and pale autumn stood over the city  (Paust.).

Dash  - a sign of very widespread use. It means all kinds of omissions: omission of the connective in the predicate, omission of sentence members in incomplete and elliptic sentences, omission of opposing unions. For instance: The most terrible of the local winds - Novorossiysk bora  (Paust.); In addition, I had to send money to one aunt in Vladivostok, and the other to Kiev  (Paust.). The second dash function is semantic: the transfer of the values \u200b\u200bof a condition, time, comparison, consequence, contrast and juxtaposition, in cases where these values \u200b\u200bare not expressed lexically; ultimately, this is also a fixation of idiosyncrasies. For instance: She remembered Winkler - a dead longing suddenly squeezed her heart and regained her strength  (Paust.); Fighting alone - life cannot be turned upside down  (N. Ostr.).

A dash can also be an indicator of “surprise” - semantic, compositional, intonational; in such cases, the sign conveys the emotional intensity of speech (dynamism, sharpness, rapid change of events, etc.). For instance: It seemed another minute - and the escort would rush to him  (Paust.); And when there was another leap of dawn - a pale spot turned out to be the face of a man  (Stitch).

As a formal delimiter, a dash is used, for example, in direct speech, when distinguishing dialogue replicas: “Are you very tired, Efim?” - I can’t be tired, I have to work all day ...  (Stitch).

Question marks and exclamation marks fill out the relevant sentences: - What a silence! The trees are like wax!  (Sew.); Where have you seen such a clear sea? Nowhere! When did you live among such kind and honest people? Never!  (Paust.).

Indent serves the purpose of highlighting significant parts of the text. The reasons for the selection can be different, and therefore the specific functions of the paragraph are tied to the target setting of the text. For example, when delimiting replicas of a dialogue, a paragraph is a formal means of such delimitation. In a monologically organized text, a paragraph performs either a logical-semantic function (divides the text into logical and sense-thematically-joined parts), in which a sequential transition from one thought to another is fixed, or an expressive-emotional function, when the paragraph breaks the logical-semantic sequence statements, and then serves as a bright stylistic means of selection.

The specificity of paragraph division is determined by the target setting of the text itself, its compositional features, in fiction texts - and also by the author's modality.

Highlighting marks - commas, dashes, brackets - highlight particularly significant parts in the proposal; special significance is manifested in additional semantic load (separate members of a sentence), in a specific function (calls, interjections, introductory words, phrases and sentences), in the transmission of additional messages (plug-in constructions). The difference in the degree of emphasis is emphasized by the choice of distinguishing marks: according to the degree of highlighting significance, the marks form a gradation series from commas (lower degree) to dashes (middle degree) and, finally, to brackets (higher degree of emphasis, bordering on the complete exclusion of the structure from the sentence structure, for example , when filling out the inserts to the paragraph, i.e. outside the sentence). Examples: Peasant horses, driven into the meadows at night, look wildly at the white stars of electric lights hanging in a distant forest, and snore with fear  (Paust.); Chatty old people live in meadows - in dugouts and huts  (Paust.); Peat extraction has already begun on some mshars (in the Red Swamp and in the Pilny Swamp)  (Paust.).

Highlighting marks differ not only in the degree of allocation transmitted by them, but also functionally. In the latter sense, only brackets are unique - they highlight only inserts, i.e. additional messages. As for commas and dashes, their functions are wider and more diverse: they can convey various semantic, intonation and accent subtleties (especially dashes). For instance: We already had snow, but it just melted, and in the forest under the Christmas tree - you look - and the hare sits  (Paust.); All this summer, I learned anew - to the touch, to taste, to smell - many new words that until then were known to me, but distant and unreal  (Paust.); Most often, flavors occur in July, when bread is ripening. Therefore, there is a popular belief that the lightning flakes are “buried in bread,” they light it at night, and this makes the bread pour faster  (Paust.); The evening dawn begins when the sun has already set beyond the ends of the earth. Then she takes possession of the fading sky, pours many colors on it - from pure gold to turquoise - and slowly passes into late twilight and at night  (Paust.).

The distinguishing marks are and quotes. The general functional unambiguity of quotation marks (emphasis) does not prevent them from having various particular meanings.

First of all, quotation marks highlight someone else's speech in the text - separate words belonging to another author, quotes, direct speech. For instance: The boy said “watch the thunder”, and I remembered the words from the “Divine Comedy” of Dante that “the sun's beam fell silent”  (Paust.); People speak of blind rain coming in the sun: “The princess is crying”  (Paust.).

Quotation marks can be of a different plan: words that are unusually used by the author are highlighted, for example, words that are not very common, foreign, used in an ironic sense, in the opposite meaning, with a double meaning, etc. For instance: And what kind of winged romance lives in all these frigates and barcanthins, schooners and clippers, guys and shirts, capstans and admiralty anchors, dog shifts, jingle of bottles and logs, the rumble of engine turbines, sirens, stern flags, full storms, typhoons, fogs , dazzling calm, floating beacons, “deep” shores and “stumpy” capes, knots and cable - in everything that Alexander Green called “the picturesque work of navigation”  (Paust.); And if you live according to the new law, then there can’t be any “suddenly”, there are reasons for everything  (Sew.); And the deposit is already shown in the hand of the eldest of the "Entich"  (Sew.); The neighbors decided that the garbage man “started”  (Paust.).

Quotation marks serve as a means of highlighting various names - orders and medals, literary works, newspapers, magazines; enterprises, organizations; manufacturing products, machine brands; plant varieties, etc. For instance: Everything created by Prishvin: and his first things - “In the land of frightened birds” and “Gingerbread man” and the subsequent ones - “Calendar of nature”, “Pantry of the sun”, his numerous stories and, finally, the finest, as if woven from morning light, spring water and quietly speaking leaves "Ginseng" - all this is full of the beautiful essence of life  (Paust.); It was published under the pseudonym Multatuli. In Latin, this means "long-suffering"  (Paust.).

The general functions of punctuation marks, as well as more private ones, implemented in the semantic-grammatical conditions of specific texts, create the basis for the individual use of punctuation marks. Such marks are associated with author's comprehension  written, usually they convey the emotional structure of speech and are included in the concept of "syllable of the writer." Punctuation of outstanding masters of the artistic word is evidence of the richness of its stylistic capabilities.

The main principle of individual understanding of punctuation marks is not to forget their functional significance, but to use the signs in new contextual conditions that are unusual for them (in terms of regulatory rules). For example, M. Gorky has a dash in positions where the rules provide a comma or lack of a sign (a dash after treatment; a dash between the subject and the predicate — a personal verb, when emphasizing comparative turns, etc.); A. Blok's dash (after particles, adverbs with generalized circumstantial meaning) also expands its scope; M. Tsvetaeva attains particular sophistication in the use of the dash: it helps her to “separate” the words with excessive semantic contraction, the compressedness of her line — both poetic and prosaic. The affection of I. Babel to the point, A. Tolstoy to the dash, etc. is also known. That is, the signs “copyright” are favorite signs, reflecting the peculiarity of the rhythm and intonation of the text, the use of such punctuation marks is included in the author’s system of literary and artistic techniques.

INDIRECT SPEECH OFFERS

You are well aware of such concepts as the main and subordinate parts of a complex sentence. From the main part to the subordinate you can always ask a question. For example: Father did not want to believe that I could be implicated in a vile rebellion. In this sentence, the question can be posed from the first part to the second (believe WHAT?), Therefore, the first part is the main, and the second is the subordinate.

  "The priest did not want to believe that I could be involved in a vile rebellion."

An alien speech transmitted in the form of a subordinate clause is called an INDIRECT SPEECH.

First one main part  sentences in this case are the words of the author, and the second is indirect speech. Please note: the words of the author are faced with an indirect speech and are separated by a comma. This method of transmitting someone else’s speech, in contrast to direct speech, preserves the content of someone else’s statement, but does not preserve its shape and intonation.

Compare two ways to convey the same statement in the illustration. A sentence with indirect speech does not convey the exclamatory intonation that is present in direct speech.

Direct Speech Suggestion: The announcer said: “Cooling is expected tomorrow!”
  Indirect Speech Suggestion: The announcer said that cooling is expected tomorrow.

Indirect speech can join the main part of the sentence with the help of the conjunctions WHAT, BE, WHAT, pronouns and adverbs WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and WHY, and others, as well as LI particles. The choice of these words depends on the purpose of the statement in indirect speech. In interrogative sentences, pronouns or the particle LI will be used:

I asked when the train leaves.

In incentive sentences, the union is used TO, for example:

The captain ordered the flag to be hoisted.

In narrative sentences, the unions WHAT, BE, are used, for example:

He told me that he saw a living bear in the forest.

Purpose of speaking in indirect speech. Method of attaching indirect speech.

Narrative Proposal - WHAT IS

The interrogative sentence is the pronouns and adverbs of WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHERE, WHEN,
   WHY or a particle

Motivational Offer - TO

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PROPOSALS FOR OWN DIRECT SPEECH

Compare the three sentences that are given in the book by N. S. Valgina, “The Syntax of the Modern Russian Language,” to illustrate what is improperly direct speech:

Friends visited the theater and unanimously declared: “We really liked this performance!”
  - Friends visited the theater and unanimously declared that they really liked this performance.
  - Friends visited the theater. They really liked this performance!

In the first case, we have before us a construction in which the words of friends are framed as direct speech. Neither the content nor the form of their statement has changed: what is enclosed in quotation marks fully reproduces their speech.

The second line contains the construction with indirect speech. Someone else's speech is conveyed through the subordinate clause, which is joined by the union of WHAT. The content of the statement has been preserved, but the exclamatory intonation has been lost.

The third option is very similar to the first, but it does not have a colon or quotation marks. In addition, the first person pronoun NAM has changed to the third person pronoun IM, as in indirect speech. This method of introducing someone else’s text is called DIRECT SPEECH.

Its essence lies in the fact that it almost completely preserves the lexical and syntactic features of someone else's statement, the speaking style of the speaker, the emotional coloring characteristic of direct speech, but it is transmitted not on behalf of the character, but on behalf of the author, the narrator. The author in this case combines the thoughts and feelings of his hero with his own, merges his speech with his speech. This technique is often used in fiction and journalism, when the author needs to show his hero as if from the inside, to let the reader hear his inner voice. Read an example of an improperly direct speech from the novel by L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”:

  "Nikolai Rostov turned away and, as if searching for something, began to look at the distance, at the Danube, at the sky, at the sun. How nice the sky seemed, how blue, calm and deep! How gentle and shiny the water shone on the distant Danube! " (L.N. Tolstoy)