Free indirect discourse, quotative readings and the Romance Imperfect

• Martin Becker ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Cologne

     University of Cologne

     Kreisfreie Stadt Köln, Alemania

     
• Localización: Italian journal of linguistics, ISSN 1120-2726, Vol. 33, Nº. 2, 2021, págs. 23-58
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article addresses the role of the Imperfect in free indirect discourse (FID) and another related context, namely quotative readings. To this end, we compare the commonalities and differences between the two readings and try to determine their semantic peculiarities. A special emphasis will be laid on the semantic properties of the Imperfect, analysed in terms of ‘three ingredients’ of the tense form, which contribute to its different readings by interacting with appropriate contextual clues and settings. In particular, it will be shown that the Romance Imperfect in free indirect discourse contexts is a key element for anchoring the propositional content to two contexts, the external context (with the speaker’s NOW as origo) and the internal context (with the internal subject’s now as origo). As will be shown, this tense requirement distinguishes FID in Romance from its counterpart in Germanic languages.