Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation investigates three interrogative sentence types that are each associated with a particular speaker bias. In asking one of these questions, the speaker invariably conveys a prior expectation, or belief, that a specific answer to the question is the true one. These sentence types include reversed-polarity tag questions, negative polar questions, and questions containing a strong negative polarity item or a constituent that is emphatically focused. For each of these three question types, I address the two questions: (1) What kind of meaning is bias; and (2) what grammatical feature, if any, is the bias linked to? In answer to the first question, I argue that bias is an assertion (rather than, for example, a conversational implicature). As a result, biased questions can be thought of as a type of indirect speech act (Searle 1975). Following Asher and Lascarides (2001), I model biased questions as instances of a complex speech act type Assertion · Question. On this analysis, biased questions are simultaneously assertions and questions. I provide evidence, for this claim, showing these question types share distributional properties of both assertions and questions. With regard to the second question, I argue that intonation, in addition to syntax and compositional and lexical semantics, plays a key role in linking the use of the kind of interrogative sentence described above to an assertion. Indeed, one of the benefits to studying biased questions is that they provide a case study of the interaction of intonation and discourse function. I begin to develop an analysis of intonation within the theory of discourse provided by Asher and Lascarides (2003) which builds on the work of Pierrehumbert and Hirschberg (1990) and Steedman (2000, 2003), amongst others. Specifically, I argue that intonation provides information about the speakers cognitive state, i.e. about his or her beliefs and intentions. Thus intonation contributes information that can be used to compute the rhetorical contribution of an utterance to a discourse or dialogue. On this model, intonation indirectly contributes to the determination of the discourse function of an utterance. / text

Thesis--Catholic University, 1971. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-232).

Esta dissertação consiste num estudo crítico sobre Quincas Borba, de Machado de Assis, que tem como hipótese principal a de que a crise psíquica do personagem tem correspondente com o processo de problematização da forma do romance. Na obra encontramos, por meio de uma voz narrativa versátil, um personagem cindido, cuja trajetória culmina em loucura e morte. O escritor produziu uma obra inquieta diante de esquematismos propostos pelo Romantismo e Naturalismo, em uma possível busca de modalidades de ficção que estivessem mais de acordo com o seu perfil artístico (PASSOS, 2007). Além disso, ligar-se-ia à crise do personagem e aos questionamentos envolvendo a forma do romance a crise de composição que Machado de Assis enfrentou durante a escrita de Quincas Borba. O romance foi reescrito, produzindo diferenças entre a versão em folhetim, publicada em A Estação (1886-1891), e a publicada em livro (1891). Procuramos analisar tais variantes nas duas versões, considerando o uso que o escritor fez do discurso indireto livre na representação da interioridade dos personagens, incluindo o protagonista. Assim, ao considerar como a fragmentação da consciência de Rubião é operada pelo narrador de Quincas Borba e qual o seu sentido na relação estabelecida com os outros elementos da obra, a pesquisa pretende analisar o modo como Machado de Assis lidou com a forma do romance para compor um personagem em processo de desintegração psíquica, justamente em uma obra problemática do ponto de vista de seu próprio processo de escrita. / This thesis consists of a critical study about Machado de Assis\'s Quincas Borba, supporting the main hypothesis that the protagonist\'s psychic crisis corresponds to the complexity of the novel\'s form. In this novel, a versatile narrative voice portrays a \"split\" character whose trajectory culminates in madness, and death. In Brazil\'s literary scene, Machado de Assis was in search of fictional modalities to suit his artistic profile, having produced a disquieting work that defied the schemes set out by Romanticism and Naturalism (PASSOS, 2007). Furthermore, the crisis of the character and the questioning of the novel\'s form can be associated with the compositional crisis faced by the author during the writing process of Quincas Borba. The novel has been rewritten, resulting in differences between the serial version, published in A Estação (1886-1891), and the book version (1891). We analyse these variants focusing on the use that the author makes of free indirect speech in the representation of characters\'s inner self, including the protagonist. We aim to consider how Rubião\'s consciousness fragmentation is carried out by the narrator, and to understand the meaning of the rapport established among this form of fragmentation and other elements in the novel. This research will, therefore, analyse the means of portraying a character in the midst of psychic disintegration in a work whose very writing process was especially problematic.

Esta dissertação consiste num estudo crítico sobre Quincas Borba, de Machado de Assis, que tem como hipótese principal a de que a crise psíquica do personagem tem correspondente com o processo de problematização da forma do romance. Na obra encontramos, por meio de uma voz narrativa versátil, um personagem cindido, cuja trajetória culmina em loucura e morte. O escritor produziu uma obra inquieta diante de esquematismos propostos pelo Romantismo e Naturalismo, em uma possível busca de modalidades de ficção que estivessem mais de acordo com o seu perfil artístico (PASSOS, 2007). Além disso, ligar-se-ia à crise do personagem e aos questionamentos envolvendo a forma do romance a crise de composição que Machado de Assis enfrentou durante a escrita de Quincas Borba. O romance foi reescrito, produzindo diferenças entre a versão em folhetim, publicada em A Estação (1886-1891), e a publicada em livro (1891). Procuramos analisar tais variantes nas duas versões, considerando o uso que o escritor fez do discurso indireto livre na representação da interioridade dos personagens, incluindo o protagonista. Assim, ao considerar como a fragmentação da consciência de Rubião é operada pelo narrador de Quincas Borba e qual o seu sentido na relação estabelecida com os outros elementos da obra, a pesquisa pretende analisar o modo como Machado de Assis lidou com a forma do romance para compor um personagem em processo de desintegração psíquica, justamente em uma obra problemática do ponto de vista de seu próprio processo de escrita. / This thesis consists of a critical study about Machado de Assis\'s Quincas Borba, supporting the main hypothesis that the protagonist\'s psychic crisis corresponds to the complexity of the novel\'s form. In this novel, a versatile narrative voice portrays a \"split\" character whose trajectory culminates in madness, and death. In Brazil\'s literary scene, Machado de Assis was in search of fictional modalities to suit his artistic profile, having produced a disquieting work that defied the schemes set out by Romanticism and Naturalism (PASSOS, 2007). Furthermore, the crisis of the character and the questioning of the novel\'s form can be associated with the compositional crisis faced by the author during the writing process of Quincas Borba. The novel has been rewritten, resulting in differences between the serial version, published in A Estação (1886-1891), and the book version (1891). We analyse these variants focusing on the use that the author makes of free indirect speech in the representation of characters\'s inner self, including the protagonist. We aim to consider how Rubião\'s consciousness fragmentation is carried out by the narrator, and to understand the meaning of the rapport established among this form of fragmentation and other elements in the novel. This research will, therefore, analyse the means of portraying a character in the midst of psychic disintegration in a work whose very writing process was especially problematic.

Ce travail se propose d’étudier, sous un angle grammatical, le phénomène romanesque connu sous le nom de "monologue intérieur", qu’il convient d’emblée de distinguer du "stream of consciousness", auquel il est souvent ramené. Afin de mieux cerner et de définir ce qu’est le monologue intérieur, nous confrontons les définitions qui en sont généralement données à des textes de fiction anglophones, et nous analysons les techniques linguistiques utilisées pour représenter ce discours particulier. Il apparaît donc que le monologue intérieur n’est pas une technique linguistique mais doit plutôt se concevoir comme une catégorie narratologique. Ce discours s’incarne grâce à diverses techniques linguistiques : le discours immédiat mais aussi certaines des techniques du discours rapporté, avec en son centre le discours direct (libre) et à sa périphérie le discours indirect classique. Le discours indirect libre, quant à lui, navigue entre les deux. Ces différentes techniques reposent donc sur une conception particulière du discours intérieur qu’elles véhiculent, et leur étude permet d’étudier la possibilité offerte à l’auteur ou au narrateur de détourner leur forme afin de servir une stratégie narrative, avec parfois pour but de faire passer pour verbal ce qui ne peut l’être. / This thesis investigates the literary phenomenon known as “interior monologue” from a grammatical point of view, and is based on a clear distinction between “interior monologue” and what is called “stream of consciousness”, both phenomena usually being seen as the same. The main objectives are therefore to define what we call “interior monologue” in order to confront this definition with English language literary texts, and to analyse the various linguistic techniques used to represent this special discourse. Interior monologue is therefore seen not as a linguistic technique but as a narratological category. This particular discourse is represented using different linguistic techniques: “immediate discourse” but also some of the reported speech techniques, with (free) direct speech as the core of the category, and indirect speech at its periphery, free indirect speech navigating between those two poles. These techniques differ both in their form and in the conception of the interior discourse they convey, but they always create the illusion of giving access to the (fictional) original discourse. It is for this reason that we want to show the possibility for the author or the narrator to use a syntactic form suggesting a reported discourse seemingly closely linked to the original discourse, to represent something that sometimes cannot be considered as verbal.

The thesis compares forms of speech presentation (and marginally writing presentation) in British newspapers through a theory of Speech, Writing and Thought presentation as introduced by E. Semino and M. Short (2004). On a specialised corpus of 6 newspaper articles, the work compares qualitive and quantitative tendencies of individual speech presentation categories, focusing on the diagnosis of differences and common points in two journalistic sub-genres, the tabloid and the broadsheet. The speech presentation categorization is applied as a clinal model with permeable borders between individual categories. The focus is on detecting and analysing the fucntions of individual categories of speech presentation in terms of information, style, pragmatics and form. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The novel Leonora by Elena Poniatowska is about Leonora Carrington who was born into a wealthy family and challenged family traditions, and those expectations imposed by her social background and her gender. It will be shown that the main character acts according to a self-construction process free of social impositions. Simone de Beauvoir’s well-known phrase “one is not born a woman, one becomes one”, is one of the feminist positions that contributes to this analysis, as well as the literary techniques explained by Gérard Genette, Oscar Tacca, Mieke Bal and the narratology theories of focalization, direct speech, indirect speech and free indirect speech. The aim of this essay is to analyze the literary techniques that present the self-construction of the main character, and their effects on the reader. The hypotheses of this essay are that in order to present the self-construction of the character, the literary techniques create an effect of alternately zooming the reader in to the main character’s experience, and zooming out to a more objective view. In addition, the literary techniques used to present Carrington’s self-construction seek to show her feminist stance and her transgressions in both private and public spheres. Poniatowska’s literary techniques deliver the message that when a woman is released from social and cultural constraints she has the power to modify spheres.

Cette recherche a pour titre Fonctionnement du triangle de la subjectivité intériorisée dans le roman moderne. Elle a pour but d’étudier la parole et les pensées intérieures du sujet de l’énonciation dans des œuvres romanesques souvent marquées par le décrochage et le "brouillage" des pistes énonciatives. Les trois procédés discursifs et narratifs ciblés sont le monologue intérieur (MI), le discours indirect libre (DIL) et le point de vue (PDV). L’examen des trois piliers du langage intérieur prend appuie sur les apports de la linguistique de l’énonciation, de la polyphonie et de la pragmatique. Cette recherche cible neuf œuvres romanesques que nous plaçons sous l’étiquette de "roman moderne". Ces romans appartiennent à trois auteurs français qui ont développé des récits dont la source locutrice et énonciatrice pose problème. La difficulté de traiter de l’énonciation romanesque dans un corpus choisi en l’occurrence est due essentiellement à l’effacement des frontières entre discours citant et discours cité. Marcel Proust, Claude Simon et Nathalie Sarraute n’appartiennent certes pas aux mêmes courants esthétiques et idéologiques, mais ils ont ceci de commun qu’ils offrent une configuration romanesque qui conduit à s’interroger sur le statut du locuteur et de l’énonciateur dans une forme d’expression qui n’est pas toujours verbalisée. / This research is entitled Functioning of the Triangle of Internalized Subjectivity in the Modern Novel. It aims at studying the speech and the inner thoughts of the subject of enunciation in fiction often marked by the "interference" in enunciation tracks. The three targeted discursive and narrative processes are internal monologue (MI), free indirect speech ( DIL) and the point of view (PDV) . The examination of the three pillars of the inner language relies on the contributions of linguistics of enunciation, of polyphony and pragmatic. This research targets nine novels that we can classify as belonging to the "modern novel" category. These novels belong to three French authors who have developed narratives in which the source of speaker and enunciator is a cause of ambiguity. The difficulty of dealing with the novelistic enunciation in a textual corpus chosen in this case is mainly due to the blurring of boundaries between reporting speech and reported speech. Marcel Proust, Claude Simon and Nathalie Sarraute do not belong to the same aesthetic and ideological trends, but what they have in common is that they all offer a novel configuration that makes us raise questions about the status of the speaker and the enunciator in a form of expression that is not always verbalized.