BASED ANALYSIS OF REPORTED SPEECH CONSTRUCTIONS

Carla Schelfhout
Nijmegen 


 In data of language use typically constructions occur that in descriptive
grammars so far have received little attention. One such construction in
Dutch is a special case of a Reported Speech Construction, involving a
Direct speech clause Interrupted by a Parenthetic reporting clause
(conveniently abbreviated as a DIP-construction). Typical examples are
 

        "Hoeveel maanden," vroeg hij verbluft, "gaat dat duren?" 
 

        "Ik denk," wierp hij tegen, "dat je daar geen gelijk in hebt." 
 

 The analysis of this type of construction is problematic since it appears
to involve two distinct descriptive levels that nevertheless may be
interrelated.
 

 For my doctoral thesis I am currently investigating DIPs through a
corpus-based approach, using the Amazon parser. This involves adaptation
of the Amazon grammar and analysis of the corpus data especially compiled
for the present purpose. 
 

 I will restrict myself to the prototypical sentences consisting of a
grammatical direct speech clause that is at one point interrupted by a
reporting clause. 
 

 Multiple interruptions and ungrammatical continuation of the direct
speech clause, as well as interrupted semi-direct clauses, will fall
outside the scope of my research. 
 

 The paper will contain both a survey of the literature on DIPs and
preliminary results of the corpus-based analysis.