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Linguistic Foundations of Narration in Spoken and Sign Languages
Edited by Annika Hübl and Markus Steinbach
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 247] 2018
► pp. 143–172

On the processing of Free Indirect Discourse

First results and methodological challenges

 | University of Göttingen
 | University of Göttingen
 | University of Göttingen
In this contribution we report on the results from two psycholinguistic experiments investigating the processing of Free Indirect Discourse (FID). We conceive of FID as a linguistic means that cues comprehenders to take over the perspective of a protagonist in third-person narrations. Using both on-line and off-line measures, we tested the hypothesis that the referent of the protagonist receives a higher activation status during reading if his or her thoughts are related through FID. The FID cues we used were questions and discourse particles. In addition, we compared different inferential statistic procedures in the analysis of the results. Although the cues that were employed as FID markers in the experimental materials had an influence on the perception of narrative perspective, no indication was found for the hypothesis that narrative perspective mediated through FID influences the salience of the protagonist during reading. We discuss the implications of this null result and point to some more general methodological problems arising in the investigation of processing of literary text.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.Experimental evidence
    • 3.1Materials
    • 3.2Pilot 1: Off-line questionnaire study
    • 3.3Pilot 2: Expert rating
    • 3.4Experiment 1: Self-paced reading
      • 3.4.1Experiment 1: Procedure
      • 3.4.2Experiment 1: Design and predictions
      • 3.4.3Experiment 1: Results
        • Data treatment
        • Proportion of correct answers
        • Reading Times per Word in Target Sentence
        • Response latencies
      • 3.4.4Experiment 1: Discussion
    • 3.5Experiment 2: Self-paced reading and memory test
      • 3.5.1Materials
      • 3.5.2Procedure
      • 3.5.3Participants
      • 3.5.4Experiment 2: Design and predictions
      • 3.5.5Experiment 2: Results
        • Data treatment
        • Proportion of correct answers
        • Reading times per word in target sentence
        • Response latencies
        • Memory test
      • 3.5.6Experiment 2: Discussion
  • 4.General discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 25 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.247.07sal
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Harris, Jesse A.
2021. Extended Perspective Shift and Discourse Economy in Language Processing. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Bimpikou, Sofia
2020. Who Perceives? Who Thinks? Anchoring Free Reports of Perception and Thought in Narratives. Open Library of Humanities 6:2 DOI logo
Holler, Anke
2019. Alles eine Frage der Perspektive – Zur sogenannten erlebten Rede im narrativen Text. Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik 47:1 ► pp. 28 ff. DOI logo

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