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Indirect discourse as mixed quotation? An experimental investigation

Authors:
Walter, S.

Year / Status:
2025

Journal / Venue:
Proceedings of Experiments in Linguistic Meaning (ELM) 3, Philadelphia, PA: UPenn

DOI / URL:
10.3765/elm.3.5845

Open Data:
https://osf.io/h6rt5/

Abstract

The results of an experimental rating study are reported suggesting that self-pointing gestures aligned with a third-person pronoun are acceptable in German indirect discourse (ID) utterances. Following a proposal by Ebert & Hinterwimmer (2022) for self-pointing gestures in free indirect discourse (FID), self-pointing gestures in ID are interpreted as character viewpoint gestures (CVGs) quoted from the matrix subject. Crucially, it is argued that in ID, a perspective shift to the matrix subject can take place. It is proposed that ID is an instance of mixed quotation involving a demonstration (cf. Clark & Gerrig 1990, Davidson 2015) where self-pointing is quoted from the matrix subject’s original utterance.