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The puzzle of free indirect discourse

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the familiar puzzle of free indirect discourse (FID). FID shares some properties with standard indirect discourse and with direct discourse, but there is currently no known theory that can accommodate such a hybrid. Based on the observation that FID has ‘de se’ pronouns, I argue that it is a kind of an attitude report.

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Correspondence to Yael Sharvit.

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Sharvit, Y. The puzzle of free indirect discourse. Linguist and Philos 31, 353–395 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-008-9039-9

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