Estilo directo e indirecto en el <i>Corpus sociolingüístico de Caracas 1987<i>

Abstract

In this study we analyze in an oral corpus from Caracas the use of direct and indirect speech, two of the most frequently used quoting mechanisms in verbal face-to-face interaction to explicitly report words or thoughts. In this opportunity, we analyze a sample of twelve speakers from the Corpus sociolingüístico de Caracas 1987 (Bentivoglio y Sedano 1993), selected according to the gender of the speakers. The analysis focuses on the following aspects: type of quotation, frame, verbs, word function, pragmatic function of the quotation, and the use of these aspects by the speakers according to their gender. Results show that i) direct speech is more frequently used than indirect speech; quoted speech is mostly introduced by a verb, and proportionally less without a verb; ii) women prefer to use the verb speech frame to quote, whereas men tend to elide it; iii) the verb decir is the most frequently used quoting verb by both men and women; iv) speakers prefer to report others’ speech, and v) direct and indirect speech are mostly used to tell an anecdote and give examples of a circumstance.