DIRECT FORMS OF PRESENTATION: EMBEDDED REPORTED DISCOURSE IN BRITISH NEWSPAPER REPORTS

This paper is concerned with reported language in British broadsheet newspaper reports and places special focus on various types of direct forms of presentation. Moreover, it pays attention to embedded discourse, a result of the recursively applied reflexive use of language. Reported language and embedding are interpreted from the point of view of the objectives and social function of newspaper reports: to describe recent events, the significance of which may be open to negotiation. The presence of external sources ensures heteroglossic background and impersonal treatment since the event portrayed is construed from a perspective other than the reporter's.