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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 13:1 (2014) ► pp.51–76

Direct and indirect speech in Spanish language news reports

| California State University, San Bernardino |

This work uses data from two Spanish language newspapers: Granma from Cuba and El Nuevo Herald from Miami to analyze pragmatic and social factors that underlie the use of reported speech in news texts. This study examines pragmatic and social constraints on journalists’ choice of reporting speech structures. Journalists use direct speech to provide a literal quotation of another’s voice, whereas indirect speech is presents the journalists’ own rendition of the quoted words. The qualitative and quantitative analyses reveal that Granma and El Nuevo Herald exhibit different patterns of use of direct and indirect speech, which are motivated by the two newspapers’ ideological perspectives and the level of political and social power of the news actors.

Keywords: direct speech, indirect speech, pragmatic, ideology, political power
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The nature of direct and indirect speech
  • 3.Data and discussion of results
    • 3.1Semantic and pragmatic distinctions between direct and indirect speech in Granma and ENH
    • 3.2Functional roles of direct and indirect speech in Granma and ENH
    • 3.3Level of power and influence of the news actors
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Internet references (cited)
  • References
Published online: 15 May 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.13.1.03ger
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