Speech and Thought Presentation in Chance by Alice Munro: A Stylistic Analysis

Abstract

This study analyses the speech and thought presentation in Chance, a short story written by Alice Munro. The study aims to analyse how the speech and thought of the characters in the short story are presented. The concept of speech and thought presentation is dubious and complex. This study distinguishes speech and thought presentation and identifies either the characters responsible for representing their speech and thought or the narrator whose speech or thought gets to represent in Munro’s short story. The present study follows the speech and thought presentation techniques of Leech and Short (2007). The present study found out how the author used the categories of speech and thought presentation in the short story with all of their categories except DT. The findings of the study revealed a total of 293 speech and thought presentations in the short story. 235 presentations belong to speech presentations, and 58 to thought presentations. FDS and DS are the most occurred speech presentation within the short story which enabled the author to make her characters seem independent of the narrator. The FDS technique suggests that the context of speech in the story is clear enough, referring to whom the speakers are. FIS is the least occurred presentation within the short story. Besides, DT is not found in the whole short story. Munro has given the importance to the external speech rather than internal thought. The study results indicate that wareness towards speech and thought presentations leads to a better understanding of the literary texts.