Imagine a text that does not quote or refer to anybody’s speech or thoughts… A few examples come to mind: technical texts such as scientific papers, legal documents, instruction manuals and textbooks may not contain any. But if we try to imagine a narrative – oral or written – or an argumentative discourse (press article, political discussion, etc.) without any speech or thought presentation, it is difficult to think of an example. Indeed the way we perceive a story, the reasons we do (or do not) empathise with the narrator or the characters, the bases on which we do (or do not) find a story realistic or entertaining are largely dependent on the way speech and thoughts are presented in the narrative, be it a novel, the story of our last holiday misadventures or even a good joke. And the same is true for our ability to present our arguments in a discussion or for our willingness to give credit to a journalist’s reporting.

Sophie Marnette will offer an overview of her research, jumping from her study of reported discourse in medieval French literary texts as well as in contemporary oral narratives, press and literature to her one-time adventure as a linguistic forensic expert in a UK trial pitting an ‘alleged’ international spy against a well-known French magazine.

Professor Marnette received her licence in Romance Philology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1991, her PhD in French (Linguistic track) from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996, and has been Professor of Medieval French Studies and the Dervorguilla Fellow and Tutor in French at Balliol since 2004.