Narrator Interference

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When a narrator quotes someone else’s words, they have some influence over how we interpret and react to the quoted words. We call this “narrator interference”.

The more interference there is, the more control goes from the hands of the person who said the words and into the hands of the narrator. When there is little interference, it’s because the words are (or, at least, appear to be) a true representation of what the quoted person said. However, if there is a high level of interference, it means the quote is closer to the narrator’s words than the original quoted person.

When speech has a high level of interference, it also gets closer and closer to simply becoming part of the narration rather than speech. On the other hand, the more the quote stands out as something said by someone else, the less interference there is.

There is no such thing as no interference. When you’re quoting someone else’s words, you have at least a little bit of influence over how the text receiver interprets their words.

Narrator interference is a very useful concept to understand. It helps you to consider how much you’re allowing a narrator to influence your opinions of another person. Understanding this will help you to:

• Be less influenced by fake news and propaganda.
• Make better, more conscious decisions in your own creative writing.
• Confidently analyse the speech of texts in your essays.
• Avoid accidental plagiarism, defamation and misinformation in your own writing by representing speech appropriately.

Speech presentation plays a big role in narrator interference. Different types of speech presentation have different levels of interference. So, it’s useful to know and understand how they work, too.

Why Do Narrators Interfere in Speech?

There is no such thing as 0 narrator interference. Any time you quote someone else’s words, you are going to have an impact on how people interpret them. That’s just natural.

Why is that the case? Well, you’re not quoting someone else for no reason. Most people don’t just blurt out random quotes at random times, either. You get to decide when the quote is relevant and when you think that it would be useful for other people to read or hear it. That’s already a lot of control that you have over the speech.

Just because speech has a lot of interference, it doesn’t mean the narrator is trying to deceive anyone. They just have their own interpretation of how and why the quoted person said what they said. No one can objectively remember quotes without these biases attached to them. So, the way they present the speech will naturally be impacted by the inferences they make.

However, there are plenty of cases where the narrator is trying to use interference to deceive people. There are plenty of ways that you can do this:

• Use a type of speech presentation that usually has very little interference (like direct speech) but misquote or lie about what was said.
• Paraphrase or summarise the speech in an unfavourable or uncharitable way.
• Take words out of context and mix up the order to impact our interpretation of the quote and the person who said it.
• Use exaggerated words like “yelled” and “whining” in reporting clauses.
• Using a type of speech presentation with very high levels of interference to avoid actually quoting the words properly.

Every narrator is presenting a quote for a reason. That’s always going to mean that there’s interference. It’s up to you to figure out what that reason is.

How do Narrators Take Control Over Other People’s Words?

There are so many ways that narrator interference can impact a quote. It’s not just about whether the writer has said mean things about the quoted person or not.

We make assessments about a quote, and the person who said it, based on a number of things. This includes (but is not limited to):

• When the narrator chooses to quote someone else.
• Why the narrator chooses to quote someone else.
• Who they say the quote to.
• How the narrator refers to the original source of the quote.
• The tone of voice they use when they quote the person.
• Their body language and facial expressions when they quote the person.
• How faithful they are to the original words of the person – or if the paraphrase or summarise.
• The words they use to describe the speech in the reporting clause or action beat.
• What they and other people said before the narrator presented the quote.
• How much they blend the quote in with their own words.

It is useful to take a step back and think about all the different ways that the narrator gets to control how they present the quote. You can probably find other ways that they get to influence how we interpret and react to a quote.

There is nothing wrong with narrator interference. It’s a natural part of speech presentation. However, the more you know about it, the more you can make sure you’re getting a full picture.

Speech Presentation and Narrator Interference

Each different type of speech presentation has a different level of narrator interference.

A narrator or writer will choose a type of speech presentation based on a range of different factors, including:

• What feels natural to them.
• The conventions of their chosen genre or mode.
• How much authority they want to give their words.
• How they are trying to represent the quoted person.

Of course, there are many other factors, too!

However, that doesn’t mean a writer or narrator sits down and says, “Hmm. I’m going to use this type of speech today”. They have picked up on cues about when and how we use different types of speech presentation from the world around them and apply that to their writing instinctively.

It is our job as English students and academics to give names and theories to the things they do naturally.

Here’s a little table to help you understand how speech presentation and narrator interference relate to one another.

Type of Speech Presentation	Level of Narrator Interference
Free Direct Speech	The lowest level of interference.
Direct Speech	Low-to-medium level of interference
Indirect Speech	Medium level of interference.
Free Indirect Speech	Medium-to-high level of interference.
Narrator’s Presentation of a Speech Act	High level of interference.
Narrator’s Presentation of Voice	Extremely high level of interference.

The same can also be applied to the presentation of thoughts and writing.

Don’t just rely on this table to help you, though. Make sure you check out the descriptions of each type of speech presentation below to see how narrator interference might factor in.

Free Direct Speech

Free direct speech (FDS) has the least amount of narrator interference when compared to all of the types of speech presentation.

With FDS, the narrator has to show using punctuation that they are quoting someone else. This prevents them from blurring the line between their words and the words of the person they’re quoting. They also don’t have a reporting clause that they could use to influence how we interpret the tone or intentions of the quoted person.

However, that’s not to say that there isn’t any narrator interference at all. They still get to control quite a few things:

• The context of when and where they quote the person.
• Their purpose for quoting the person.
• How they add context and narration around the quote.

Naturally, these things are all going to cloud how we see the quote. The control the narrator has

So, we can’t truthfully say that there is no narrator interference at all with FDS. There clearly is! However, it’s much lower than other types of speech presentation, where the narrator has all of these tools as well as some others at their disposal.

It’s also important to point out that we expect a narrator to truthfully represent the quote with FDS. We expect the words to be verbatim. So, if the narrator deceives us by misrepresenting the words of the other person, we’re much less likely to pick up on it. That means that the narrator can secretly (and deceptively) have a huge impact on our impressions of the quoted person).

Direct Speech

There is more narrator interference with direct speech (DS) than there is with FDS. It has the second lowest amount of interference on the spectrum of speech presentation.

That’s because it shares one major characteristic with FDS. With both, the narrator has to separate the quoted words from their own using punctuation. That has a big impact on how we interpret the quote.

However, unlike with FDS, there is a reporting clause for DS. That means that the narrator has more say in how we interpret the words than they would with FDS. They have control over:

• The context of when and where they quote the person.
• Their purpose for quoting the person.
• How they add context and narration around the quote.
• The words they choose to use to represent the quote in their reporting clause or action beat.

The reporting clause or action beat adds more interference because it helps the narrator to explicitly tell us how the quoted person said the words. That prompts us to make inferences about the quoted person’s mood and the hidden motives behind their words.

Like with FDS, we expect the narrator to truthfully represent the words of the quoted person verbatim. So, if they choose to deceive us, by misrepresenting the words, we’re likely to believe their words without question. This means that they could have a huge impact on how we view the quoted person without us knowing.

Indirect Speech

Indirect speech (IS) takes it one step further with narrator interference. With this type of speech presentation, there is an expectation that the narrator is going to change and paraphrase the words more.

Just like with direct speech, there is going to be a reporting clause attached to the speech. This allows the narrator to influence their views on how and the hidden motives of the quoted person. After all, “she mumbled” is very different from “she murmured”. It’s going to make you infer different things.

However, there’s no speech-related punctuation. So, the narrator has to change their language to make sure the quote still makes sense.

They have control over:

• The context of when and where they quote the person.
• Their purpose for quoting the person.
• How they add context and narration around the quote.
• The words they choose to use to represent the quote in their reporting clause or action beat.
• The way they change the language to fit their speech (pronouns, verbs, time words, etc.).

This final one might seem like a small thing. However, you’d be surprised how much it matters! Let’s take the word “we” as an example. Imagine I’m the narrator, and I’m reporting that my best friend said, “We should apologise to her’.

When I’m reporting this in IS, I have two options. I could change the pronoun “we” to “they”, or keep it the same. If I keep the pronoun the same, it suggests that I’ve done something wrong that I need to apologise for. If I change it, I’m separating myself from them.

Also, unlike with DS and FDS, there is an expectation that you won’t report the words of the quoted person verbatim. So, we take the narrator’s words with a pinch of salt.

Free Indirect Speech

Free indirect speech (FIS) is similar to IS. However, the fact that it doesn’t use a reporting clause has a huge impact on the level of narrator interference that you get from it.

There is no reporting clause or punctuation to set the quoted words apart from the rest of the narration. This makes FIS a really interesting form of speech presentation. The words of the quoted person blend in with the words of the narrator. It can often be difficult to separate where the narrator’s words end and the quote begins!

Narrators do this on purpose. The point of FIS is that you can never be 100% sure if the words are quoted or not. Well, unless the narrator tells you, of course! But that would most likely turn it into IS.

This means that the level of narrator interference is high with FIS. The quoted words almost become the narrator’s own words, and they have a great deal of control over how we interpret and react to them.

The narrator controls:

• The context of when and where they quote the person.
• Their purpose for quoting the person.
• How they add context and narration around the quote.
• The way they change the language to fit their speech (pronouns, verbs, time words, etc.).
• How the words blend in with the rest of the narration.
• Whether the words can be interpreted as belonging to the narrator or the quoted person.

This kind of speech presentation is the hardest to detect. However, if you can spot that it’s FIS, you’re not going to expect the narrator to report the speech verbatim. So, you’re more likely to take the language with a pinch of salt.

Narrator’s Presentation of a Speech Act

Narrator’s Presentation of a Speech Act (NPSA) is an interesting type of speech presentation with a high level of interference.

I like to think of this type of speech presentation as holding the words of the quoted person hostage. The narrator isn’t going to quote the words of the person at all! They’re going to paraphrase and interpret what the person said. Then, they’ll just give us a summary of what was said.

This means that the narrator has near complete control over how they present the words of the other person. The only thing they don’t get to control is the topic and type of speech.

The narrator can say “Omar was whining about you” and we’re just at the mercy of their interpretation of events. Maybe Omar doesn’t believe he was whining at all! We don’t have his interpretation of the events and we don’t even have his actual words to see how truthful the narrator is being.

The narrator has control over:

• The context of when and where they quote the person.
• Their purpose for quoting the person.
• How they add context and narration around the quote.
• The words they use to describe the speech act (e.g. whining, shouting).
• How much they reveal about what was said in the conversation.

This gives the narrator an immense amount of interference. However, it is also a bit of a red flag for us as text receivers. We’re much more likely to question NPSA and ask for more details. What did Omar actually say? Was he really whining? So, we’re more aware of the interference than we are with earlier types of speech presentation.

Narrator’s Presentation of Voice

Narrator’s Presentation of Voice (NPV) takes things one step further. All we know about the other person’s speech is that it happened. So, it’s almost just narration at this point!

The person whose speech is being represented has absolutely no impact on the way the speech is presented. Their words aren’t there. The purpose of their speech isn’t there. We don’t have any knowledge of the topic of the conversation. All we know is that they said something.

We don’t have anything from them to help us confirm if the writer is presenting them fairly – not even a single word from their original quote. The narrator can tell us that they were “whispering in the corner,” and we’d have to take it as it is. Unless, of course, we can actually ask the quoted person to confirm.

There’s no point in me even writing down a list of things the narrator has control over. They have control over pretty much everything. It would be quicker for me to tell you what they don’t control: the fact that the quoted person said something in the first place.

But even then, the narrator didn’t have to bring it up. They could have simply not said anything about the speech at all. The reason they’re bringing it up is that it’s beneficial to their narration to mention that the quoted person spoke.

Of course, we’re least likely to trust this one. We’re likely to question what the person actually said and want to find out more.

How Hedging Can Impact Narrator Interference

Hedging is a useful technique that we use to reduce the severity of the words we say.

It can often be very helpful to narrators when they present the speech of others. It helps them to show their text receiver that they aren’t 100% sure of the exact words that were said – or that the narrator can’t verify the words that they are going to use.

Common hedging used for speech presentation includes:

• “Something along the lines of”
• “Apparently”
• “According to”
• “It is believed that”
• “If I remember correctly”

The interesting thing about hedging in speech presentation is that it draws attention to narrator interference. The narrator is basically saying, “Look! I am interfering in this speech!”. They want you to take their words with a pinch of salt, but still think the quote is important to mention.

You also have other ways that narrators make us aware of their interference. For example, the quotative “like” is a very common one!

Why is it Important to Understand Narrator Interference?

It doesn’t matter where you are in your journey of English studies. You should learn about narrator interference. In fact, everyone should.

The more you know about narrator interference, the more you can be aware of how narrators can influence us. That might be a small, insignificant thing when it comes to a novel where the narrator is quoting a fictional character. However, it’s a big deal with news reporting and historical accounts.

There is no such thing as a balanced news article. In fact, there is no such thing as a balanced text in general! Everything is biased – even subjects like maths and science! So, the more you understand about the biases of the texts around you, the more you can free yourself from the grips of fake news.

Let’s say you’re reading a news article about a politician. The way the journalist chooses to represent their speech will change how you feel about the politician. Are they saying fair, sensible things? Or is everything they say a whole load of nonsense? The journalist has a lot of control over the answer to that question.

In fact, the Futurelearn Stylistics course I keep recommending has a whole activity where you look at the different ways newspapers cover the same interview. I really recommend that you give it a go and see how it can be a big deal.

Of course, it also helps you to make good choices in your own writing. You’ll know how each type of speech presentation affects your reader. So, you can choose the one that does what you want it to.

And then there’s your own essays and analysis. It’s a huge help. It helps you to say new, interesting things about your text.

How You Can Talk About Narrator Interference in Essays

It is really easy to talk about narrator interference in your essays. It’s nice because helps you solve two problems at once. On the one hand, it counts as English terminology – so you can check off that box! On the other hand, as soon as you start to talk about interference, you’re doing analysis! It’s very helpful!

The first thing you should do is figure out what kind of speech presentation the text producer is using. Think about all the traits that the different types have, and work out which one fits the speech best. Once you know this, you’ll be able to say how much narrator interference there is.

But that isn’t enough on its own. The next step you need to take is to figure out why. Why would the text producer want to include that much narrator interference at that time? What does it add to the text? How does it influence how we see the quoted person?

Does it make them seem good? Bad? Secretive? Eager?

Then, you need to tie this to the writer’s intentions. Think about why they wrote the text in the first place. Tie that to the effect that it’s had on how we see the quoted person.

Why would the text producer want the quoted person to seem good, bad, secretive or eager?

Where Can You Learn More?

I got all of this info by reading up on the subject of English. I had some great books recommended to me during my uni degree. Then, I used the sources in those books to help me further my reading. This is the best way to make sure that my glossary entries are the best and most useful that they can be.

However, it’s important that you don’t just rely on me. Make sure you look up these things by yourself. Use this glossary as a springboard to help you know what you should research next.

The next step you should take is to look at the experts in this field. Here are the sources I used. Try them out for yourself!

• Discourse Presentation and Speech (and Writing, but not Thought) Summary – Mick Short
• Corpus Stylistics: Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation in a Corpus of English Writing – Mick Short and Elena Semino
• The FutureLearn Stylistics Course by Dan McIntyre, Lesley Jeffries and Louise Nuttall at Huddersfield University
• Style in Fiction – Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short
• The Language of Literature: An Introduction to Stylistics – Marcello Giovanelli and Jessica Mason
• A/AS Level English Language and Literature for AQA Student Book – Marcello Giovanelli, Andrea Macrae, Felicity Titjen and Ian Cushing
• Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose – Mick Short
• Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature – Martin Montgomery, Alan Durant, Tom Furniss and Sara Mills
• Stylistics – Lesley Jeffries and Dan McIntyre

Please note: some of the links above are Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

I think the best place for you to start is the FutureLearn course. It splits up the info into small chunks that are easy to read. Plus, it includes details about other useful English terms like foregrounding and politeness theory!

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