Tuesday 20 August 2013

An experiment

I am trying to work something out, and a small experiment would help me. I’m not sure how useful use it could be, as a straw poll on a backwater blog probably wouldn’t count as admissible evidence for the thing I’m trying to write. But it’ll be interesting, to me at least.

I would be hugely grateful if you could take just a couple of minutes to do it and post your answers as a comment - it would be very helpful to me.

Below is a list of excerpts containing quoted speech. I am interested in whether you think the bit in inverted commas is reporting something that already has been uttered in some way (spoken or written), or is uttering something for the first time. e.g.

In 1963 President Kennedy famously said “ich bin ein Berliner.”
(A. Historian, 2000)

If you think “ich bin ein Berliner” was already said by Kennedy in 1963 and then repeated by A. Historian in 2000, you should answer ‘yes’ or ‘repeat’. Disregard the fact that I am also repeating the words on this blog – that does not count as a repetition: did the writer (or speaker) mean it as a repetition or not? Another example:

“You are now entering Free Derry.”
(Mural in Londonderry / Derry, 1969)

Do you think the words in inverted commas were said as a repetition or stated for the first time in 1969, there in Derry? If said for the first time, then say ‘no’ or ‘first time’.

Disregard translation issues - the original language doesn't matter.

This should be really quick to do – especially if you answer as immediately and intuitively as you can, which would be ideal. It’s all about the words in inverted commas – have they already been said, yes (repeat) or no (first time)?

p.s. - if possible, please try to avoid looking at the answers people have already given! Thanks.


­­­
1. Antony Beevor, Berlin, 2002
“History always emphasizes terminal events,” Albert Speer observed to his interrogators just after the end of the war.

2. Oliver Cromwell addressing the Rump Parliament, 1653
“Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” 

3. Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho, 1991
“That’s bone,” I point out, “And the lettering is something called Silian Rail.”

4. Christopher Hill, God’s Englishman: Oliver Cromwell & the English Revolution, 1970
“We found the common soldiers much unsettled,” the Commissioners reported to the Commons on 17 May 1647, with some understatement.

5. George R. R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons, 2011
“The Mother of Dragons must don the tokar or be forever hated,” warned the Green Grace, Galazza Galare.

6. Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, 1997
Groucho [Marx] loved embarrassing people and when he found that Alice didn’t take drugs, he immediately said to the waiter, “Dope! Do you have any dope for my friend? He needs dope.”

7. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877
“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

8. Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves & the American Revolution, 2005
“No sight upon earth,” wrote the reporter for the Morning Chronicle, “could be more pleasingly affecting to the feeling mind than the joy which shone at that instant in these poor men’s sable countenances.”

9. John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 1974
“You were ill,” Guillam insisted.

10. Suetonius Lives of the Caesars, 121 AD
Some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he [Caesar] said in Greek, “You too, my child?”

11. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937
“Good Morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it.

12. US Declaration of Independence, 1776
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

13. Peter Lamarque, The Philosophy of Literature, 2009
Few readers would suppose that the … famous first sentence of Pride and Prejudice had the unequivocal endorsement of Jane Austen: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

14. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865
“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice.

15. Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 1865
“In luck again, Gaffer?” said a man with a squinting leer.

16. Bryn Harris, Wild and Whirling Words, 2013
"Thank you so much for doing this experiment!"

10 comments:

  1. 1. Repeat

    2. First

    3. First

    4. Repeat

    5. First

    6. Repeat

    7. First

    8. Repeat

    9. First

    10. Repeat

    11. First

    12. First

    13. Repeat

    14. First

    15. First

    16. First

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I'm still trying to work out your time zone...

      Delete
  2. 1. Repeat
    2. First
    3. First
    4. Repeat
    5. First
    6. Repeat
    7. First
    8. Repeat
    9. First
    10. Repeat
    11. First
    12. First
    13. Repeat
    14. First
    15. First
    16. First.

    I have not been subtle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1. yes
    2. no
    3. no
    4. yes
    5. yes
    6. yes
    7. no
    8. yes
    9. yes
    10. yes
    11. yes
    12. no
    13. yes
    14. yes
    15. yes
    16. no

    I am not very sure about 3, but on a "forced choice" I go for "no".

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. Repeat (first time if Speer said it in German; I'll assume it was English).
    2. Repeat
    3. First time
    4. Repeat (the ellipsis makes this interesting, but the words themselves were said then - just with others in between)
    5. First time
    6. Repeat
    7. First time
    8. Repeat
    9. First time
    10. Hm. First time (if it's in Latin), repeat (if in Greek, or if language is ignored). Let's go for the former
    11. First time
    12. First time
    13. Repeat
    14. First time
    15. First time
    16. First time, but bought in potentia from a Tunisian original-sayings-seller in a dingy Tangiers basement in illicit circumstances; the price is unrecorded, but yet to be paid

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Owen! The 'yet to be paid' bit is the most plausible thing written on this blog so far... Thanks for pointing out the translation issue with no. 10, which I'd rather bone-headedly missed. As it's somewhat connected to the whole issue I'm interested in at the moment, that's a bit of a blunder. 'Language is ignored' is what I was thinking.

      Delete
  5. 1. Repeat
    2. First
    3. First
    4. Repeat
    5. First
    6. Repeat
    7. First
    8. Repeat
    9. First
    10. Neither
    11. First
    12. First
    13. Repeat
    14. First
    15. First
    16. First

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes; No; No; Yes; No; Yes; No; Yes; No; Yes; No; No; Yes; Yes; No; Not a problem, old bean.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Mr Anonymous (as if I don't know who this is...).

      Delete
  7. yes
    no
    no
    yes
    yes
    yes
    no
    yes
    yes
    yes
    yes
    no
    yes
    yes
    yes
    no

    ReplyDelete