Inquit formula
The Inquit formula (from Latin inquit , "he says" or "he said") is a formulaic introduction to speech. When a narrator reports the speech of characters, he marks them in many cases with an inquit formula.
Inquit formulas generally consist of a noun or pronoun that indicates the speaker (“my father”, “he”) and a verb of saying (verbum dicendi) . Usually they are in the third person singular, but there are also other forms , for example in first- person narration . The verbs can vary (for example, “he said”, “he returned”, “transferred”) or repeated in formulas. The position is also subject to variation: they can be at the beginning or at the end of the figurative speech, but also in the middle - in this case they interrupt the figurative speech.
In direct speech , the Inquit formula is common, but not mandatory; the same applies to the quotation marks enclosing the text of the figure speech. An inquiry formula is also common in indirect speech , but can be omitted if the figure speech is in the subjunctive ; Quotation marks are not used here. In the experienced speech and in the inner monologue , there is no speech introduction.
Inquit formulas as a stylistic device
Numerous examples of rigidly repeated inquit formulas can be found in Peter Weiss ' novel The Aesthetics of Resistance . An example: "We will one day, said my father, discover that there has always been an underground art that portrayed the life of working people." Here, the direct speech of the father is said by the central Inquit formula Father interrupted. Weiss leaves out the usual quotation marks to mark the figure speech.
Thomas Bernhard's last novel, Auslöschung, consists of an inner monologue of over 600 pages . This in turn contains a large number of quotes in direct and indirect speech, which are marked with inquit formulas, for example: "I said to Gambetti". They represent the most important stylistic device for structuring the text.
literature
- Peter Stocker: Figure speech. In: Klaus Weimar, Harald Fricke, Klaus Grubmüller, Jan-Dirk Müller (eds.): Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft . Volume I. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1997, pp. 593-594.
- Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature . Special edition of the 8th edition from 2001, Kröner, Stuttgart 2013, p. 375.