232 Advances in spoken discourse analysis
If we return now to the two versions we proposed above, we can see that
they project different states of understanding, and that the difference could
have important implications for what follows. If we are told that Bude
signed his name, the fact of his having done so might have later repercussions
or require subsequent explanation. If it is assumed that we know he signed
it, it is more likely to be where he signed it that will have later significance.
A maximally effective reading of material like this will be anticipatory: it
will take into account how the bit being read now fits into the subsequent
development of the story. Instead of just acknowledging the existence of a
context of interaction it will, to a large extent, create one in which the
subsequent unfolding world of the fiction will be a determining factor.
VERSE AS CONVERSATION
Many poems fit quite easily into our understanding of what interactive
speech is like. Some, indeed, are presented as representations of two-party
conversations. Thus, it is hard to see how the opening stanza of W.H. Auden’s
‘The Quarry’ could be seen as not partaking of the nature of a situated
dialogue:
O what is that sound which so thrills the ear
Down in the valley drumming, drumming?
Only the scarlet soldiers, dear,
The soldiers coming.What is less obvious is precisely what the situation is. A reading of the
poem enables us to construct it in some important details (though not all of
them may be acceptable to all readers). The first two lines are an interested
enquiry by a woman about an unusual noise, the second two a rather dismissive
explanation by a man. The latter is probably feigning unconcern, however,
as it later becomes evident that the soldiers are looking for him. Their
eventual breaking into the room and violently taking him away provides the
climax to the poem.
We may ask how any of this will affect an appropriate reading. A dramatized
reading might well suggest the relationship between the parties, their differing
reactions to the sound, and any premonitions either might have as to its
explanation in a variety of ways. Although much of this will involve vocal
effects that do not fall within what I am now taking to constitute the intonation
system, there is at least a possibility that it will affect the way the reader
makes choices in that system. One possible, and justifiable, reading might
sound like this:
//p o WHAT is that SOUND which so thrills the ear //
//p down in the VALLey //p DRUMming //p DRUMming //
//r+ ONly the scarlet SOLdiers dear //
//r+ the SOLdiers coming //