This paper investigates the formal and functional dimensions of reported discourse in sixteenth-century correspondence. It focuses on how letter-writers report the utterances – spoken, thought and written – of high-status sources (namely, the king or queen), in order to assess how the early modern reporting system compares with the present-day equivalent. The early modern values of authenticity, verbatim reporting and verbal authority are examined. The results taken from the Parsed Corpus of Early English Correspondence (PCEEC) suggest that early modern writers prefer to present royal language using indirect reports with semi-conventionalised linguistic features that clearly mark the authority of the source. Only an elite few, associated with the Court, use direct speech. The paper suggests that reporting practices distinguish between speech and writing, with the latter showing nascent signs of anxiety over verbatim reporting. I argue that these trends arise from the larger cultural shift from oral to written records taking place throughout the early modern period.

中文翻译：

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皇家语言和 16 世纪通信中的报道话语

本文研究了 16 世纪通信中所报道话语的形式和功能维度。它侧重于写信人如何报告地位高的来源（即国王或王后）的口头、思想和书面表达，以评估早期现代报告系统与当今同类报告系统的比较。审查了真实性、逐字记录和口头权威的早期现代价值观。来自早期英语通信解析语料库 (PCEEC) 的结果表明，早期现代作家更喜欢使用具有半传统语言特征的间接报告来呈现皇室语言，这些语言特征清楚地表明了来源的权威性。只有少数与法院有关的精英使用直接发言。该论文表明，报告实践区分了演讲和写作，后者表现出对逐字报告的焦虑的新生迹象。我认为，这些趋势源于整个早期现代时期发生的从口头记录到书面记录的更大文化转变。