The adverbs she uses include impatiently, warmly, drily, stoutly, and resentfully. The only thing I’ll add here is an extra detail from Slaughter’s study-at 14 points in Pride and Prejudice, Austen uses an adverb to describe how someone says something. In a previous Jane Austen Writing Lesson, I talked in more depth about how characters say lines of dialogue one method of doing so is to incorporate actions or adverbs. 18% of the time Austen uses “descriptive dialogue tags”-“verbs that describe the manner, mood or inflection of the speech and not simply its function or form.” The descriptive dialogue tags used by Austen include cried, observed, exclaimed, called, and whispered. Another common functional dialogue tag in fiction is asked. Yet when we read Pride and Prejudice we can see how effectively Austen uses other dialogue tags.Īccording to Elliott Slaughter, while 50% of Austen’s dialogue tags use the word said, 32% of the time she uses “functional dialogue tags”-tags which “indicate the function or role of a piece of dialogue.” The functional dialogue tags Austen uses include replied, added, continued, thought, repeated, and answered. Largely, I agree-a lot of the time, you do want the dialogue tag to be invisible, and if you’re constantly using other verbs, it can distract or become annoying. Non-native English speakers sometimes find the constant use of the word said to be jarring, while those who have read hundreds of books in English become used to it.Įndless authors and books on writing recommend that writers primarily use the word said in dialogue tags, and to use other verbs minimally or not at all. In the brilliant book Craft in the Real World, Matthew Salesses explains that said being seen as invisible is just a cultural convention, and is not inherently better or right. Often, we don’t want the reader to be focusing on the dialogue tag-we want them to focus on the dialogue itself, and strong dialogue often gives a feel of how the speaker is speaking on its own, without extra description. It does its job, assigning dialogue to the speaker, but we aren’t meant to really notice or pay attention to it. In English, “said” is seen as an invisible dialogue tag. He found that 50% of Austen’s dialogue tags used the word “said.” The author Elliott Slaughter performed a study of dialogue tags, and one of the texts that he analyzed was Pride and Prejudice. If this convention was used, this paragraph could be written something like: “Which do you mean?” He turned round and looked for a moment at Elizabeth.) There is one spot where an action beat is used instead of a dialogue tag: “Which do you mean?” and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth… (This phrasing works well in Pride and Prejudice, but as a note, modern dialogue conventions often-but not always-split the action beat into a separate sentence. Bingley’s emotion and the manner in which he is speaking. There is one dialogue tag which uses a different verb: cried Bingley. In this passage, there are three dialogue tags which use said: said he, said Mr. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.” “Which do you mean?” and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, “She is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. Do let me ask my partner to introduce you.” “Oh! she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld! But there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I dare say very agreeable. Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet. “You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,” said Mr. “I would not be so fastidious as you are,” cried Bingley, “for a kingdom! Upon my honour, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as I have this evening and there are several of them you see uncommonly pretty.” Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with.” At such an assembly as this, it would be insupportable. You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. “Come, Darcy,” said he, “I must have you dance. Darcy.Ĭonsider the use of dialogue tags and action beats in this passage in which Mr. The Meryton assembly is the first time that we meet the single and ever-so-desirable characters, Mr.
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