Intonation in Speech and Thought Reporting

Directly reported speech and thought are not only deictically and syntactically, but also prosodically less well integrated with the quotative expression than indirect reports. Though not an established result of the longstanding linguistic and philosophical scrutiny of the modes of speech and thought reporting, it was yet something Thomas Hardy noticed, revising his poem Afterwards for re-publication and struggling with some crucial wordings and with punctuation in circumstances where quotative and report had distinct illocutionary force, with the one a question and the other a statement.