“a Parliamentary Affair»

The extract taken from the novel “A parliamentary affair» is under discourse analysis. It belongs to the genre of fiction prose. The story is told by the third-person narrator from Karen’s point of view. The point of view in the story is elaborated on the cognitive level mostly. With the help of it we may witness her critical thinking. The technique of free-indirect thought is also elaborated in the text and it gives an insight into her inner thoughts.
God knows where, probably with Roger, How odd, why was it all right for Dad to be away, but not for her mother; was that the way the world ran….perhaps or perhaps not, why couldn’t her mother be like other women? Some philosophical questions show her critical view of reality. Free-indirect thought in this text is shaped in the form of a soliloquy. Such word phrases as, for example, god knows where, how odd, not any more, surely? sound rather emotive and evaluative. The phrase god knows where belongs to the colloquial language, how odd-it is an elliptical sentence. Free-indirect thought intermingles with the core of the text and makes it more realistic and personified. We might guess that these words could pertain to her mother. Such words as the adjective “practical”, the noun “proposition» are not widely used in everyday talks, especially by a child. In such a way the author foregrounds the idea, that Karen according to her age is still a teenager, but according to her rather sophisticated and critical way of thinking deeply inside she is an adult. Not completely an adult, as she still acts as a teenager who refuses to obey the rules. In the sentences An adult would head straight for the drinks cabinet. A whole cupboard full of whisky and wine and liqueurs. She walked over and picked up the bottles, examining them with mingled curiosity and defiance. the author reconstructs some scenario of typical behavior of her parents. And the modal verb “would” in the meaning of some habitual event in the past serves as a