This paper explores -ly adverbs in fictional reported speech. Specifically, it combines quantitative, corpus-based perspectives to qualitative analysis to investigate the co-occurrence of -ly adverbs and reporting verbs in 225 English novels (26M words). With an evidential basis significantly larger than what was taken into account by previous research, this paper offers both an overview of the frequency of usage of -ly adverbs in fictional reported speech and a detailed investigation of the most frequent patterns of co-occurrence between these adverbs and verbs. Moreover, building on the quantitative data, we propose a classification model of -ly adverbs that shows the main functions these items enact when used with reporting verbs. Overall, this paper contributes importantly to further our understanding of the stylistic role -ly adverbs play in fictional speech presentation, shedding light on both the patterns they create and the functions they enact.
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