SubmissionNumber#=%=#27 FinalPaperTitle#=%=#Speaking on Their Behalf: Detecting Indirect Speech in Historical Danish and Norwegian Texts ShortPaperTitle#=%=# NumberOfPages#=%=#7 CopyrightSigned#=%=#Ali Al-Laith JobTitle#==# Organization#==#University of Copenhagen Njalsgade 76, bygning 4A, 2. sal 2300 København S Abstract#==#Indirect speech is a fundamental yet understudied form of reported speech that plays a crucial role in literary texts and communication. While direct speech detection has received significant attention in computational linguistics, the automatic identification of indirect speech remains a challenge due to its nuanced linguistic structure and contextual dependencies. This paper focuses on the detection of indirect speech in late 19th-century Scandinavian literature, where its presence has been linked to shifting aesthetic ideals. We present an annotated dataset of 150 segments, each randomly selected from 150 different novels, designed to capture indirect speech in Danish and Norwegian literature. We evaluate four pre-trained language models for classifying indirect speech, with results showing that a Danish Foundation Model (DFM Large), trained on extensive Danish data, has the highest performance. Finally, we conduct a classifier-assisted quantitative corpus analysis and find that the prevalence of indirect speech exhibits fluctuations over time. Author{1}{Firstname}#=%=#Ali Author{1}{Lastname}#=%=#Al-Laith Author{1}{Username}#=%=#yemen2016 Author{1}{Orcid}#=%=#https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6650-3469 Author{1}{Email}#=%=#alal@di.ku.dk Author{1}{Affiliation}#=%=#University of Copenhagen Author{2}{Firstname}#=%=#Alexander Author{2}{Lastname}#=%=#Conroy Author{2}{Username}#=%=#alexanderconroy Author{2}{Orcid}#=%=# Author{2}{Email}#=%=#alc@hum.ku.dk Author{2}{Affiliation}#=%=#University of Copenhagen Author{3}{Firstname}#=%=#Kirstine Nielsen Author{3}{Lastname}#=%=#Degn Author{3}{Orcid}#=%=# Author{3}{Email}#=%=#knd@hum.ku.dk Author{3}{Affiliation}#=%=#Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen Author{4}{Firstname}#=%=#Jens Author{4}{Lastname}#=%=#Bjerring-Hansen Author{4}{Username}#=%=#jensbjerring Author{4}{Orcid}#=%=# Author{4}{Email}#=%=#jbh@hum.ku.dk Author{4}{Affiliation}#=%=#University of Copenhagen Author{5}{Firstname}#=%=#Daniel Author{5}{Lastname}#=%=#Hershcovich Author{5}{Orcid}#=%=# Author{5}{Email}#=%=#dh@di.ku.dk Author{5}{Affiliation}#=%=#Computer Science Department, University of Copenhagen ========== èéáğö