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"This paper looks at new trends in the use of direct speech in two corpora of spontaneous speech, one from Paris and one from London, within the framework of the project « MLE-MPF Multicultural London English - Multicultural Paris French ». The analysis of the French data shows innovative strategies for reported speech in teenage storytelling. It shows trends similar to those found in other languages and varieties (for English see Tagliamonte & D’Arcy 2007, Buchstaller & D’Arcy 2009, Cheshire et al. 2011, Fox 2012; for Quebec French, Levey et al. 2013), but also some features which seem to be peculiar to the French of France. This paper discusses the pragmatic funtions which these emerging forms take on in a range of contexts, and investigates the reasons behind their development."