Unit 9.

Direct and indirect speech 1

UNIT 9

DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

1. Introduction

2. The reporting verb

3. Changes in indirect speech

3.1. Backshift.
3.2. Modals.
3.3. Say and tell.
3.4. Pronouns.
3.5. Time or place.

4. Discourse functions

4.1. Questions.
4.2. Indirect exclamations.
4.3. Imperative.
4.4. Suggestions.
4.5. Refusals.
4.6. Advice.
4.7. Agreement.

5. Free indirect speech and free direct speech

6. Conclusion

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 2

1. INTRODUCTION

This unit is concerned with direct and indirect speech. We would like to begin by
giving a brief description of the two concepts, followed by a discussion about the
changes that occur, the discourse functions, and, finally, we will look at free direct
and free indirect speech. Let us begin with the description of the two forms.

Direct speech intends to give the exact words that someone utters or has uttered
in speech or writing. Indirect speech, on the other hand, conveys a report of
what has been said or written, but does so in the words of a subsequent reporter.
Contrast the direct speech in the first example with the two possible versions in
indirect speech as given in the other two:

John said: “Why don’t you phone her now?”

John suggested that we phoned her straight away.
John told me that I should phone her then.

The report may be a representation of mental activity, which by its nature is

unspoken.

The next two examples contain direct speech and indirect speech respectively, the
first one as a reflection of the direct speech of someone’s thought process, the
second one as a reporting of that process:

“Should I tell them now”, I thought to myself, “or should I wait until
they are in a better mood?”

He asked himself whether he should tell them then or wait until they were
in a better mood.

Direct speech is usually signalled by being enclosed in speech marks. The reporting
clause may occur before, within or after the direct speech. In the first example
above we can see it occurring within the speech.

When the reporting clause is positioned medially or finally, subject verb inversion
may occur if the verb is in the simple present or simple past. Look at the following
example:

“I wonder”, John said/he said/said John “whether I can borrow your bike?”

Inversion is most common when the verb is said, the subject is not a pronoun and
the reporting clause is medial. It is unusual and archaic or dialectical, however,
when the subject of the reporting clause is a pronoun, even when the verb is said.

“I am going now”, said he.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 3

Now that we have looked at the two forms, we will look at some of the verbs that
can be used in order to report speech.

The information that we will use has been taken from a variety of sources,
including: Swan, Greenbaum and Quirk.

2. THE REPORTING VERB

In direct speech. the reporting verb can be classified as a comment clause. It does
not always appear in speech, and when it does it may occur before, within, or after
the speech act itself. In indirect speech, the reporting verb is necessary, and it is
usually followed by a that-clause, or a non-finite clause, which integrates the
original speech into the main clause. The choice of the reporting verb is determined
by the actual speaker’s recognition of the intention of the original speaker, be it a
command, a suggestion, an instruction and so on.

With this in mind we will look at the various classifications of the reporting verbs.
These can be divided into the following headings:

representatives, directives, commissives, evaluatives, enquiries.

 Representatives show that the original speaker believed that the

propositional content was true. Examples may include the following:

John declared / denied / admitted / accepted that the report was true.

 Directives show a desire on behalf of the original speaker regarding the

action specified in the propositional content:

He begged / asked / requested / urged them to carry out the changes

 Commissives show the intention of honouring an obligation to carry out an

action:

He promised / swore / guaranteed he would do it tomorrow.

 Evaluatives: These express the speaker’s attitude towards some earlier

action: These can show the following feelings:

 Regret: He apologised for having come late.

 Expressing sympathy: He commiserated with the widow.
 Expressing gladness: He congratulated her on her good fortune.
 Expressing gratitude: He thanked her for coming.

 Enquiries are when the speaker asks for some unknown data:

He asked / questioned / wondered what she was doing.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 4

As we have seen in several of the previous examples, the tense of the verb has
changed. In the next part of this unit we will look at the changes that occur when
using indirect speech.

3. CHANGES

Several changes are usually made in converting direct speech to indirect speech. If
the time of reporting is expressed as later than the time of the utterance, there is
generally a change of verb forms. This change is termed backshift.

3.1. Backshift

Below is an exact correspondence for the reporting of direct and indirect speech

DIRECTSPEECH BACKSHIFTEDININDIRECTSPEECH
Present: Past

Iamstayingtill 10. Hewasstayingtill 10

Past: Past orPast Perfect:

Iwent tobedat 10 Hehadgonetobedat 10

Present Perfect: Past Perfect:

Ihavelivedhereforyears Hehadlivedthereforyears

Future Conditional:

Iwill seeyoutomorrow Hewouldseemetomorow

Note:
Intheaboveexample,
tomorrowcanbealteredtothe next day.

There are however the following exceptions:

 Habitual actions: These can be seen in the sentence: I get up at 8 every

morning. As this is perceived as being a permanently true statement, and is
thought to still be true at the time of reporting, then it would remain in the
present simple, although changing it to the past would not be seen as
wrong:

He said that he gets up at 8 every morning.

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 Universal statements:

Water boils at 100 degrees C.

As in the example for habitual actions, this would be seen as a permanent truth and
so the tense would remain the same. It is less likely that this would be reported in
the past simple.

He told me that water boils at 100 degrees C.

 Likes/dislikes: The tense here remains the same when the like or the
dislike is seen as being a permanent part of the person’s character:

I hate cricket.
He said that he hates cricket.

Let us continue looking at the changes that occur by examining the modal
auxiliaries in indirect speech.

3.2. Modals

If there is a change in time reference, a modal auxiliary is backshifted from present

tense forms to past tense forms even if these do not normally indicate past time in
direct speech, thus making an exception to the rules mentioned above about the
ways that the tense can remain the same. This is demonstrated in the following
examples:

 Can/could:

I can swim
He said that he could swim.

 May/might:

I may go to London tomorrow.

He said that he might go to London tomorrow.

If a modal auxiliary in the direct speech is already in the past form, then the same
form remains in the indirect speech:

"You shouldn’t smoke in the bedroom," he told them.

He told them that they shouldn’t smoke in the bedroom.

Several modal auxiliaries have only one form, e.g.: must, ought to, need and
had better. That form remains in indirect speech:

"You must be hungry", he said.

He said that they must be hungry.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 6

"You had better not say anything about this", he warned me.
He warned me that I had better not say anything about that.

In its obligational sense however, the past of must may be replaced by had to in
indirect speech:

“You must be in by 10 tonight”, his parents told him.

His parents told him that he must/had to be in by 10 that night.

Also notice that as the time has shifted, tonight in the above example changes to
that night in indirect speech. This is because we may not know the perspective of
time from which the speech is being reported, and therefore we have to change the
time adverbial to one that is more neutral.

From the modals we would now like to move on to looking at say and tell, and
examine their uses in indirect speech.

3.3. Say and tell

Firstly we would like to point out the difference in meaning between the two.

Basically to say means to express in words:

Say what you think.

Whereas to tell means to narrate, or to explain:

Tell me the truth.

You say something to somebody but you tell somebody something.

In terms of the syntactic structure, to say in direct speech is formed in the following
way:

She said: “I don’t like it.”

Notice that in written English she said in direct speech is often followed by the colon
(:).

In indirect speech there are some optional forms. Look at the following example:

She said to me that she didn’t like it.

Here, if we wished we could omit to me:

She said that she didn’t like it.

In informal speech it is quite normal to omit both to me and that as can be seen in
the following example:

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 7

She said she didn’t like it.

With to say, we find that there is not always the need for it to be followed by an
object that denotes the receiver of the information, as can be seen in the example
above. However, with to tell the omission of the object is unusual and a little
archaic:

She told that she didn’t like it.

This, although possible, is unlikely to be heard in normal conversation. It would be

more likely for the object to be included:

She told me that she didn’t like it.

It is also unusual to find told used in direct speech, for example the following
sentence:

He told me: “I don’t like it”

is less usual than:

He told me that he didn’t like it.

Again we can omit that in the above sentence should we so wish.

When we come onto the changes that occur to pronouns a certain amount of
common sense is required. The reference to persons in indirect speech must be
appropriate to the situation at the time of reporting. The changes therefore may be
as illustrated below:

3.4. Pronouns

Firstly there does not have to be a change when reported from the same time or
place:

I will meet you here in five minutes.

He said he will meet me here in five minutes.

As we can see, the future use of will remains the same as does the place. As we
assume that the speakers in this sentence are in the same place as when the
person absent arranged the meeting, there is therefore no need to change here into
there or that place. We will look at the changes of place in a little more detail later.
Logically, the pronoun I must change to he. We should note that will can change to
would.

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Let us now look further at some of the changes of pronouns:

I will behave myself, he promised.

He promised that he’d behave himself.

You know my family, she said.

She told him that he knew her family.

This is our new house.

They told him that it was their new house.

Other changes may be necessary to adjust the references to time or place. We will
show this in the following examples:

3.5. Time or place

 Yesterday to a definite day:

I came yesterday.
He said that he had come on the Monday before.

In the above example it could be that the time of the direct speech was the
previous Monday.

 Now to Then:

I will do it now.
He said that he would do it then.

It may be more likely that in the above sentence we would say: he said that he
would do it straight away.

 Here to There, or a definite place:

I’ll meet you here.

He said that he would meet me there

In the above example it is likely that the speaker would add an adverbial of place in
order to specify exactly where it was that they had arranged to meet, depending on
where they were when they made the arrangement. This could be at college, in the
pub, outside the shop, etc.

To show these changes in greater detail, look at the following example:

I will go with you to your house tomorrow from here.

She said that she would come with me to my house

the following day from there.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 9

Although the changes may seem complicated, once the student has a basic
knowledge of the vocabulary required, the changes are a result of logic and
common sense.

Now that we have seen how direct and indirect speech patterns are formed, we
would like to move onto looking at how they function in discourse:

4. DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS

All main discourse types may be converted into indirect speech. We have already
examined statements in the previous examples. Let us now examine questions.

4.1. Questions

 Yes/no Questions:

These use whether and if as connectors. Look at the following examples:

Direct: "Are you ready yet?" asked John.

Indirect: John asked (me) if/whether I was ready yet.

 Wh- questions use wh words:

"When will the plane leave?" I wondered.

I wondered when the plane would leave.

 Alternative questions also make use of the whether/if structure:

Are you satisfied or not? I asked her.

In the indirect speech for the above, the position of or not would change according
to the form that was used. For example, with if the structure would be: I asked her
if she was satisfied or not.

We wouldn’t say: I asked her if or not she was satisfied. However, with the use of
whether we can say either: I asked her whether or not she was satisfied or I asked
her whether she was satisfied or not.

4.2. Indirect exclamations

For indirect exclamations we can use the subordinate Wh clause, for example:

"What a brave boy you are!" she told him.

She told him what a brave boy he is/was

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Notice that in the last example, is or was can be used as the situation may still be
true.

4.3 The imperative

For the imperative we can use the following structure:

Object + (not) + to infinitive:

Close the door.

He told me to close the door.
Don’t close the door.
He told me not to close the door.

Other variations in indirect speech are as follows:

4.4. Suggestions

Let’s go to the park. She suggested going/that we go to the park.

Notice the use of going to or that we go to in the last example. Going to would be
more usual in everyday speech.

4.5 Refusals

No, I won’t
She refused to go.

The above example can also take the form: she said (that) she wouldn’t go.

4.6. Advice

You should go early.

She advised us to go early.

Here we can also include that we should without to: she advised us that we should
go early.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 11

4.7. Agreement

You’re right!
He agreed that we were right.

All of the types of changes that we have outlined previously can apply to the above
functions.

The final point that we would like to look at in this unit is that of free indirect
speech and free direct speech:

5. FREE INDIRECT SPEECH AND FREE DIRECT SPEECH

Free indirect speech is used extensively to report speech or - particularly in

fiction - the stream of consciousness. It is basically a form of indirect speech,
but firstly the reporting clause is omitted, and secondly the potentialities of direct-
speech sentence structure are retained, for example, direct questions and
exclamations, tag questions and interjections. It is therefore only the backshift of
the verb, together with equivalent shifts in personal pronouns, demonstratives
and time and place references that signal the fact that words are being reported,
rather than being in direct speech. The verbs in bold type below are backshifted to
the past tense:

What would she do when he came back? He knew where to find her.

In the above example, the author is reporting the speech or thought process of one
of the characters. As it is part of a narrative, we are at no point presented with the
direct speech, but instead the directness of the utterance is implied through the
lack of any reporting clause.

Free direct speech is also, like free indirect speech, used in fiction writing to
represent a person’s stream of thought. It is a form of direct speech, but it is mixed
with the narration without any overt indication by a reporting clause of a switch to
speech. It is distinguished from the past time reference of the narration by its use
of unshifted forms. In the following example the free direct speech is highlighted in
bold type.

I sat on the grass staring at passers by. Everybody seemed in a hurry.

Why haven’t I stayed at home?

Here we can see that the speaker is narrating what he did. At the end the focus of
the narration shifts to his assessment of the situation, reflecting the thoughts that

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 12

he had at the time. There is no backshift - the verb stays in the present in the last
part of the sentence.

6. CONCLUSION

To conclude this unit we would like to point out that although seemingly
complicated, direct and indirect speech is an important part of the students learning
process, and if the teacher is able to show the correct structures clearly and
logically the students should be able to master the techniques without too much
trouble. One of the areas that students do often have problems with is the changing
of the pronouns and the place. For many cases, the rules are the same in Spanish,
and if the students are made fully aware of this then the logic behind the system
should become apparent. The concept of direct and indirect speech is one that can
be studied from a relatively early part of the learning process, although the
students should clearly have had some contact with the various tenses that they
will need. However, due to the fact that there are varying degrees of difficulty
associated with this area of grammar, continuous practice will probably be required
in order to enable the students to become fully proficient.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 13

UNIT 9. DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

THEMES NOTES

Direct speech gives the exact words, indirect speech conveys a

report. Direct speech is usually enclosed in speech marks.
Subject/verb inversion may occur if the verb is in the simple present
or past. This is most common when the verb is said. There are
various classifications of reporting verbs, representatives, such as
declare, directives, such as beg, commissives, for example:
promise, evaluatives, such as apologise, inquiries, such as ask.
Several changes can occur, such as backshift. Here, the present
changes to the past, the past stays as the past or changes to the
past perfect, the present perfect changes to the past perfect, the
past perfect stays the same and the future changes to conditional.
There are exceptions such as habitual actions, universal statements
and likes/dislikes. With modals, can changes to could, and may to
might. Several only have one form, such as must, ought to, need
and had better.

Say means to express in words, tell means to narrate or to explain.

Phrases such as she said in written English, direct speech, are often
followed by the colon. In indirect speech, there are some optional
forms. If we wished we could omit to me

in sentences such as She said to me that she didn’t like it. In

informal English, it is quite normal to omit both to me and that in
sentences such as the one above. The omission of the object with to
tell is unusual and sounds archaic. It is also unusual to find told in
direct speech.

Common sense is needed in the changes that occur with pronouns.

There does not have to be a change when reported from the same
time or place. The changes are that I will change to he/she, me
changes to him/her, as does you, our to their and so on. Other
changes may be necessary to adjust the time or the place.
Yesterday changes to a definite day, now becomes then, here to
there, or a definite place.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 14

All main discourse types may be converted into indirect speech.

Yes/No questions use whether and if as connectors. Wh
questions use wh-words. Alternative questions use the
whether/If structure. Indirect exclamations use the subordinate
Wh-Clause. The imperative uses the structure Object + not + to
infinitive. We can also find suggestions, refusals, advice and
agreement.

Free indirect speech is used to report speech or the stream of

consciousness. The reporting clause is omitted, direct speech
sentence structure is retained. It is only the backshift of the verb,
and the equivalent shifts in personal pronouns, demonstratives and
time/place references that signal the fact that the words are being
reported. Free indirect speech is also used in fiction writing to
represent a persons stream of thought. It is a form of direct speech,
but it is mixed with the narration without any overt indication by a
reporting clause of a switch to speech. It is distinguished from the
past time reference of the narration by its use of unshifted forms.

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Unit 9. Direct and indirect speech 15

Now test your knowledge of unit 9 by answering the following questions:

1. Define direct and indirect speech.

2. Mention and explain briefly the changes that may take place when direct
speech is converted into indirect speech.

3. What are the basic discourse functions converted from direct speech to
indirect speech?

4. Define free direct and free indirect speech.

5. Explain briefly the transformations that converting one of the discourse

functions from direct to indirect speech involves.

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