English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
B12.1 Direct and reported speech
B12 Reporting
Section B Development
An important feature of speech is reporting to others what someone has said to us. There are two ways of doing this:
□ direct speech, i.e. to repeat what the person said:
’I will not stand for re-election,’ he said.
□ reported speech (or ’indirect speech’):
He said that he will not stand for re-election.
Both involve a reporting clause (functioning as the main clause - introduced by he said above), plus a reported clause in the case of reported speech (that he . . . ), or a
quote in direct speech (’I will . . .’); both the reported clause and the quote function as the object of the reporting verb (said). However, the reported clause is integrated more closely into clause structure; above it is a subordinate clause, but non-finite clauses are also possible (He said to come.)
Backshift
Learners of English are commonly presented with a list of rules for ’transforming’ direct speech into reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past (as it usually is). These involve shifting tenses ’backwards’ in time:
’change the present simple into the past simple’
’change the present continuous into the past continuous’
’change the present perfect into the past perfect’.
’change the past into the past perfect’, etc.
plus changes for pronouns (e.g. I to you) and adverbials of place and time (e.g. here to there), etc. (’deixis’, as described in B2). For example, this sentence in direct speech:
’I am coming to the party tomorrow’.
would ’become’, using the above rules:
She said she was coming to the party the next day.
However, these rules are very problematic. The first problem is that any ’changes’ that might be made depend on the context. So if the party has not yet taken place we might say:
She said she is coming to the party tonight.
In other words, the adverbial may have numerous realisations, and the tense need not change. Here are two examples (from Thomson 1994) where there is no change in tense (the original text is in brackets):
(I am willing. . ’) Yeltsin, for his part, said he is willing to try.
(We carried out the attack’) An opposition group said it carried out the attack.
Such ’exceptions’ are usually explained in terms of recency and continued validity (especially if the reporting verb is in the present), but this is not a complete explanation. For one thing, the past tense rarely ’changes’ into the past perfect.
The second problem is that the way speech is reported is also dependent on the (new) speaker’s attitude to what he or she has heard. This is only to be expected; reporting someone else’s words as if they are yours could get you into trouble if the original speaker is unreliable or uses swear words. So how does A report to B what C said? How can A distance himself or herself from commitment to the original statement? The answer is to use the past tense, for example:
(’I am very unhappy.’) She said she was very unhappy.
We have already seen in B5 situations where the past is used for distancing. Its use here in reported speech is similar. This explains why the past rarely ’changes’ to past perfect, unlike the present perfect; the distance is already there in the past tense. But such a change may imply a change of state:
(’We were intending . . .’) They said they had been intending to carry out the attack.
(but they are not now)
This is the only situation where modals (can, etc.) can be said to have ’past’ tense forms (could, etc.), which can be used to achieve the same distancing as the past tense, for example:
(’I can come’) She said she could come. (but can would also be possible)
Another problem with the notion of transforming direct speech into reported speech is that we normally base what we say on the meaning that we remember, not on the words. If the exact words are important - and we remember them - then we will use direct speech. If not, we will construct the sentences using the same rules for tense usage as apply elsewhere. There is a story by Agatha Christie in which a dying man’s last words are remembered as ’heap of fish’, which mystifies everyone. What he actually said was ’pilocarpine’ (the name of the poison used in his murder); however, this was heard as ’pile o’ carp’ and then wrongly remembered.
Activity B12.1
If you are going through this section in class, try to recall what your teacher/ lecturer said at the start and represent it in reported speech. Compare your version with those of your colleagues. How similar are they? What tenses have you chosen?
The unwarranted focus on rules for tense backshift can obscure a number of areas which are important for reporting:
□ the status of the reported clause. It functions as the direct object of the reporting verb, most commonly as a nominal that clause:
He said that he is coming.
But other non-finite structures, such as to infinitive, are possible.
□ the use of reporting verbs in the correct pattern (see B8). Thus
He told me that you are lazy. (and not ’He told that you are lazy.’)
An indirect object is required for tell. See Activity B12.2 below.
□ the ordering of elements when direct speech is used in reporting. The reporting clause may come before or after the quote:
She said come here’. / ’Come here’, she said
or in the middle:
’Come on’ he said, ’let’s try to get there first’.
□ the choice of reporting verb. There is a wide range of such verbs (see those used in the text in C11). Say is by far the most frequent; tell and ask are also common:
He said that you are lazy.
Not all verbs referring to the act of speaking can be reporting verbs. Scold and talk are two such exceptions. You cannot say ’He talked that you are lazy.’
□ reported thought, which follows the same patterns as reported speech, and can even involve direct reporting with a quote:
I thought he was crazy.
’You must be crazy’, I thought.
Activity B12.2
Fill in the gaps with a suitable reporting verb from the list below.
a) He ... to her for causing the accident.
b) She ... that she caused the accident.
c) He ... her of causing the accident.
d) He ... her for causing the accident.
e) She ... that I caused the accident.
blamed, accused, claimed, apologised, admitted
A final issue is the reporting of questions. Here the word order is important (there is no inversion), as is the use of if or whether to introduce the reported clause (rather than that):
(’Can I come?’) He asked if he can/could come.