Transcript Direct and indirect speech

Direct and indirect speech
direct speech reports someone’s
indirect speech reports someone’s
forms of speech quotations
quotations usually involve two clauses
clause 1
whose saying
(=reporting clause)
eg
clause 2
the saying
John said
I’m going home
John said
that he was going home
except
direct
free direct speech
(1 clause)
indirect
direct speech:
reporting someone’s wording
The two clauses – who said + what they said –
can occur in any order, i.e.
‘What’s going on?’ Ali demanded.
what was said
who said
Ali demanded, ‘What’s going on?’
who said
and…
what was said
Subject and verb order in the reporting
clause can be reversed IF the reporting
clause comes last
‘What’s going on?’ Ali demanded.
S
V
‘What’s going on?’ demanded Ali .
V
S
punctuation in direct speech
‘I am going home,’ said John, ‘Are you coming?’
words within words
a quote within a quote is enclosed in
quotation marks that are not the same
as those already in use
e.g. “What did Ma say?” asked Mei.
“Ma said ‘Come home’,” Ali replied.
indirect speech:
reporting someone’s meaning
John said (that) he was going home.
warning
The two clauses
– who said + what they said –
cannot occur in any order;
the reporting clause (i.e. the one that
identifies who said) must come first.
grammatical features of
indirect speech
When we say something we identify
persons, things, places and times with
reference to the speech situation.
e.g. Sue said, “I stayed here last year”
I stayed here
last year
Sue
Ai Lee
When we report the meaning of the
saying through indirect speech, we must
transform all references to the speech
situation - time, place and persons.
e.g. Sue said she had stayed there the year before
transforming references to
persons
people refer to themselves using the
personal pronoun (I/me). This 1st
person pronoun has to be
transformed into a 3rd person
pronoun (he/she)
pronouns (personal and demonstrative) in
indirect speech
e.g.
John said,
“I am
coming.”
John said he was coming
“I know this trick
of yours,”
said Alice
Alice said she knew that trick of his.
time and place in indirect speech
indirect
direct
tomorrow
yesterday
becomes
the following day
today/tonight
the day before
(the previous day)
that day/night
here
there
time and place in indirect speech
e.g.
John said,
“I can walk here
tonight.”
John said he could walk there that night.
tense/modality in indirect speech
direct
present tense
present
continuous
present perfect
can
shall/will
may/might
must/ has to
indirect
becomes
past tense
past continuous
past perfect
could
should/would
might
had to
tense / modality in indirect speech
John said, “I
am coming.”
John said, “We
left yesterday.”
John said, “We
must go tomorrow.”
John said he was coming
John said they had
left the day before.
John said they had to
go the next day.
reported questions in
indirect speech
in most question forms the order of Subject
and auxiliary verb is: auxiliary followed by
Subject, e.g.
“When will he be coming?” she asked
Aux
S
When a question is reported indirectly then the
order is Subject followed by auxiliary, e.g.
She asked when he would be coming
S
Aux
reported commands
“Help yourselves,” he said
Help yourselves
He told (invited) us to
help ourselves
He told (invited) them to
help themselves
free direct speech
‘Coming out tonight?’
‘No, I’ve got to work.’
a literary device
free indirect speech
She wouldn’t go out
tonight, she thought. She
had work to do.
free indirect speech has
features of both
direct & indirect
speech
She wouldn’t go out tonight, she
thought. She had work to do.
Active and passive
1.The boy chased the girl. 2. The girl was chased by the boy.
the do-er of the action – the chaser – is the boy
in clause 1 the –er role is expressed by
a noun phrase – The boy
in clause 2 the –er role is expressed by
a prepositional phrase – by the boy
clause 1 is in the active;
clause 2 is in the passive.
why use the passive?
to speak impersonally, without assigning someone
or something the responsibility for the event.
e.g. The girl was chased.
The window was smashed.
This makes our message seem detached and
objective
Making the active sentence passive
active
subject
The boy
The girl
subject
verb
saw
was seen
verb
passive
object
the girl (didn’t he?)
by the boy (wasn’t she?)
object
warning
not all verbs can be expressed as
either active or passive. Some verbs
can only be expressed as active, i.e.
most intransitive verbs, e.g.
The ship sailed at midnight
common errors
• inverting subject and auxiliary in
reported questions, e.g.
When will they be
coming?
She asked when would they be coming.
She asked when they would be coming.
• Dad, today the teacher asked me
if I had any brothers or sisters.
• That’s nice of her to take an
interest in you. What did she say
when you told her you are an only
child?
• She said, “Thank goodness.”
At a restaurant
• Waiter, what are these coins
doing in my soup?
• Well, sir, you said you would
stop coming to this restaurant
unless there was some change
in the meals.
• What kind of ants can be found in houses?
• OccupANTS
• A teacher asked his class to
write an essay about a football
match. A minute later all the
students were writing except for
one child.
• The teacher looked at her paper.
• It said, “The game was cancelled
because of rain.”
• Why are you putting a bandage on
your pay cheque?
• Because my salary has just been cut.
Task a)
Lin said she did not know why she had been
so honoured, although she said that she
had been wearing all her badges from when
she was in the air force. She described
how, when they had got on the plane, the
crew had taken her on first, carrying her
on with a lift. She recalled that when she
first boarded, she and the pilot had been
the only people sitting in the plane.
Changing from direct to
indirect speech
• make incomplete/unpunctuated sentences
into complete/punctuated sentences.
• Omit filler words such as really and er.
• Use a range of verbs to precede or follow.
what was spoken, e.g. described, recalled.
• Change from first person to third person.
• Change from present to past, past to past
perfect
text in direct speech vs text
in indirect speech
•
•
•
•
Direct:
informal
immediate
creates sense of
character
• sometimes
difficult to follow
•
•
•
•
Indirect:
formal
removed
less sense of
character
• easier to follow
Task b)
1. No one wants to take the blame for losing the
file
2. The play is considered an object in its own right,
distinct from its author
3. There is no single subject for this statement
4. He was not injured deliberately, or by an
animate agent, so there is no clear subject
5. Someone must have broken the window, but the
structure suggests that no one wants to take
responsibility for it, or the agent is not known
6. Who conducted the research is not
considered relevant.
7. The passive is used to sound factual.
8. This is reporting a scientific fact, with
no need to know who did the heating.
changing from
passive to active
Regrettably,
your file has
been lost.
you will be paid
$5000 so that it
can be replaced.
Macbeth was
written in
1606.
Regrettably,
(I regret that)
I lost your file.
I will pay you $5000
so that you can
replace it.
Shakespeare
wrote Macbeth
in 1606.
“The pilot must have seen the badges on my
jacket,” said Lin.
Lin surmised/speculated that the pilot had
seen the badges on her jacket.
Lin claimed that the pilot had almost certainly
seen the badges on her jacket.
certainty (opinion)
must;
surmise; speculate
“I’m in a wheelchair so I must be lifted into
the plane,” explained Lin.
Lin explained that, because she was in a
wheelchair, she had to be lifted into the
plane.
Lin explained that, because she was in a wheelchair,
she must be lifted into the plane
0bligation;
must;
have to
“I’m in a wheelchair so I must be lifted into
the plane,” explained Lin.
Lin explained that, because she is in a wheelchair,
she must be lifted into the plane.
0bligation;
must;
have to
Lin explained that, because she is in a wheelchair,
she has to be lifted into the plane.