In linguistics, speech or indirect discourse is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be direct discourse. In fiction, the "utterance" might amount to an unvoiced thought that passes through a stream of consciousness, as reported by an omniscient narrator. In many languages, indirect discourse is expressed using a content clause or infinitival. When an instance of indirect discourse reports an earlier question, the embedded clause takes the form of an indirect question. In indirect speech, grammatical categories in the embedded clause often differ from those in the utterance it reports. For instance, the example above uses the third person pronoun "she" even though Jill's original utterance used the first person pronoun "I". In some languages, including English, the tense of verbs can also be changed following the sequence of tense. Some languages also have a change of mood. For instance Latin indirect speech uses the infinitive for statements and the subjunctive for questions.
Changes in form In indirect speech, words generally have referents appropriate to the context in which the act of reporting takes place, rather than that in which the speech act being reported took place (or is conceived as taking place). The two acts often differ in a reference point (origo) – the point in time and place and the person speaking – and also in the person being addressed and the linguistic context. Thus when a sentence involves words or forms whose referents depend on these circumstances, they are liable to change when the sentence is put into indirect speech. In particular, this commonly affects:
personal pronouns, such as I, you, he, we, and the corresponding verb forms (in pro-drop languages the meaning of the pronoun may be conveyed solely by verb inflection). demonstratives, such as this and that. phrases of relative time or place such as now, yesterday and here. There may also be a change of tense or other modifications to the form of the verb, such as change of mood. These changes depend on the grammar of the language in question – some examples can be found in the following sections. Indirect speech need not refer to a speech act that has actually taken place; it may concern future or hypothetical discourse; for example, If you ask him why he's wearing that hat, he'll tell you to mind your own business. Also, even when referring to a known completed speech act, the reporter may deviate freely from the words that were actually used, provided the meaning is retained. This contrasts with direct speech, where there is an expectation that the original words will be reproduced exactly.
Ambiguity Some modal verbs (would, could, might, should, ought to) do not change in indirect speech. The indirect speech sentence is then ambiguous since it can be a result of two different direct speech sentences. For example:
I can get it for free. OR I could get it for free. He said that he could get it for free. (ambiguity) However, in many Slavic languages, there is no change of tense in indirect speech and so there is no ambiguity. For example, in Polish (a male speaker, hence third person masculine singular):
Mogę mieć to za darmo. (I can get it for free) On powiedział, że może mieć to za darmo. (literally: He said that he can get it for free.)
Examples
English Some examples of changes in form in indirect speech in English are given below. See also Sequence of tenses, and Uses of English verb forms § Indirect speech.
It is raining hard. She says that it is raining hard. (no change) She said that it was raining hard. (change of tense when the main verb is past tense) I have painted the ceiling blue. He said that he had painted the ceiling blue. (change of person and tense) I shall come to your party tomorrow. I said that I would come to his party the next day/the following day. (change of shall to would, person and time expression) Will you come to my party tomorrow? I asked if he/she would come to my party the next day/the following day. (change of will to would, person and time expression) How do people manage to live in this city? I asked him how people managed to live in that city. (change of tense and question syntax, and of demonstrative) Please leave the room. I asked them to leave the room. (use of infinitive phrase) I am a traitor... You believe me to be a traitor... (use of infinitive phrase) The tense changes illustrated above (also called backshifting), which occur because the main verb ("said", "asked") is in the past tense, are not obligatory when the situation described is still valid:
Ed is a bore. She said that Ed was/is a bore. (optional change of tense) I am coming over to watch television. Benjamin said that he is/was coming over to watch television. (change of person, optional change of tense) In these sentences, the original tense can be used provided that it remains equally valid at the time of the reporting of the statement (Ed is still considered a bore; Benjamin is still expected to come over).
Ancient Greek In Ancient Greek, statements and questions that are reported are sometimes quoted by using indirect statements and questions. There are three types of indirect statements and one type of indirect question, but all are introduced with a verb of thought, belief, speaking, or questioning. Verbs such as φημὶ require no additional introductory particle. The quoted speech is rendered with the following changes: the finite verb is transformed into the corresponding infinitive, and the nominative subject and the predicate are transformed into the accusative. The accusative object remains unchanged. Tense, voice, and number remain unchanged.
αὕτη ἡ γυνή (nom.) ἐστι καλή (nom.) "This woman is pretty." ὁ ἀνήρ φησι ταύτην τὴν γυναῖκα (acc.) εἶναι καλήν (acc.) "The man says (that) this woman is pretty." Verbs such as γιγνώσκω require no additional introductory particle. However, the nominative subject, and the predicate, if present, are changed into the accusative case, and the finite verb, agreeing with them, is changed into the corresponding participle in the accusative case. The accusative object remains unchanged. Tense, voice, and number remain unchanged.
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