REPORTING SPEECH AND THOUGHT
DIRECT AND INDIRECT REPORTING
There are two main ways of reporting what someone said or what we ourselves said: directly 1, and indirectly 2:
1 She said ‘I’ll wait for you’.
2 She said she would wait for us.
Direct (‘quoted’) speech reporting supposedly repeats the exact words that someone said or wrote, while indirect speech reporting gives the meaning, or the gist of the content. Depending on the verb used, a good deal of further information can also be provided – for instance, the type of speech act being carried out, such as asking, complaining, responding, or the voice quality of the speaker:
‘I hear you’ve been having a tough time,’ he responded.
‘You haven’t sent me the Sunday supplement,’ she complained.
Between quoted and indirect reported speech, there is a difference of immediacy. In quoting, the quoted clause appears to have independent status; its effect, therefore, is more dramatic and life-like. Tenses, pronouns and other deictic elements are orientated towards the speech situation, while in reported speech they shift away from it.
N.B. There is also a difference in referring back to something which has been quoted and something which has been reported. To refer to the actual words quoted, a reference word such as that is typically used, whereas to refer to an indirect report, a substitute form such as so or not is used:
He said, ‘I’ll pay this time.’ Did he really say that?
He said he would pay that time. Did he really say so?
