DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

NAMA  : PUTRI CANDRA INDRIYANI
KELAS : 1EA19
NPM     : 15216842


    DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

Direct and indirect speech can be a source of confusion for English learners. Let's first define the terms, then look at how to talk about what someone said, and how to convert speech from direct to indirect or vice-versa.

You can answer the question What did he say? in two ways:

  • by repeating the words spoken (direct speech)
  • by reporting the words spoken (indirect or reported speech).

Direct Speech


Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. When we use direct speech in writing, we place the words spoken between quotation marks (" ") and there is no change in these words. We may be reporting something that's being said NOW (for example a telephone conversation), or telling someone later about a previous conversation.

Examples

  • She says, "What time will you be home?"
  • She said, "What time will you be home?" and I said, "I don't know! "
  • "There's a fly in my soup!" screamed Simone.
  • John said, "There's an elephant outside the window."

Indirect Speech


Reported or indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs like 'say', 'tell', 'ask', and we may use the word 'that' to introduce the reported words. Inverted commas are not used.

She said, "I saw him." (direct speech) = She said that she had seen him. (indirect speech)

'That' may be omitted:
She told him that she was happy. = She told him she was happy.

'Say' and 'tell'

Use 'say' when there is no indirect object:
He said that he was tired.

Always use 'tell' when you say who was being spoken to (i.e. with an indirect object):
He told me that he was tired.

'Talk' and 'speak'

Use these verbs to describe the action of communicating:
He talked to us.
She was speaking on the telephone.

Use these verbs with 'about' to refer to what was said:
He talked (to us) about his parents.

INDIRECT SPEECH

Indirect speech is a report on what someone else said or wrote without using that person's exact words. Also called indirect discourse.

Unlike direct speech, indirect speech is not usually placed inside quotation marks. In the following example, notice how the verb in the present tense (is) changes to the past tense (was) in indirect speech. Also notice the change in word order in the indirect version.

  • Direct speech: "Where is your textbook?" the teacher asked me.
  • Indirect speech: The teacher asked me where my textbook was.

In free indirect speech (commonly used in fiction), the reporting clause (or signal phrase) is omitted.

Examples and Observations

"So then she said that Henry began to get restless. So then she told him she was very glad I was going to get married at last because I had had such bad luck, that every time I became engaged something seemed to happen to my fiance. So Henry asked her what, for instance. So Dorothy said a couple were in the insane asylum, one had shot himself for debt, and the county farm was taking care of the remainder." (Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady, 1925)

Syntactic Shifts Accompanying Indirect Speech

When direct discourse is converted into indirect discourse, pronouns and tenses frequently have to be changed:

Catherine said, "I don't want to intrude."
Catherine said that she didn't want to intrude.

Although I is appropriate in the direct quotation of what someone said, when reporting indirectly someone else's speech, the speaker or writer must change the pronoun. Similarly, the verb in the direct quotation is in the present tense the speaker would have used; in the reported speech, as the situation occurred in the past, the verb must be changed to the past tense.

(Thomas P. Klammer, Muriel R. Schulz, and Angela Della Volpe, Analyzing English Grammar, 4th ed. Pearson, 2004)

[U]nder indirect speech rules the past tense is backshifted to the past perfect:

Direct speech: "The exhibition finished last week," explained Ann.
Indirect speech: Ann explained that the exhibition had finished the preceding week.
(Example from Quirk, 1973: 343)

(Peter Fenn, A Semantic and Pragmatic Examination of the English Perfect. Gunter Narr Verlag, 1987)

Mixing Direct and Indirect Speech

The mixture of direct and indirect forms within single sentences is not uncommon in newspaper reporting. Extracts [12], [13], and [14] are brief examples of the style and show how the topic character, called MacLaine in [12], Kennedy in [13], and Louie in [14], can be the referent of both third person (she/he) and first-person pronouns (I/my) within the same sentence.

[12] MacLaine concedes that one of the reasons she has had no major romantic involvement "for a while" is that she "would have to find a man who shared my spiritual beliefs."

[13] Kennedy has toned down the punk look and vows "not to blurt out exactly what I think."

[14] When he was in the fourth grade at St. Joseph of the Palisades Elementary School, his teacher warned Louie's father, William, a real-estate broker, "that I might be hanging round with the wrong types of boys."

EXAMPLE QUESTION :

1.      “Did they eat out together yesterday?”


a.       He asked me if they had eaten out together the day before.

b.      He asked me if they had eaten out together yesterday.

c.       He asked me if they has eaten out together the day before.

Your answer:


2.      “Don’t turn off the light now.”


a.       He told me didn't turn off the light at that time.

b.      He told me not to turn off the light at that time.

c.       He told me don't turn off the light at that time.

Your answer:


3.      “What’s your passion?”


a.       She wanted to know what is my passion.

b.      She wanted to know what my passion was.

c.       She wanted to know what was my passion.

Your answer:


4.      “I begin to understand the concept of biodiversity.”


a.       He said that he began to understand the concept of Biodiversity.

b.      He wanted to know if he began to understand the concept of Biodiversity.

c.       He asked me that he began to understand the concept of Biodiversity.

Your answer:


5.      “Your friend has just left.”


a.       He told me that my friend has just left.

b.      He told me that your friend had just left.

c.       He told me that my friend had just left.

Your answer:






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