Indirect Speech

• Backshift is the name given to the change that is required for verbs in a reported clauses if the main/reporting clause is in the past tense.

• triggered by past tense reporting verbs. If the reporting verb is in the past tense, all subsequent verb phrases undergo a *backshift (move back in time) and it triggers changes in things like pronouns and place and time adverbials. 

past simple

past perfect

past perfect

past progressive

past perfect progressive

secondary modal forms

the

as time adverbials: this —>that; these —> those

The reporting verbs (says) is in the present tense, so no backshift is required.

The verb in the direct speech is already past perfect. It is not possible to go any further back than past-in-the-past, so the past perfect form is maintained.

a) true

b) Speaker assumes that John still supports Manchester United.

c) Refers to what John said in the past; current truth is left open.

1. Pronouns:

   1. 1st/2nd person change to 3rd person (unless the addressee is involved in the reporting)

   2. 3rd person need not change, but may become 1st or 2nd person.

2. Time/place adverbials:

   1. Expressions of time and place

   2. pronouns such as this/that, here /there may need to be changed

3. Questions and exclamation punctuation is omitted.

Yes, in all three cases. A modal auxiliary followed by a perfect infinitive is treated as the equivalent of a past tense form and thus triggers backshift.

modal auxiliaries: Can, may, shall and will are usually backshifted to: could, might, should and would respectively.

semi-modals: Must, should, ought to and (had) better, on the other hand, cannot be backshifted. The form remains the same in reported speech

• It is a very common device of narrative writing.

• Involves the indirect-speech reporting of what someone has said or thought by backshifting BUT without including the reporting cluases (he said…, she thought… etc,).

• Free indirect speech, unlike ordinary indirect speech can incorporate the question and exclamation structures (including punctuation) of direct speech.

e.g.

Well, it was no matter now, The dead couldn’t come back to demand an accounting from the living, and there was very little point in dwelling upon her friend’s lack of feeling for a man who’d been chosen from complete strangers to be her spouse.

actual words a person says while speaking

Indirect speech reports only the meanig of something said by another. It isn't necessarily identical to the original utterance.

has the same effext as a past tense reporting verb

e.g.

Direct speech: "Jane is singing." 

Indirect speech: You must have known that Jane was singing.

• svo

• introduced with if

e.g.

Do you want a cheese and pickle sandwich?   

She asked if I wanted a cheese and pickle sandwich. 

• svo

• wh-word followed by the reporting clause

e.g.

What would you like to eat?    

She asked what I would like to eat. 

• main clause

• clause that contains reported speech

• can precede ofr follow the reporting clause

• subordinate clause

• includes a reporting verb

undergo ahift

• ago —> earlier/before

• yesetrday —> the day before

• Tomorrow —> the following day

• last year —> the previous year