Indirect Speech

In Grammar, the indirect speech is a morphosyntaxic adaptation words marked or written by a third person. It is one of the two varieties of Discours brought back (the other being the direct Discours).

  • This type of brought back speech is much less objective than the direct speech. Indeed, the times used in the indirect speech indicate to us that which brings back the speech does not engage on its veracity . This obvious distance between the quoted statement and the quite relative credit that the narrator can grant to it, makes it possible to let pass all kinds of insinuations, unvoiced comments, doubts, suspicions, skepticism, calumnies even, with respect to the speech in question. For example, while saying: “He claims that he seeks work… ”, I can imply that I am sure that it of it is nothing, and that it spends its days to the coffee, etc

  • In the statement quoted of the indirect speech, the Embrayeur S are employed compared to the situation of stating of the statement quoting (there is nothing any more but one enonciator, the narrator ). In addition, the quotation marks should not be employed.

  • There exist two kinds of indirect speeches, the dependant indirect speech and the free indirect Speech . The two forms require a transposition verbal times, people, etc

Formal indirect speech

The formal indirect speech (or dependant indirect speech ) is a type of indirect speech which grammatically takes the shape of an element subordinate to the speech of the narrator (more precisely, a completive Subordinate clause). Belonging to a account , the time of its principal verb (the verb introducer ) is generally with the passed . In addition, it is obligatorily about a transitive verb :

Jean claims qu'il is malade. He added qu'il would not work aujourd'hui, and he had the base to ask me d'appeler the médecin!

indirect Speech by which the narrator implies that he does not believe only known as Jean.

the professor was put then in anger. He says to his pupil qu'il did not support more his paresse and qu'il would end up more dealing with him if this one found without stop of the excuses not to make its devoirs…

Transposition of the direct speech in indirect speech

As regards Speech brought back, one understands by transposition , the transformation of a type of speech in another. The transposition raises more difficulties when one leaves the direct Discours and that one goes towards the indirect speech.

  • This transposition concerns Embrayeur S, i.e., time of Verb S, people, as well as other marks of stating (times and place), which will not be considered any more from the point of view of the original enonciator (as in the direct speech), but from the point of view of the narrator.

  • In certain cases (Interjection S, nominal sentences, incomplete sentence, grammatically incorrect sentence…), this transposition raises difficulties and requires an additional adaptation, a interpretation on behalf of the narrator, so as to produce a stated in conformity with the grammatical rules :

It said: “Alas! ”   /He said: “My stay in the Cevennes? A paradise! ”   /He said: “Really, you believe that… ”   /He said: “If I would have known, I would not have come! ”

“It pushed a sigh of découragement.  /He said that its stay in the Cevennes had been a paradis.  /It appeared hésitant.  /He said that if he had known, he would not have come. ”

  • besides these cases difficult (but frequent in the oral stating), the transposition in the indirect speech follows the following rules.

Transposition of the time of the verbs

  • If the verb introducer is at the present or the future, it has there no change of time in the quoted statement:

It says to me: “I am sure that you réussiras. ” direct formal

It says to me that it is sure that I réussirai. indirect formal

  • If on the contrary, the verb introducer with passed (simple, composed or imperfect), the present indicative becomes imperfect code , the preterit or the past made up of the code become pluperfect of the code , the future of the code becomes last conditional (it is the “ sequence of tenses of the speech brought back ”):

It said to me: “I am sure that you réussiras. ” direct formal

It said to me that it was sure that I réussirais. indirect formal

Transposition of the people

The categories carrying the marks of the nobody (i.e., the following embrayeurs : Verb, personal Pronoun, pronoun and Possessive adjective S), adapt, if necessary, these marks with the new situation of stating:

It said to me: “Nous will take the train, because the road is barred. ” direct formal

It told me qu'ils would take the train, because the road was barred. indirect formal

Transposition of time and the place

In the same way, the categories carrying the marks of time and the place ( deictics ), adapt if necessary, these marks with the new situation of stating. Thus, “ here ” becomes “ there ”, “ now ” becomes “ then ”, “ yesterday ” becomes “ the day before ”, etc:

It said to me: “We will leave demain, because ici, it makes really too hot. ” direct formal

It said to me that they would leave le lendemain, because là-bas, it made really too hot. indirect formal

Related subjects

Random links:1826 | Comunicaciones en la República Centroafricana | Guarida Bosch de FC | Jean-Marc Lefranc | Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod | Rtkovo | Pastré countryside | Deux-Sèvres