Direct Speech Reported Speech
He said, ‘Thank you’ He thanked me.
He said, ‘Damn’ He swore.
She said, ‘What a wonderful afternoon’ She enjoyed the wonderful afternoon
.
c. Punctuation
Different from direct speech, in reported speech structures, there is no use of quotation marks Azar, 1989 and there is no use of comma before that, what, where,
etc. Swan, 1995, for example: Everybody realised that I was a foreigner NOT Everybody realised, that….
The exclamation mark is also not used when someone reports the exclamation, for example:
Direct exclamation: He said, ‘Thank you’ Reported exclamation: He thanked me.
Since the interrogative form of the verb changes to the affirmative form, there is also no use of question mark ? in reported question Thomson Martinet, 1980,
for example: Direct question: He said, ‘Where does she live?’
Reported question: He asked where she lived.
d. Conjunction that
When someone reports someone else’s speech, he or she generally uses
conjunction that in his or her reported speech, for example: John said that the library
closed at 8 that night. Conjunction that is also called complementizer that Celce-
Murcia Larsen-Freeman, 1983. 15
When that is put between brackets in the written form of reported speech, it
indicates that it can be omitted or dropped, for example: John said that the library
closed at 8 that night. The conjunction that is often dropped, especially after
common reporting verbs e.g. say, think Swan, 1995.
e. Reporting Verbs Say, Tell, Ask
Reporting verbs discussed in this study are say, tell, ask, since they are the highest frequency used in both direct speech and reported speech.
1. Say
There are two ways of the use of reporting verb say in reported speech. Using to + personal indirect object
Example: He said to me that he hadn’t got much time.
Omitting to and personal indirect object
Example: He said that he hadn’t got much time. 2. Tell
Reporting verb tell used in reported speech is usually followed by object.
Example: He told me that he was tired. NOT He told to me that he was tired
3. Ask
In reported question, ask can be used with or without personal indirect object, for example:
She asked me
if I was tired.
optional
However, ask must be followed by object in reported request or command, for
example: My boss asked me to sit down.
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