Ad
related to: reported speech class 9 examples
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In linguistics, speech or indirect discourse is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be direct discourse.
Indirect speech, also known as reported speech, indirect discourse (US), or ōrātiō oblīqua (/ ə ˈ r eɪ ʃ ɪ oʊ ə ˈ b l aɪ k w ə / or / oʊ ˈ r ɑː t ɪ oʊ ɒ ˈ b l iː k w ə /), [1] is the practice, common in all Latin historical writers, of reporting spoken or written words indirectly, using different grammatical forms.
At the level of pragmatics, a question is an illocutionary category of speech act which seeks to obtain information from the addressee. [ 1 ] At the level of syntax , the interrogative is a type of clause which is characteristically associated with questions, and defined by certain grammatical rules (such as subject–auxiliary inversion in ...
Reported questions (as in the last of the examples) are also subject to the tense and other changes that apply generally in indirect speech. For more information see interrogative mood and English grammar. Indirect questions can serve as adjective and noun complements. Here, in English, they are generally introduced by a preposition, especially of:
Indirect speech acts are commonly used to reject proposals and to make requests. For example, if a speaker asks, "Would you like to meet me for coffee?" and the other replies, "I have class", the second speaker has used an indirect speech act to reject the proposal.
In English, for example, the interrogative is supposed to indicate that the utterance is (intended as) a question; the directive indicates that the utterance is (intended as) a directive illocutionary act (an order, a request, etc.); the words "I promise" are supposed to indicate that the utterance is (intended as) a promise.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
For the use of the past tense in indirect speech and similar contexts, see § Indirect speech below. The -ed ending of regular verbs is pronounced as follows: Regular verb endings with voiced consonants + /d/, e.g. hugged /hʌɡd/. Regular verb endings with unvoiced consonants + /t/, stopped /stɒpt/.