Episode 17 Reported Speech
Hello folks,
This week, I’ve decided to delve into the topic of reported speech. We have two main ways to tackle reported speech in English. We can choose to use direct reported or indirect reported speech. Indirect speech is where all the trouble is. German has a verb form which elegantly indicates reported speech (Konjunktiv 1); however, English lacks this type of subjunctive and so reported verbs play a very important role in reported speech. The tense of the reporting clause plays a vital role in the tense choices for the subsequent reported clause. Past tense reporting verbs trigger a backshift in tenses in the reported clause.
Regardless of the tense of the reporting verb phrase, there are some changes which are always triggered in indirect reported speech. As you are aware, in reported speech there is a switch in perspective and all of the information is filtered through a third party. This triggers changes in pronoun choices, some determiners as well as time and place adverbials.
As I’ve already mentioned, German often calls for the Konjunktiv 1 when rendering reported speech, but German has a second subjunctive form (Konjunktiv 2) which is used to render reported speech if the verb form is ambiguous in Konjunktiv 1. This can cause some problems for German speakers when rendering reported speech in English as German and English subjunctives do not share all of the same qualities. The biggest difference between subjunctive forms is that the English subjunctive is often hypothetical (overlapping with the German Konjunktiv 2), but it can never be a stand-alone option for rendering reported speech; instead a reporting clause is required.
Here’s a handy pdf if you’d like to have a quick overview of the main changes that occur in indirect reported speech.
