Indirect speech

In characterising indirect speech as compared with direct, we must dwell on two special cases in which a distinction found in direct speech gets lost in a change into indirect speech.

The first of these is the distinction between the past indefinite and the present perfect tense (and also the past perfect). Both of these, when changed into forms appropriate to indirect speech, are replaced by the past perfect. In a similar way, both the past continuous and the present perfect continuous (and, for that matter, the past perfect continuous) of direct speech will be replaced by the past perfect continuous in indirect speech. This is too well known to need illustration.

In terms of modern linguistic science, we may say that the distinction between the past indefinite and the present perfect (and the past perfect) is neutralised in indirect speech. This, in its turn, sheds some new light on the categories of tense and correlation which we discussed above (Chapters IX and X). The question is this: if the past tense (as distinct from the present) has a tense characteristic, and the present perfect (again, as distinct from the present) has a correlation characteristic, what should we think of the past perfect, which corresponds to the one as well as to the other? We have not the slightest reason to give preference to. tense and to declare that tense is the more essential category, or to correlation, and say that correlation is more essential: each of these statements would be quite arbitrary. If we are to stick to an objective and unprejudiced view of facts, the only reasonable and justified conclusion would appear to be this: in the past perfect the two categories of tense and correlation are merged into one, that is, the difference between them is neutralised. This would also seem to show that the past perfect is not entirely parallel to the present perfect, since in the present perfect no such merger is either real or imaginable.

We may also observe that in the opposite operation, that is, in changing indirect speech into direct, we do not know whether the past perfect of indirect speech should be changed into a past indefinite or into a present perfect (or, indeed, left as it is, namely, as a past perfect), unless we take into account the context of the speech (or perhaps even the situation in which it is being pronounced). We have, in making this change into direct speech, to differentiate between two verbal categories which are not distinguished in the indirect speech text. This may be illustrated by the following extract from a modern novel: She remembered that she had come to his house that night only because at a certain time at Madame Guillaume's party, when the Princesse de Cortignac and Monsieur de

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Gaziè re were coming toward the alcove where they sat, he had gripped her wrist. (R. WEST) In changing this passage into direct speech, should we change the past perfect forms had come and had gripped into a past tense or into a present perfect, or should we, perhaps, leave them as they are? To decide on this, we must look at the context, and in this particular case it is the words that night and at a certain time that are decisive: the tense to be used in direct speech is the past indefinite.

Another case of two different verbal forms of direct speech being replaced by one and the same form in indirect speech is seen in sentences with their " predicate verb in the future tense and those with their predicate verb in the form " should + infinitive" to express a conditional action. Let us first consider a self-made example: He said, " 1 shall come if I have time" and He said, " 1 should come if I had time." In converting each of these sentences into indirect speech, we arrive at the same result in both cases, namely, He said that he would come if he had time. Thus the distinction between futurity and conditionally, which is clearly expressed in direct speech, is neutralised in the indirect. We may as well recollect here what we said above (p. 137 ff.) about the grammatical interpretation of forms like I should come in their different applications. We can add now that that analysis is confirmed and reinforced by considerations proceeding from indirect speech. If we accept the view that there are two homonymous forms, the future and the conditional present (I should come, he would come, etc.), we shall have to say that in the sentence He said that he would come if he had time we cannot, without a context or some other additional information, tell whether he would come is a future-in-the-past or a conditional present. If, on the other hand, we prefer the view that I should come, he would come, etc., is always one and the same form (whatever name we may give to it), we shall say that in the sentence He said that he would come if he had time, he would come is that form and the context or some other additional information will only be necessary to find out what exact meaning (or application) the form has in the given case. This may perhaps be taken to be an argument in favour of the unity of the form and against the homonymity theory.

The same of course applies, to the forms I should be coming, I should have come, I should have been coming, and to the corresponding forms in the passive voice of verbs which admit of a passive, e. g. I should be invited, I should have been invited.

In all of these cases, then, the change of direct into indirect speech implies the neutralisation of an opposition existing in direct speech, and the opposite change from indirect to direct speech implies the introduction (or restoration) of an opposition which was not to be seen in the indirect speech.

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REPRESENTED SPEECH

There is another way of reporting a character's speech, or, still more commonly, his thoughts, which is especially common in 20th century authors, but which may occasionally be found in much earlier writers. This is neither direct speech, which reproduces the speaker's exact words, as they were uttered, in quotation marks; nor is it indirect speech, which retells the character's words from the author's point of view, and is characterised by such formulas as, He said that... The third way of reporting a character's speech or his thoughts stands apart from those two. It is not direct speech, as it does not reproduce the speaker's words in their original form, and it is not indirect speech, as it does not introduce them by formulas like He said that..., though the changes in the personal pronouns, etc. are made.

A typical specimen of this third way, which is sometimes referred to as " represented speech", may be seen in the following extract from " Swan Song" by Galsworthy: Jon Forsyte's sensations on landing at Newhaven, by the last possible boat, after five and a half years' absence, had been most peculiar. All the way by car to Wansdon under the Sussex Downs he was in a sort of excited dream. England! What wonderful chalk, what wonderful green! What an air of having been there for ever! The sudden dips into villages, the old bridges, the sheep, the beech clumps! And the cuckoo — not heard for six years! A poet, somewhat dormant of late, stirred within this young man. Delicious old country! Anne would be crazy about this countryside — it was so beautifully finished. When the general strike was over she could come along, and he would show her everything. In the meantime she would be all right with his mother in Paris, and he would be free for any job he could get. The beginning of this passage, up to the words excited dream, belongs to the author. With the word England begins a passage which expresses Jon's feelings, and this goes on up to the word six years. Then comes the sentence A poet... young man, which clearly belongs to the author. The last part of the extract, from the words delicious old country to the words he could get again expresses Jon's feelings. If we try to state exactly what signs there are to show that one part of the passage belongs to the author and another expresses Jon's feelings, we will find the following. The points of exclamation clearly show that the sentences thus marked express the character's feelings. So do the one-member sentences England! and Delicious old country! That the sentence A poet... young man does not express Jon's feelings is obvious, among other things, from the words young man, which Jon would not use to refer to himself. A characteristic feature is the forms would be, would show, would be, would be. Jon's thoughts would run like this: " When the general strike is over she

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can come along, and I will show her everything. In the meantime she will be all right with my mother in Paris, and I shall be free for any job I can get." The difference between this reconstruction and the actual text lies in the tenses of the verbs and in the use of personal pronouns (third person in the text and first person in our reconstruction). These latter traits make us think of indirect speech, yet what we find in the text is not pure indirect speech: there is no introductory sentence like he said to himself or he thought and the future-in-the-past forms would be, etc. do not appear as a result of sequence of tenses in subordinate clauses. The units in which the future-in-the-past forms are used are not subordinate clauses but independent sentences. These, then, are characteristic features of represented speech, distinct from direct as well as from, indirect speech.

An essentially similar use is also found in the following passage from a modern novel: Stella was gone. She didn't count with Stella, never had, and never would. (WOODHILL) These are the thoughts of a young girl who has seen her best friend go away in an angry state of mind. The tenses in her own thoughts, as they ran, were, of course, the present, past, and future respectively (do not count, never have, and never shall). In represented speech the tenses are the same as they would have been in indirect speech.

We will not" discuss here those problems of represented speech which are of a stylistic or literary, rather than of a grammatical character. What matters from the grammatical point of view is the use of exclamatory one-member sentences (as distinct from indirect speech) and the use of the future-in-the-past in independent sentences, which is distinct from direct speech.

It may also be noted that represented speech differs from both direct and indirect speech in that it is a mainly literary phenomenon.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, as in the above extract from Galsworthy, what is rendered in this way is not actual speech, that is, words pronounced by a character and heard by another, but thoughts which were not uttered aloud. In a few cases, however, actual loud speech or dialogue can also be rendered in this way. To illustrate this, here is an extract from a novel by Jane Austen, in which indirect speech changes into represented speech:... the General, coming forwards, called her hastily, and, as Catherine thought, rather angrily back, demanding whither she were going? And what was there more to be seen? Had not Miss Morland already seen all that could be worth her notice? And did she not suppose her friend might be glad of some refreshment after so much exercise? The transition is gradual, and it is achieved in the following way. The first question to come after the verb demanding is indirect. Only the question mark at its end, which may to some

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extent indicate intonation, is something that does not fit into the pattern of indirect speech. The second question is formulated in a way pointing to represented rather than to indirect speech, as is seen from the word order. In an indirect question the order would have been:... what more there was to be seen, with there and was in the same order as in a declarative sentence. The last two sentences are quite clearly represented speech.

Thus represented speech, alongside of direct and indirect speech, is a very effective means of rendering the thoughts, and sometimes the uttered words, of characters in a novel or short story.