DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

The words of a speaker can be reported in two ways. we may quote the actual words used by him or we may report his speech in the form of narrative.the former is called the direct speech, and the later is known as the indirect speech.IT can be illustrated by an example. (Saeed said, :I like mangoes.(Direct speech) (Saeed said that he liked mangoes.(Indirect speech) The words that are not enclosed within inverted commas are called the reporting speech and the words that are encosed within the inverted commas are called the reported speech. In the above example saeed said is the reporting speech,and i like mangoes is the reported speech.the first word of the reported speech is written with a capital latter. when we change the direct speech into the indirect speech we remove the comma and inverted commas and in most case place a suitable conjunction between the reporting speech and the reported speech. when we change the direct speech into the indirect speech, the reporting verb is changed according to the tense of the reported speech. (:INDIRECT SPEECH:) The conversion of direct statements into indirect speech is a constant though unconscious daily process with all of us.From childhood we have been accustomed to reporting, by word of month, things that have been said to us by other people. For example, a mother sends her child to a shop for certain groceries.The child tells the grocer all that he requires, and the shop- man says,:I am sorry that we have not any ginger nut biscuits in stock : thay will be in tomorrow. Tell your mother that i will send her a pound of them, as soon as they arrive. The children its return home does not quote the actual words of the grocer. It starts off with some such remark as, Mr Faraz says that he is sorry,but he has not any ginger nuts in stock :They will be in tomorrow, and I was to say that he would send you a pound of them as soon as they arrived.The student can see for himself the changes that have introduced by the reporter, that is to say, the child, who has never learned any rules on the subject of indirect speech, but just models its speech on what it has heard other people say.In a similar way,all of us, quite mechanically,and, perhaps, many times in the day, alter the direct words of a speaker when we quote his remarks to other people. Of course we can use the speaker, s very words, if we wish to do so.The child might have gone home and spoken as follows:Mr Faraz said, I am sorry we have not any.....,, Yet oddly enough,it appears that when students are set the task of putting a piece of direct speech into indirect statement, they usually seem to imagine that they are performing some new and difficult task.Grammer books give rules and directions that make the exercise appear a very formal and difficult matter. But, as we have seen, a child goes quite simply through the process without thought or effort. In working the examples given at the close of these remarks, it will be will be well for the reader to put himself in the place of the reporter and say : If those words had been spoken to me, how should i proceed to report them to somebody else?,, The first step is to recollect that an introductory verb is necessary, such as : He said. ....he remarked....he thought. ..he ordered. ..he asked. ,the choice of this word will depend upon the form of the sentence to be reported.If it happens to have been a wish, the person reporting would start with He wished that....or, if it was a command,he would lead off with some verb explanatory of the imperative mood, as,He ordered that.....If a question is asked in the direct speech.Then we must employ for the indirect speech some such words as They asked, or he inquired or He wished to know whether,...so as to imply, by means of the introductory phrase of the indirect speech that a question was asked in the direct speech.Students often seem to think that it is necessary for them to alter the original cast of sentences shifting punctuation marks, leaving out full-stop, changing the character of the original piece of composition. This should not be done.The original composition should, as far as possible, stand unaltered except for the necessary logical variations.