Table Of ContentREPORTED SPEECH
Pragmatics & Beyond
New Series
Editors:
Jacob L. Mey
(Odense University)
Herman Parret
(Belgian National Science Foundation, Universities of Louvain and Antwerp)
Jef Verschueren
(Belgian National Science Foundation, University of Antwerp)
Editorial Address:
Linguistics (GER)
University of Antwerp (UIA)
Universiteitsplein 1
B-2610 Wilrijk
Belgium
Editorial Board:
Norbert Dittmar (Free University of Berlin)
Bruce Fraser (Boston University)
John Heritage (University of California at Los Angeles)
David Holdcroft (University of Leeds)
Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni (University of Lyon 2)
Beatriz Lavandera (University of Buenos Aires)
Marina Sbisà (University of Trieste)
Emanuel A. Schegloff (University of California at Los Angeles)
Paul O. Takahara (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies)
Sandra Thompson (University of California at Santa Barbara)
Daniel Vanderveken (University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières)
Teun A. van Dijk (University of Amsterdam)
43
Theo A.J.M. Janssen and Wim van der Wurff (eds)
Reported Speech: Forms and Functions of the Verb
REPORTED
SPEECH
FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE VERB
Edited by
THEO A.J.M. JANSSEN
WIM VAN DER WURFF
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reported speech : forms and functions of the verb / edited by Theo A.J.M. Janssen, Wim van
der Wurff.
p. cm. -- (Pragmatics & beyond, ISSN 0922-842X ; new ser. 43)
Based on papers presented at a conference held Dec. 16-17, 1993, Dept. of English,
University of Leiden.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Shifting points of orientation in modern Russian / Adrian Barentsen ~ Reported
speech in South Slavic / Jadranka Gvozdanovic -- The verb in indirect speech in Old French
/ Brigitte L.M. Bauer -- Modal patterns of direct and indirect discourse in peninsular Spanish
/ Henk Haverkate - Reported speech in Latin / A. Machtelt Bolkestein - Tense in (free)
indirect discourse in French / Rita Landeweerd and Co Vet -- Reported speech in Swedish /
Harry Perridon -- Modality of verb forms in German reported speech / Abraham P. ten Cate -
Tense and temporal ordering in English and Dutch indirect speech / Ronny Boogaart - Tense
in reported speech and its frame of reference / Theo A.J.M. Janssen - Sequence of tenses in
English and Bengali / Wim van der Wurff -- Free indirect speech in Chinese / Elly Hagenaar.
1. Grammar, Comparative and general-Indirect discourse. 2. Grammar, Comparative and
general-Verb. I. Janssen, Theodorus Albertus Johannes Maria, 1944- . II. Wurff, Wim van
der. III. Series.
P301.5.I53R46 1996
415-dc20 96-9656
ISBN 90 272 5056 1 (Eur.) / 1-55619-805-1 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1996 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O.Box 75577 · 1070 AN Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O.Box 27519 · Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 · USA
Contents
List of contributors vii
Abbreviations used in the glosses viii
Introductory remarks on reported speech and thought 1
Theo A.J.M. Janssen and Wim van der Wurff
I Slavic languages
Shifting points of orientation in Modern Russian:
Tense selection in 'reported perception' 15
Adrian Barentsen
Reported speech in South Slavic 57
Jadranka Gvozdanovic
II Romance languages
The verb in indirect speech in Old French: System in change 75
Brigitte L.M. Bauer
Modal patterns of direct and indirect discourse in Peninsular Spanish:
An analysis within the framework of speech act typology 97
Henk Haverkate
Reported speech in Latin 121
A. Machtelt Bolkestein
Tense in (free) indirect discourse in French 141
Rita Landeweerd and Co Vet
VI CONTENTS
III Germanic languages
Reported speech in Swedish 165
Harry Perridon
Modality of verb forms in German reported speech 189
Abraham P. ten Cate
Tense and temporal ordering in English and Dutch indirect speech 213
Ronny Boogaart
Tense in reported speech and its frame of reference 237
Theo A.J.M. Janssen
Sequence of tenses in English and Bengali 261
Wim van der Wurff
IV Chinese
Free indirect speech in Chinese 289
Elly Hagenaar
Index 299
List of contributors
Barentsen, Adrian, Slavic Dept., University of Amsterdam, Spuistraat 210,
NL-1012 VT Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Bauer, Brigitte L.M., Dept. of French, University of Nijmegen, Erasmusplein
1, NL-6525 GG Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Bolkestein, A. Machtelt, Dept. of Classics, University of Amsterdam, Oude
Turfmarkt 129, NL-1012 GC Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Boogaart, Ronny, Dept. of Dutch, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De
Boelelaan 1105, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Cate, Abraham P. ten, Dept. of German, University of Groningen, P.O. Box
716, NL-9700 AS Groningen, The Netherlands.
Gvozdanovic, Jadranka, Slavic Dept., University of Amsterdam, Spuistraat
210, NL-1012 VT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Hagenaar, Elly, c/o Dept. of Chinese, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9515,
NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Haverkate, Henk, Dept. of Spanish, University of Amsterdam, Spuistraat
134, NL-1012 VB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Janssen, Theo A.J.M., Dept. of Dutch, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De
Boelelaan 1105, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Landeweerd, Rita, Dept. of Romance Languages, University of Groningen,
P.O.Box 716, NL-9700 AS Groningen, The Netherlands.
Perridon, Harry, Dept. of Scandinavian Languages, University of
Amsterdam, Spuistraat 134, NL-1012 VB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Vet, Co, Dept. of Romance Languages, University of Groningen, P.O.Box
716, NL-9700 AS Groningen, The Netherlands.
Wurff, Wim van der, Dept. of English, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9515,
NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Abbreviations used in the glosses
ACC accusative NOM nominative
AOR aorist OBJ object
CLASS classifier ORD ordinal
DAT dative PASS passive
DUR durative PERF perfect
EMPH emphasis marker PFV perfective
FUT future PL plural
GEN genitive PPART past participle
GER gerund PRES present
IMP imperative PROGR progressive
IMPERF imperfect PRT preterit
IND indicative Q question marker
INF infinitive REFL reflexive
IPFV imperfective SG singular
MASC masculine SUBJ subject
NEG negation marker SUBJU subjunctive
Introductory remarks on reported speech and thought
Theo AJ.M. Janssen
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Wim van der Wurff
University of Leiden
Jakobson (1985: 96) considered duplex structures, i.e. cases of language
referring to language, to play a "pertinent and indispensable part [...] in the
buildup of any human language". Elsewhere, he described reported speech,
which is one of the four duplex types, as being a "crucial linguistic and stylistic
problem" (Jakobson 1971: 130). That Jakobson was not alone in considering
reported speech an important and interesting phenomenon is clear from the
steady flow of studies of reported speech that have appeared over the years. In
his bibliographical review of work on direct and indirect discourse, Arnold
Zwicky lists some twenty titles from the late 60s and early 70s (Zwicky 1974);
while preparing an enlarged and updated version of this bibliography in 1993,
we found that at least 130 items had appeared in the meantime.
The topics of all these studies are quite diverse: they range from variable
use of the subjunctive and tense forms in indirect speech, via the system of
speech-introducing elements to the meaning of deictics in direct and indirect
speech, and the text-frequency of the various types of reported speech.
However, this does not mean that all these aspects of the phenomenon are now
well understood. Quite apart from the complexity and difficulty intrinsic to
many of the issues, there is the problem that they have often not been explored
systematically in a wide range of languages. The topic of free indirect speech,
for example, has been investigated in great detail in French, and also in some
of the other major Western languages, but we cannot really say that we have
a complete picture (let alone complete understanding) of the cross-linguistic
2 THEO A.J.M. JANSSEN AND WIM VAN DER WURFE
properties of this particular form of representation of speech and thought. The
same type of remark can be made about many other aspects of the subject.
There is also still considerable incompleteness of understanding when it
comes to the relation between properties of reported speech in a specific
language and other properties of the same language. For example, it is noted
in descriptions of some languages that they allow the use of a conjunction to
introduce indirect speech, as in the following Danish example given by
Haberland (1986: 242).
(1) så siger værkføreren bare at der er sgu altid
so says foreman just that there is my-God always
så meget i vejen med Dem
so much in way with you
'So the foreman just says that: "My God! There is always so much
the matter with you.'"
A survey of the literature reveals that this construction is also possible in
Abkhaz (Hewitt and Crisp 1986), Georgian (Hewitt and Crisp 1986), Ancient
Greek (Goodwin 1897: 285), Hindi (Ebert 1986), Hungarian (Fónagy 1986),
Old Icelandic (Haberland 1986), Japanese (Coulmas 1986), Nepali (Ebert 1986),
Persian (Yarmohammadi 1973), and Yoruba (Bamgbose 1986). In their
contributions to the present volume, Bauer, Perridon, and van der Wurff also
note the existence of structures like (1) in Old French, Swedish, and Bengali
respectively. However, English and other languages do not appear to allow
indirect speech to be preceded by a conjunction. A question of a type that is
not often raised in the literature would be: What exactly is there about a
language like Danish that makes (1) possible? And what is there about a
language like English that makes (1) impossible? We do not have an answer
to this question at this point, but we think that it is surprising that it appears not
to have been asked before. More complete understanding of reported speech
can only be achieved if possible connections between its properties and those
of other forms and constructions are investigated with greater insistence than
has been the case so far. This approach could be called the intra-systemic
approach to the study of reported speech; it is of course intimately connected
with the cross-linguistic approach, in a manner shown well by the example just
given.
It was with the aim of advancing both the cross-linguistic and intra-
systemic approaches to reported speech that a colloquium with the title Verbs
and Reported Speech: Structure and System was held on 16 and 17 December
