a study on grammatical features of indirect speech in enghlish with reference to their vietnamese equivalents

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled: “GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF INDIRECT SPEECH IN ENGHLISH WITH REFERENCE TO TH

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THANH HUỆ

Field : English Language Code : 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Hoàng Tuyết Minh

Hanoi, 2016

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project

report entitled: “GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF INDIRECT SPEECH IN ENGHLISH WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS” submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2016

Nguyen Thanh Hue

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh Date:………

A special word of thanks goes to my friends and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me

to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

Indirect speech or reported speech is a big area in the English language, it has become the subject of linguistic studies only recently, it arouses a growing interest in numerous linguists and it is defined in various ways However, Vietnamese students meet difficulties when encountering English indirect speech Therefore, this paper aims at investigating the grammatical features of indirect speech in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents It is conducted with the hope of finding out the equivalents of indirect speech containing methods of the study, objectives of the study, the results of the study and implications for learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam Data used for analysis in this study were mainly collected from scholar articles and language specified books Data analysis is based on descriptive, qualitative and contrastive methods

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 4.1: The similarities of indirect speech in terms of function 45Table 4.2: The similarities of basic reporting verbs of indirect speech 45Table 4.3: The similarities of more reporting verbs that are used in indirect speech 46Table 4.4: The similarities in changing pronouns of indirect speech 47Table 4.5: The similarities in changing adverbs of time of indirect speech 48Table 4.6: The differences of indirect speech between English and Vietnamese

in the use of tense 49Table 4.7 : The differences of indirect speech between English and Vietnamese

in using word-orders 50

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2

ABSTRACT 3

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 4

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES 5

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 8

1.1 Rationale 8

1.2 Aims of the research 9

1.3 Objectives of the research 9

1.4 Scope of the research 9

1.5 Methods of the study 10

1.6 Design of the research 10

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 11

2.1 History of the study 11

2.2 Overview of indirect speech 12

2.2.1 Definitions of indirect speech 12

2.2.2 Classifications of indirect speech in English 13

2.2.2.1 Reporting statements 13

2.2.2.2 Reporting questions 14

2.2.2.3 Requests/ Commands 15

2.2.2.4 Reporting suggestions 15

2.2.2.5 Reporting intentions and hopes 15

2.2.2.6 Reporting uncertain things 16

2.2.3 Other features of indirect speech in English 16

2.2.3.1 Reporting verbs in indirect speech 16

2.2.3.2 Changes in indirect speech in English 17

2.2.3.3 Tense forms of the verbs 17

2.2.3.4 Other time references 17

2.2.3.5 Personal pronouns 18

2.2.3.6 Liking phrases 19

2.2.3.7 Modal verbs 19

2.3 Summary 20

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGYq m 20

3.1 Research orientations 21

3.1.1 Research questions 21

3.1.2 Research approaches 21

3.1.3 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis 22

3.2 Research methods 22

3.2.1 Data collection techniques 22

3.2.2 Data analysis techniques 23

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24

4.1 Grammatical features of indirect speech in English 24

4.1.1 Classifications of indirect speech in English 25

4.1.2 Other features of indirect speech in English 35

4.1.3 Semantic features of indirect speech in English 40

4.2 Comparison indirect speech in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents 44

4.2.1 In terms of grammatical features 45

4.3 Implications in learning English 53

4.4 Summary 58

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 59

5.1 Recapitulation 59

5.2 Concluding remarks 59

5.3 Limitation of the study 59

5.4 Suggestions for the further study 60

REFERENCES 61

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

There are a lot of linguists over the world who researched on indirect speech in the English language and they have their own ideas and definitions about them

According to LG Alexander (1988), he mainly studies on grammatical features of indirect speech The indirect speech comes with variety of interesting aspects including classifications and other features Randolph

Quirk (1985) stated that there are several modes in which other people’s

language may be reported, the most explicit modes are introduced by a reporting clause referring to the speaker and the act of communication in speech or writing (she said, she wrote), and perhaps also to the person or persons spoken to (she told us ), to the manner of speaking ( she said hesitantly) or to the circumstances of speech act ( she replied, she explained)…Collins Cobuild (1973) shows that there are many different

ways of reporting what people say or think In grammatical features, he

analyzes mainly a number of verbs that are used for speaking as well as in writing

On the other hands, in Vietnamese, Nguyen Thien Giap (2000) points indirect speech is to retell something, it can be in positive or negative form but in any circumstances, it always presents the form of a simple sentence

which has only a single independent clause

In the process of learning English, learners face a lot of difficulties in distinguishing the classifications and other features of IS in English such as; tense changes, changes of personal pronouns, adverbials of time and place, etc Additionally, making comparison grammatical of indirect speech in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents appears to be one of the most

challenging criteria In order to help the Vietnamese learners clearly understand, this study is carried on in depth to make a contribution in knowledge of indirect speech

Using indirect speech in writing as well as in speaking correctly, “A study on grammatical of indirect speech in English with reference to their

Vietnamese equivalents” is chosen as the topic of the research paper

1.2 Aims of the research

This study is a detailed research on grammatical of indirect speech in the English language with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents to help

Vietnamese learners in the process of learning English effectively

1.3 Objectives of the research

The aim of the research of indirect speech is to indicate grammatical of indirect speech in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents as well as making a comparison of using indirect speech in English and giving implications for learning indirect speech in English

1.4 Scope of the research

In learning languages, using indirect speech is regarded as one of the most complicated problems, so indirect speech in each language has its own features Without ambition to cover it in all languages due to the limitation

of time, knowledge and experience, the frame work of the study focuses only on grammatical of indirect speech in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

Some errors in changing direct speech into indirect speech which Vietnamese learners make and suggestions experienced during study the researcher’s study process

1.5 Methods of the study

The main methods of this thesis are description, comparison and contrastive analysis English are considered as the basic language of the

study and Vietnamese is the language to be compared

1.6 Design of the research

The study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1, Introductions, presents the thesis including rational, aims,

objectives, the scope, and the structure of the thesis

Chapter 2, Literature Review, overviews the previous studies and theoretical background

Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the research plans including research orientations and research methods

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, focuses on the grammatical of indirect speech in English and their Vietnamese equivalents then points out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese of indirect speech in terms of grammatical features and some implications for learning

English

Chapter 5, Conclusion, summaries the major findings, limitations of the study, suggestions for further studies and references come at the end of the study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 History of the study

Indirect speech has drawn attention of a number of scholars in the world as well as in Vietnam

Randolph Quirk (1985) states that indirect speech conveys in the word

s of subsequent reporter what has been said or written by the original speaker or writer According to Thomson (1985, p269), direct speech is to repeat the original speaker’s exact words His definition is nearly the same with the website http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.htm Moreover, a number of ways are defined about indirect speech by the website http://www.grammaring.com/the-difference-between-direct-and-

hand, is when we give the same meaning of what someone says without repeating the exact words LG Alexander (1988) defines indirect speech or (reported speech) as when people are telling someone what another person says or said He mentions indirect speech is used to tell someone what another person says or said without quotation marks, the commonest reporting verbs in indirect speech are say, tell, ask And other verbs can be followed by that, if, whether A number of those do not strictly report speech

(actual spoken word)

Collins Cobuild (1973) shows the importance of grammatical and of

indirect speech in English, there are many ways of reporting what someone has said and consists of two clauses, he mentioned how to use reporting verbs correctly of indirect speech including basic reporting, verbs of thinking and knowing, learning of learning and perceiving…etc…

In Vietnamese, Nguyen Thien Giap (2000), presents indirect speech in

Vietnamese is to retell something, it can be positive or negative form but in

any circumstances It always presents the form of a simple sentence which

has only a single independent clause According to Crystal (1992) points out

language comparison is of great interest in a theoretical as well as an applied perspective It reveals what is general and what is language specific and is therefore important both for the understanding of language in general and for the study of the individual languages compared, he also describes the similarities and differences in indirect speech between English and Vietnamese at such levels as grammatical features

However, there has not seen so far a study on indirect speech in English and Vietnamese Therefore, it is necessary to do a research on this

matter to hit the target

2.2 Overview of indirect speech

2.2.1 Definitions of indirect speech

Grammar in general, in direct speech in specific, is believed to be a key and essential area of the development in a native language and in a second of foreign language as well

According to (Thomson 1985, p269) ‘In direct speech we repeat the

original speaker’s exact words “He said I have lost my umbrella” This

definition is nearly the same with (L.G Alexander 1988, p286) ‘We use indirect speech sometimes called ‘reported speech’) when we are telling

someone what another person says or said.’ “The boss said that he could see

A number of ways are defined about indirect speech by (Thomson

1985, p.269) ‘In indirect speech we give the exact meaning of a remark or a speech, without necessarily using the speaker’s exact word

In English and Vietnamese languages, indirect speech are own clauses, phrases and sentences that used daily in communication in speech as well as

in writing

As far as terminology is concerned, there is unfortunately no consensus

in the literature on the general terms employed for the various manifestation

of the phenomenon of speech-within-speech In particular, there are differences in the way the terms indirect and reported speech are used and there appears to be no well-established term for what is variously called, for example, free indirect speech/style/discourse, quasi-direct/free semi-direct discourse and so on Since the main interest of this research is not terminological, the use of the term ‘reported speech’ has the advantage of providing an omnibus for what the majority of linguists (and non-linguists) intuitively think of as one unitary phenomenon

in the word s of subsequent reporter what has been said or written by the original speaker or writer Besides, there are some ways to use indirect speech and the changes in many features in indirect speech

According to Collins Cobuild (1973), there are many ways of reporting what someone has said and consists of two clauses

This study will focus on indirect speech including grammatical

features

2.2.2 Classifications of indirect speech in English

LG Alexander (1988), Randolph (1985), and Collins Cobuild (1973), have the same way to divide indirect speech in English into three basic kinds They are reporting statements, reporting questions and requests/commands Meanwhile, Collins Cobuild (1973) gives more types of indirect speech including reporting suggestions, reporting intentions, and reporting uncertain things etc He also supports more information in using reporting verbs of indirect speech

2.2.2.1 Reporting statements

Typically, indirect speech is used to report statements, and takes the forms

of a nominal that-clause

The teacher said that phrasal verbs are very important

Firstly, Yes/No questions are questions with or consist of a reporting clause

She asked him if his parents spoke French

A policeman asked me whether he could be of help

(C Cobuild, 1973)

Secondly, Wh-questions are questions when we reporting a “Wh”- question

we use a “wh” – word at the beginning of the reported clause

→ She asked me where I came from

→ I was wondering why don’t take the train; it'll be quicker

→ He wanted to know what I thought of it

→ She asked me when she must be/ had to be there

(www.perfect-english-grammar.com/reported-speech.html)

Here is the list of some verbs which can be used before clauses

beginning with “wh” – words: Decide, discover, discuss, explain, forget,

guess, imagine, know, learn, realize, remember, reveal, say, see, suggest,

teach, tell, think, understand, wonder, ask, etc

(C Cobuild, 1973)

2.2.2.3 Requests/ Commands

If someone orders, requests or advises someone else to do something,

this can be reported by using a “to” infinitive clause Indirect commands, requests, advice are usually expressed by a verb of command / request / advice + object + infinitive (= the object + infinitive construction)

He told me/him/her/us/them/the children to go away

When someone makes a suggestion about what someone else (not their

hearer) should do, we report it by using a that-clause:

He proposes that the Government should hold an inquiry

Travel agents advise that people should change their money before the travel.

(C Cobuild, 1973)

2.2.2.5 Reporting intentions and hopes

When we are reporting an action that the speaker (the subject of the reporting verb) intends to perform, we can report it in two ways We can

either report it simply as an action, using a to-infinitive clause, or we can report it as a statement or fact, using a that-clause:

I promised to come back

(C Cobuild, 1973)

2.2.2.6 Reporting uncertain things

When we are reporting an action that someone is wondering about

doing themselves, we can use a to-infinitive beginning with whether:

I’ve been wondering whether to retire

Here is a list of verbs that can be used with to-infinitive clauses of this kind:

Choose, debate, decide, know, wonder are used for reporting uncertaining things

2.2.3 Other features of indirect speech in English

2.2.3.1 Reporting verbs in indirect speech

According to Collins Cobuild (19730), Basic reporting verbs are say, ask

and tell Reporting verbs is to show the purpose of speaking or to show the

manner of speaking Furthermore, reporting verbs indicate the way that

something is said and describes the way in which something is said

He answered that the price would be three pounds

He never told me, sir, Watson complained

(C Cobuil 1973, 7.7) I’ve got the key!’ he announced triumphantly

His secretary explained patiently that this was the only time he could spare

There are many kinds of reporting verbs except for basic RV such as, verbs of thinking and knowing, verbs of learning and perceiving

I had always believed that one day I would see him again

I have since learned that the writer of the letter is now dead Then she

saw that he was sleeping

(C Cobuild, 1973)

2.2.3.2 Changes in indirect speech in English

Randolph Quirk (1985), LG Alexander (1988) and Collins Cobuild

(1973) shows the similarities of changes in indirect speech such as tense forms of the verb, other time references, place references, personal pronouns, liking phrases and modal verb, they are described as follows:

2.2.3.3 Tense forms of the verbs

Tense changes often occur in indirect speech because there is an interval between the original spoken words and the time when they are reported, but these changes are not always obligatory It is the changing viewpoint of the reporting speaker or writer that decides the choice of appropriate forms, not complicated rules The notes that follow are not

“rules” but are based on observation of what often in practice

Present perfect continuous
Past perfect

(Thomson 1985, p270)

2.2.3.4 Other time references

Now → then / immediately

The day before yesterday / two days

go

→ two day before / earlier

The day after tomorrow → in two day’s time

Next week / year → the following week / year

Last week / year → the following week / year

A year etc ago → a year before / the previous year

(Alexander 1988, p291)

2.2.3.5 Personal pronouns

Pronouns and possessive adjectives usually change from first or second to third person except when the speaker is reporting his own words

“I had studied French for four years at school‟

I said → I said that I had studied French for four years at school

We

Us Our

Ours You You

→ Theirs

→ He/She/They

→ Him/her/them

(Alexander 1988, p290) Some typical pronoun changes are:

Mine his/hers ours theirs myself himself/herself

2.2.3.6 Liking phrases

Indirect speech rarely occur in sets of unrelated sentences but is found

in continuous paragraphs of reported language, for example: she went on to say, he continued, he added that, and by varying the reporting verbs: he

observed, noted, remarked,…

2.2.3.7 Modal verbs

Modal verb in original Modal verb in report

Could, would, should, might, ought

to, used to

→ Could, would, should, might, ought to, used to

Will, can, may (existing or future situations and present tense verb in reporting clause)

Will or would, can or could, may or might (existing or future situations and past tense verb in reporting clause)

suggestions, etc.) Must (= necessary) Must (=

of indirect speech to practice well in speaking as well as in writing

In following sections, some analytical frameworks accounting for the factors that affect the indirect speech in both of grammatical and semantic features in English will be discussed

Chapter 3

• What are grammatical features of indirect speech in English?

• What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese indirect speeches in terms of grammatical features?

• What are the implications of indirect speech for learning English?

3.1.2 Research approaches

The research approaches for the study will be conducted by collecting

and classifying data, the research approaches help the study process simply and find the result easily and correctly In this method, grammatical features

of indirect speech are collected in both language English and Vietnamese, then only statistics on the number of indirect speech in each language Determining the frequency of occurrence of each specific grammatical features of two languages

Analyzing data is to arrange, classify grammatical features of indirect speech

Descriptive is an important method used in this thesis It helps to show aspects and characteristics of indirect speech in using grammatical features

in two languages, English and Vietnamese

Comparative and contrastive are these methods that are used to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in indirect speech

Putting forward some implications of indirect speech for learning

English

3.1.3 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

The data used in the study is collected from English books and information on internet searching

After reading the materials collected, the study focuses on indirect speech including grammatical features in two languages All of indirect speeches are selected from English books of both languages English and

Vietnamese, so they are reliable for research results

3.2 Research methods

The major methods to be employed in the study are descriptive, contrastive methods to describe, analyze and find out the relationship between grammatical features of English and Vietnamese of indirect speech Moreover, in this study, English is considered as the major source language and Vietnamese as the target one The research process can be divided into four stages

Supporting methods: Some techniques such as quantitative and

qualitative are used as data collection and data analysis

3.2.1 Data collection techniques

The data collection is the most important step in any research This procedure consists of two main stages

Firstly, a large number of indirect speeches in grammatical features from English and Vietnamese languages were collected in order to make the corpus of this thesis

Secondly, statistics on the number of indirect speech including grammatical features in each language Classifying indirect speech into various types and then determining the frequency of occurrences of each

specific indirect speech in both languages

3.2.2 Data analysis techniques

In this study, we choose the most interesting and noticeable features which can clearly illustrate features of indirect speech in English and Vietnamese was chosen to carry out this study

After collecting indirect speech in grammatical features in both languages from English and Vietnamese language specified books as well as articles These data are then categorized into aspects and characteristics of grammatical features The study is conducted based on the qualitative and quantitative approach to find down the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese languages; followed by some implications for teaching English

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Grammatical features of indirect speech in English

Indirect speech has attracted the attention of scholar in several different fields such as linguistic, poetics, logic and philosophy of language For example, Theo Janssen and Wim van der Wurff study reported speech in the forms and functions of the verb According to them, in sentences containing reported speech, thought, or perception, it is possible to distinguish different voices or views, associated with different discourse roles

In the 1985’s study, Randolph Quirk et al point that typically indirect speech is used report statements Let’s see the following example

Neighbors said that as a teenager he had earned his pocket money by

In the example above, the indirect speech is a direct object, but in the

following example “It was said that as a teenager Max had earned his

“What neighbors said was that as a teenager he had earned his pocket

The major differences in English between the basic forms of Direct (or quotes) Speech and Indirect (or reported) speech is that the indirect forms have no quotation marks and are introduced by a quotation frame which consists of an attributed speaker (he, she, the boss) and a verb of saying (said, asked), followed by a conjunction (that, if) The intonation of the indirect speech form will be noticeably different from the direct speech form, particularly in the case of reported questions

“I have lived here for years ‟ Ms Duncan said

Ms Duncan told me (that) she had lived there for years

(Alexander 1988, p290)

4.1.1 Classifications of indirect speech in English

The classifications and other features of indirect speech are main important parts in grammatical features Reporting statements, reporting questions and reporting requests/commands are basic types of indirect speech Besides, there are more classifications of indirect speech that are presented

Reporting statements consist of a reporting clause and a that-clause We

often omit that, especially in informal situations We usually introduce

reported statements with basic reporting verbs such as, say/said, tell/told,

‘I will leave,’ she said -> She said (to me) that she would leave

She didn’t say if/whether she was coming to lunch

Say + indirect Wh-question

She didn’t say (to him) who she was dealing with

Say + to-infinitive

‘Stay away from me,’ his wife said -> His wife said (to him) to stay

away from her

Tell somebody + that-clause, indirect statement

‘Remember to turn the lights off before leaving,’ she told me

She told me that I should remember to turn the lights off before leaving Tell somebody + if/whether + indirect Yes/No question

They didn’t tell me if they would come or not

Tell somebody + indirect Wh questions

I told (my wife) what I was concerned about

Tell somebody + to-infinitive

‘Keep a record of your expenses,’ I said -> I told him to keep a record

of his expenses

Ask (somebody) + if/whether + indirect Yes/No question

Did he go home? -> She asked me if he went home

Ask (somebody) + Wh-question

Ask (somebody) + to-infinitive

I want to speak to the manager -> She asked to speak to the manager Ask that something (should) be done

Should I finish the job today? -> He asked me (that) the job should be done that day

(LG Alexander 1988, 15.7.1)

The way indirect speech can be used in conditional statements; conditional statements are reported as follows:

‘If you pass your test, I’ll buy you a car,’ he said

He said that if I passed my test he would buy me a car

Conditional statements are reported as follows:

‘If you passed your test, I would buy you a car,’ he said

He said that if I passed my test, he would buy me a car

Conditional statements are reported as follows:

‘If you’d passed your test, I’d have bought you a car,’ he said

He said that if I’d passed my test, he’d have bought me a car

(LG Alexander, 1988)

As well as reporting what someone says or thinks, you can also report

a question that they ask or wonder about Questions in reported speech are sometimes called reported questions or indirect questions, quotation marks and question marks are not used, as well as we put the auxiliary verb before the subject That is be, have and modal auxiliaries in the direct question change back to statement word order (subject + verb); do, does and did disappear in reported questions If there is no auxiliary verb, we put do

before the subject

I wonder why you don’t listen to me

He asked me if/whether I had finished

He asked me if/whether I played chess

He asked me if/whether he could have it

(Alexander 1988, p293)

Note: Normally we can use either if or whether in indirect Yes – No

questions but if is more usual

He asked me if/whether I would come to the party

(www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.htm)

These are questions that can be answered simply with yes or no When

we report a yes/no question, we use an if-clause beginning with the conjunction if, or a whether-clause beginning with the conjunction whether

She asked him if his parents spoke French

A policeman asked me whether he could be of help

We use “if” when the speaker has suggested one possibility that may be

true

He asked if he should open the window

We use “whether” to emphasize that choice has to be made and to convey slightly greater doubt

She asked me whether I wanted tea or coffee

(Allen 1962, p261)

Additionally, whether + infinitive is possible after wonder, want to know

He wondered whether to wait for them or go on

Or: He wondered whether he should wait for them or go on

(Thomson 1985, p278) The other type of question is called a wh-question These are

questions in which someone asks for information about an event or situation

following examples will show the form of who, whom, what, when, where,

why and how questions in indirect speech

In indirect questions with who, whom, and what, the wh-word may be the

subject or the object of the reported clause:

subject of came; original question: ‘Who came to meet you at the airport?’)

original question: ‘What will the repairs cost?’)

The reported clause is in statement form (subject + verb), not question form:

the bus station?’)

question: ‘How do you want to do the activity?’)

(C Cobuild, 1973)

Here is a list of other verbs that can be used before clauses beginning with wh-words:

Decide Describe Determine Discover Discuss Explain