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Meaning of "indirect speech" in the English dictionary

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DICTIONARY
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PRONUNCIATION OF INDIRECT SPEECH

indirect speech play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF INDIRECT SPEECH

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Indirect speech is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES INDIRECT SPEECH MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Indirect speech

Indirect speech, also called reported speech or indirect discourse, is a means of expressing the content of statements, questions or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct speech. For example, He said "I'm coming" is direct speech, whereas He said he was coming is indirect speech. Indirect speech should not be confused with indirect speech acts. In terms of grammar, indirect speech often makes use of certain syntactic structures such as content clauses ("that" clauses, such as (that) he was coming), and sometimes infinitive phrases. References to questions in indirect speech frequently take the form of interrogative content clauses, also called indirect questions (such as whether he was coming). In indirect speech certain grammatical categories are changed relative to the words of the original sentence. For example, person may change as a result of a change of speaker or listener (as I changes to he in the example above). In some languages, including English, the tense of verbs is often changed – this is often called sequence of tenses.

Definition of indirect speech in the English dictionary

The definition of indirect speech in the dictionary is the reporting of something said or written by conveying what was meant rather than repeating the exact words, as in the sentence He asked me whether I would go as opposed to He asked me, "Will you go?" Also called: reported speech.

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE INDIRECT SPEECH

indirect
indirect costs
indirect demand
indirect discourse
indirect discrimination
indirect labour
indirect lighting
indirect object
indirect proof
indirect question
indirect tax
indirect taxation
indirection
indirectly
indirectness
indirubin
indiscernibility
indiscernible
indiscernibleness
indiscernibly

WORDS THAT END LIKE INDIRECT SPEECH

acceptance speech
beech
budget speech
curtain speech
deaf without speech
direct speech
figure of speech
free speech
hate speech
keynote speech
King´s speech
leech
maiden speech
nonspeech
part of speech
Queen´s speech
reported speech
speech
stump speech
visible speech

Synonyms and antonyms of indirect speech in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «indirect speech» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF INDIRECT SPEECH

Find out the translation of indirect speech to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of indirect speech from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «indirect speech» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

间接引语
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

estilo indirecto
570 millions of speakers

English

indirect speech
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

अप्रत्यक्ष भाषण
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

خطاب غير مباشر
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

косвенная речь
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

discurso indireto
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

পরোক্ষ উক্তি
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

discours indirect
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Ucapan tak langsung
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

indirekte Rede
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

間接話法
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

간접 연설
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Ucapan ora langsung
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

nói gián tiếp
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

மறைமுக பேச்சு
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

अप्रत्यक्ष भाषण
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

dolaylı anlatım
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

discorso indiretto
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

mowa zależna
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

непряма мова
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

discurs indirect
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

έμμεση ομιλία
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

indirekte rede
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

indirekt tal
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

indirekte tale
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of indirect speech

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «INDIRECT SPEECH»

The term «indirect speech» is regularly used and occupies the 78.128 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Regularly used
64
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «indirect speech» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of indirect speech
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «indirect speech».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «INDIRECT SPEECH» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «indirect speech» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «indirect speech» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about indirect speech

EXAMPLES

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «INDIRECT SPEECH»

Discover the use of indirect speech in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to indirect speech and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
The Study of Language
That is, we are using a syntactic structure associated with the function of a question, but in this case with the function of a request. This is an example of an indirect speech act. Whenever one of the structures in the set above is used to perform ...
George Yule, 2010
2
Language: Its Structure and Use
For example, an indirect speech act can be based on an apparent violation of the maxim of quality. When we describe a friend as someone who never parts with a dime, we don't mean it literally; we are exaggerating. By exaggerating the ...
Edward Finegan, 2007
3
Essays in Speech Act Theory
the indirect speech act has a non literal propositional content, some of its non literal felicity conditions are conditions of satisfaction of the literal speech act. The speaker can assert that these conditions obtain and exploit the maxim of quantity  ...
Daniel Vanderveken, Susumu Kubo, 2002
4
Handbook of Narrative Analysis
Maybe the narrator is present here in the form of free indirect speech, which could characterize the sentence prior to this passage: "Little girls who have never personally experienced this heavenly feeling did well not to shoot off their mouths .
‎2005
5
Speech Acts in the History of English
(In)directness and requests 3.1 (In)directness: Some theoretical background Searle (1975: 60) provides the classic definition of indirect speech acts: "cases in which one illocutionary act is performed indirectly by way of performing another".
Andreas H. Jucker, Irma Taavitsainen, 2008
6
Metarepresentation: A Relevance-theory Approach
298] In (58)-(59), the second question in each example is an echo question, which Kruisinga includes in the category of free indirect speech. By contrast, Banfield (1982) does not. This issue will be discussed in more detail in section 1.3.3.3.
Eun-Ju Noh, 2000
7
Camus: The Stranger
Not surprisingly, there is a great deal of indirect speech where the 'he said' reminds the reader that experience is being filtered through language. But free indirect speech allows the filtering to be done not by the character himself but by  ...
Patrick McCarthy, 2004
8
Reporting Talk: Reported Speech in Interaction
Bringing together work from the most recent investigations in conversation analysis, this book will be invaluable to all those interested in the study of interaction, in particular how we report the speech of others, and the different forms ...
Elizabeth Holt, Rebecca Clift, 2006
9
Structure and Function: Approaches to the simplex clause
The work of Bolkestein (1992) on direct and indirect speech complements of verbs of saying also presents challenges to the layering proposals of Hengeveld and Dik. Bolkestein (1992:398-404) suggests that in English some extraclausal ...
Christopher Butler, 2003
10
Tips & Trik Sukses UN B Ingg SMA
DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH (Kalimat Langsung dan Tidak Langsung) IRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH: STATEMENTS 17 Ada beberapa hal yang harus diingat dalam mengubah direct speech menjadi indirect speech, yakni seperti ...
Silvester Goridus Sukur

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «INDIRECT SPEECH»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term indirect speech is used in the context of the following news items.
1
What's old is “new” again: the unusual evolution of the quotation …
It's used around things that people didn't actually say, indirect speech, and such. We wouldn't put them in those places today. It really takes a ... «Yahoo News Canada, Jul 15»
2
How Trooclick uses quotes to rank 'quality' news
... automatically extracts quotes from what Motte calls "mainstream subjects", like Greek referendum, in both direct and indirect speech. «Journalism.co.uk, Jul 15»
3
The Not-Dead and the Saved and Other Stories by Kate Clanchy …
Clanchy uses free indirect speech and consistently omits speech marks, giving her tales the uneasy comedy of internal monologue. «The Independent, Jun 15»
4
Earthquake Music
Now set up for indirect speech, the bass soloist reminds listeners that earthquakes on land and beneath ocean will presage the coming of the ... «CounterPunch, Jun 15»
5
Politically correct euphemisms obscure the truth
So while indirect speech allows us to talk politely about awkward, embarrassing or painful subjects, sometimes it is, to quote George Orwell, ... «Troy Media, Jun 15»
6
When can 'that' be safely dropped in reported speech?
Reported speech or indirect speech is, of course, simply the kind of sentence someone makes when reporting what someone else has said. «The Manila Times, May 15»
7
SEA Language Artless
E. Rewrite the sentences using indirect speech. Q12. “Teacher,” the children asked, “Can we play outside?” The children asked if they could ... «Trinidad Guardian, May 15»
8
Palmerston North Hospital staff may be forced to wear masks unless …
In an earlier version of this article, a line of indirect speech about a similar proposal by the Waikato DHB was mistakenly attributed to Rob Weir. «The Press, May 15»
9
Can Fiction Show Us How Animals Think?
Employing free indirect speech, she vividly imagines the animal's experience of the world through touch, smell, and hearing: his trunk closes ... «The New Yorker, Apr 15»
10
Understanding common knowledge
“We've done work on euphemism and indirect speech, where everyone understands the subtext of what's being said, though it isn't explicit. «Harvard Gazette, Mar 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Indirect speech [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/indirect-speech>. Apr 2024 ».
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