Reported speech : Optionality and constraints in choosing how to report an utterance

Abstract

Reported speech (RS) is a very common feature of mundane spoken interaction and as such, it is fitting that language learners be taught how to do reporting. However, reporting speech is a complex and challenging task for learners. On the one hand, there are grammatical and lexical/semantic rules governing the expression of reports. On the other hand, there are multiple areas of redundancy and optionality, with reporters having a number of different resources available to achieve the same communicative goals. This paper will describe some of these aspects of RS, contrasting the obligatory and optional features of reports.