Q: Reported Speech

[Nicholas Ostler]

VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
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          John Peterson, University of Munich, Germany
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At 12:41 pm +0000 6/4/01, Maggie Ronkin wrote:
>VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
>Editors:  Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York
>          John Peterson, University of Munich, Germany
>Details:  Send email to listserv at listserv.syr.edu and say: INFO VYAKARAN
>Subscribe:Send email to listserv at listserv.syr.edu and say:
>          SUBSCRIBE VYAKARAN FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME
>          (Substitute your real name for first_name last_name)
>Archives: http://listserv.syr.edu
>
>Q: Reported Speech: Follow Up
>
>Dear Friends
>
>Recently, I wrote to ask for pointers to studies in English on reported
>speech/represented speech and thought/constructed dialogue in Urdu, Hindi,
>and related languages. There were no responses from the list.
>
>Maggie Ronkin
>Georgetown University

Surely this absence is because there is no such
"reported speech/represented speech and thought/constructed dialogue
in Urdu, Hindi, and related languages"

As a non-native, "I don't know, but I've been told"
that all reported speech is indistinguishable from quotation, with
even personal deictic pronouns reflecting the reported speaker's
point of view.

This seems to be the case at least in the two languages I am familiar
with, Hindi and Sanskrit.

S'ubham astu

Nicholas Ostler

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