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patterned like an adverbial clause of condition)
Parenthetical clauses may be patterned like different communicative types of sentences or clauses -
statements, questions, imperative or exclamatory sentences or clauses.
It was - why hadn’t he noticed it before? - beginning to be an effort for her to hold her back straight, (a
parenthetical clause patterned like a why-question)
I felt - such curious shapes egoism fakes! - that they had come because of me. (a parenthetical clause
patterned like an exclamatory sentence)
Clauses patterned like main clauses with verbs of saying and those denoting mental activity (he thought, the
author said, etc.) may have an inverted order (thought he, said the author).
Quite a number of parenthetical clauses are stereotyped conversation formulas, used to attract the listener’s
attention or to show the reaction of the speaker (you know, you see, I see, etc.).
INDIRECT SPEECH
§ 184. Indirect speech does not reproduce the exact words of the speaker, but only reports them. The
grammatical form in which the speaker's words are reported is a subordinate object clause (for statements and
questions) or an infinitive object (for orders and requests) dependent on a verb of saying or a verb or expression
implying the idea of saying. The most frequent verbs of saying are the verbs to say and to tell for reported
statements, to ask for reported questions, to tell and to ask for reported orders and requests. The subordinate
clauses are joined to their principal ones by means of conjunctions, conjunctive pronouns or adverbs, or
asyndetically.
The word order in these clauses is always direct, irrespective of the communicative type of the sentence in
direct speech, that is, whether it is a declarative or an interrogative sentence (imperative sentences are reported
by means of an infinitive object).
He says he has all the proof.
He asks what you are going to do.
The chief told me to do it at once.
When direct speech is replaced by indirect speech, the forms of personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns
may be changed or not, depending on the general sense, that is, on their actual correlation with the participants
of the act of speaking and the situation described in that particular unit of speech, in the same way as in
Russian.
“I don’t know anything about
him,” says the girl.
«Я ничего о нем не знаю», -
говорит девочка.
“I can do it myself,” say I.
«Я вполне могу сделать это
сам», - говорю я.
“What are you going to do about
my picture?” she asks.
«Что вы собираетесь делать с
моей картиной?” - спрашивает она.
The girl says that she does not
know anything about him
Девочка говорит, что она ничего
о нем не знает.
I say that I can do it myself.
Я говорю, что (я) вполне могу
сделать это сам.
She asks what I am going to do about
her picture.
Она спрашивает, что я собираюсь
делать с ее картиной.
The tense form of the predicate of the object clause with reported speech is predetermined by the general
rules of sequence of tenses.
If the predicate of the object clause in which direct speech is reported is to be changed into one of the past
tenses, the change may affect the use of certain adverbs and demonstrative pronouns. That is, depending on the
actual correlation between the place and time of the act of speaking and those of the content of the direct