Subj : Can't/Couldn't...  1B.
To   : alexander koryagin
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Fri Mar 02 2018 18:00:57

Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  Rewording the sentence a bit more:

AH>  No matter what I do, I can't get a pane of glass home in one piece.
AH>  #@%$!! So much for my third attempt to.... [etc.].
AH>  Once again I have tried & failed to... [etc.].
AH>  I tried three times to... [etc.], but still couldn't manage it.

ak>  Here, IMHO it will be relevant to say, that there is both
ak>  written text and spoken stories. In the spoken story there
ak>  is no way of defining quotation marks.


            Canadians often say "Quote... unquote" or gesture double quotation 
marks with the first two fingers of each hand when they want to emphasize that 
they're repeating certain words exactly.

            At other times it's obvious from the context when they're quoting.



ak>  there is probably a rule that the direct speech from the
ak>  sentence must be transformed into indirect speech, without
ak>  any quotation marks.


            It can be, but doesn't have to be.  For example:

               He says he has tried several times but still can't do xxx.
               He said he had tried several times but still couldn't do xxx.

The verb tenses here are determined by whether the reporter has already chosen 
to use the historical present or the past tense to tell the rest of the story.



ak>  So (maybe) - when we write a story we write it in direct
ak>  speech and put it in quotes. But when we tell the same
ak>  story we use indirect speech and, accordingly, we switch
ak>  tenses to the past.


            I've overheard many conversations at the local pub in which direct 
speech and/or the historical present tense are quite noticeable AFAIC.  People 
use such devices to make jokes & personal anecdotes sound more immediate.  ;-)



ak>  PS: Although we can also write stories in indirect speech
ak>  (however, we hardly find such stories in books).


            Indirect speech is sometimes used in history books, if the general 
drift of a conversation is known but the precise wording isn't.  Otherwise the 
use of quotation marks, together with the beginning of a new line whenever the 
speaker changes... or in non-fiction the indentation of long quotes & examples
.... adds a bit of "white space" which makes the material easier to read.



ak>  In this case we must also switch tenses to the past if we
ak>  tell about the past.


            Usually we do, but not always.  See my examples above....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

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