Analyzing Syntax & Semantics Textbook: A Self-Instructional Approach for Teachers and Clinicians

CHAPTER 20 Complementation with Direct and Indirect Discourse

CHAPTER 20 Complementation with Direct and Indirect Discourse There are syntactic forms for reporting discourse either verbatim (exactly, e.g., Mother said, "Dad will be late") or in an indirect way (e.g., Mother said that Dad would be late). These syntactic forms, direct and indirect discourse, involve forms of complementation. The reported spoken utterance is syntactically the object of the verb and therefore, a complement of the verb. Both direct and indirect discourse are commonly used in reading materials. They are syntactic forms that children must master to be able to comprehend what they read. In indirect discourse, the complementizers that, wh·words, if, and whether as well as wh +for. . . to are used. Not all forms of complementation introduced by these words can be termed indirect discourse because they involve the use of verbs rarely used in direct discourse. The syntactic complexities are the same, however, whether the complementation is an indirect reporting of discourse, or, complementation involving verbs like know, wonder, or remember. Both of these forms of complementation are included in this chapter. Unit 1: Direct Discourse Objectives • Analyze sentences with direct discourse and other complexities • List a minimum of ten action verbs that may be used in direct discourse • Specify the order of constituents in direct discourse sentences with shifted constituents Hargis (1973, 1977) stated that virtually all reading materials for children use the direct discourse form and that it is the single most frequently used of the syntactic forms in reading materials for the primary grades. 195 196 COMPLEMENTATION WITH DIRECT AND INDIRECT DISCOURSE In direct discourse, a statement, question, or request expressed by a speaker is given verbatim. In print, direct discourse is enclosed in quotation marks. All sentences of direct discourse are syntactically of the pattern Subject- verb - direct object, Npl + V + NP2. The speaker is the subject, and what is said is the object of the verb. Np1 V Np2 Mary / said, / "I saw a good movie last night." Npl V Np2 The boys / shouted, / "We beat the Panthers!" The learning of direct discourse entails an understanding of the verbs in addition to say that are used to indicate a particular manner of utterance. If one looks over any kind of story, be it a child's story or an adult's novel, it can be seen that say is the most frequently used word in direct discourse. Other verbs that may be followed by direct discourse include shout, whisper, cry, sing, murmur, exclaim, reply, answer, hint, retort, plead, beg, stutter, and gasp. Direct discourse has been found to cause comprehension problems for children with language difficulties. Hargis, Evans, and Masters (1973), reporting on a group of hearing-impaired subjects, found that reading passages consisting largely of direct discourse were significantly more difficult than passages not containing direct discourse selected from the same book. There can be a number of factors responsible for difficulty with direct discourse. First, it is a syntactic form that children rarely hear in everyday conversations. Most children meet this form for the first time in being told stories or in being read to, and they see it in beginning reading materials. Secondly, the surface order, S - V- 0, is often varied, so that the subject (the speaker) is not indicated first; it may follow the verb and direct object. Thirdly, a speaker often says more than one thing, so that the verb really has a series of objects, all of which may be indicated as complete sentences. In reading materials beyond the primary level, the speaker may not be indicated, and the change from speaker to speaker must be noted from the punctuation, paragraphing, or the context of the utterances. An example of this would be as follows: Mary said to John, "You were late to school today." "Yes, but all I missed was the homeroom period." "We had some important announcements about the dance in homeroom." "You can tell me about them." In the example there are three changes of speaker with only one indication of who is speaking. The reader must use the content and the punctuation to see that the exchange of speakers is from Mary to John to Mary to John. INDIRECT DISCOURSE 197 One of the major difficulties in primary reading materials is the variation in the components of direct discourse sentences. Variations from the S - V- 0 order that occur frequently in materials for the young reader are...