Direct Speech Definition and Examples

Direct speech is a report of the exact words used by a speaker or writer. Contrast with indirect speech. Also called direct
discourse.

Direct speech is usually placed inside quotation marks and accompanied by a reporting verb, signal phrase, or quotative
frame.

Examples and Observations

 A South Carolina parrot was the sole witness to the death by neglect of a 98-year-old woman. "Help me, Help
me," said the parrot. "Ha ha ha!"
(reported in Harper's Magazine, February 2011)

 I went in search of the good beer. Along the way, I caught an intriguing snippet of conversation in the sunroom:
“So if I win at that table, I’ll go on to the World Series,” said the mom I know as some kind of government
contractor.
“World Series?” you ask.
“Of Poker,” she replied. “I went last year.”
Whoa.
(Petula Dvorak, "White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Has Nothing on Suburban Fete." The
Washington Post, May 3, 2012)

 "How old are you?" the man asked.

"The little boy, at the eternal question, looked at the man suspiciously for a minute and then said, "Twenty-six.
Eight hunnerd and forty eighty."
His mother lifted her head from the book. "Four," she said, smiling fondly at the little boy.
"Is that so?" the man said politely to the little boy. "Twenty-six." He nodded his head at the mother across the
aisle. "Is that your mother?"
The little boy leaned forward to look and then said, "Yes, that's her."
"What's your name?" the man asked.
The little boy looked suspicious again. "Mr. Jesus," he said.
(Shirley Jackson, "The Witch." The Lottery and Other Stories. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1949)

Direct Speech and Indirect Speech

"While direct speech purports to give a verbatim rendition of the words that were spoken, indirect speech is more
variable in claiming to represent a faithful report of the content or content and form of the words that were spoken. It is
important to note, however, that the question of whether and how faithful a given speech report actually is, is of a quite
different order. Both direct and indirect speech are stylistic devices for conveying messages. The former is used as if the
words being used were those of another, which are therefore pivoted to a deictic center different from the speech
situation of the report. Indirect speech, in contrast, has its deictic center in the report situation and is variable with
respect to the extent that faithfulness to the linguistic form of what was said is being claimed." (Florian Coulmas,
"Reported Speech: Some General Issues." Direct and Indirect Speech, ed. by F. Coulmas. Walter de Gruyter, 1986)

Direct Speech as Drama

When a speaking event is reported via direct speech forms, it is possible to include many features that dramatize the
way in which an utterance was produced. The quotative frame can also include verbs which indicate the speaker's
manner of expression (e.g. cry, exclaim, gasp), voice quality (e.g. mutter, scream, whisper), and type of emotion
(e.g. giggle, laugh, sob). It can also include adverbs (e.g. angrily, brightly, cautiously, hoarsely, quickly, slowly) and
descriptions of the reported speaker's style and tone of voice, as illustrated in [5].

[5a] "I have some good news," she whispered in a mischievous way.
[5b] "What is it?" he snapped immediately.
[5c] "Can't you guess?" she giggled.
[5d] "Oh, no! Don't tell me you're pregnant" he wailed, with a whining nasal sound in his voice.
The literary style of the examples in [5] is associated with an older tradition. In contemporary novels, there is often no
indication, other than separate lines, of which character is speaking, as the direct speech forms are presented like a
dramatic script, one after the other. (George Yule, Explaining English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1998)

Like: Signaling Direct Speech in Conversation

An interesting new way of signaling direct speech has recently developed among younger English speakers and is
spreading from the United States to Britain. This occurs entirely in spoken conversation, rather than in writing, . . . but
here are some examples anyway. (It may help to imagine an American teenager speaking these examples.)

- . . . Though the construction is new [in 1994] and not yet standard, its meaning is very clear. It seems to be used more
often to report thoughts rather than actual speech. (James R. Hurford, Grammar: A Student's Guide. Cambridge
University Press, 1994)

Differences in Reported Speech

Even in the days of audio and video recording, there can be surprising differences in direct quotations attributed to the
same source. A simple comparison of the same speech event covered in different newspapers can illustrate the
problem. When his country was not invited to a meeting of the Commonwealth of Nations in 2003, the president of
Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, said the following in a televised speech, according to The New York Times:

"If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be re-admitted into the Commonwealth," Mr. Mugabe was quoted as
saying on Friday, "we will say goodbye to the Commonwealth. And perhaps the time has now come to say so." (Wines
2003)

And the following according to an Associated Press story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"If our sovereignty is to be real, then we will say goodbye to the Commonwealth, [sic; second quotation mark missing]
Mugabe said in remarks broadcast on state television. "Perhaps the time has come to say so." (Shaw 2003)

Did Mugabe produce both versions of these comments? If he gave only one, which published version is accurate? Do
the versions have different sources? Are the differences in the exact wording significant or not?
(Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Style: The Uses of Language in Persuasion. Oxford University Press, 2011)
Reported Speech
Direct and Indirect Speech

We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or quoted
speech, or indirect or reported speech.

Direct Speech / Quoted Speech

Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)

Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

For example:

She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."

or

"Today's lesson is on presentations", she said.

Indirect Speech / Reported Speech

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it
doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking
about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore
usually have to be in the past too.

For example:

Direct speech Indirect speech

"I'm going to the cinema", he said. He said he was going to the cinema.

Tense change

As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the tense
on the right):

Direct speech Indirect speech

Present simple Past simple

›
She said, "It's cold." She said it was cold.

Present continuous Past continuous

›
She said, "I'm teaching English online." She said she was teaching English online.

Present perfect simple Past perfect simple

›
She said, "I've been on the web since 1999." She said she had been on the web since 1999.

Present perfect continuous Past perfect continuous

›
She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years." She said she had been teaching English for seven years.

Past simple Past perfect

›
She said, "I taught online yesterday." She said she had taught online yesterday.

Past continuous Past perfect continuous

›
She said, "I was teaching earlier." She said she had been teaching earlier.
Past perfect Past perfect
She said, "The lesson had already started when he › NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he
arrived." arrived.

Past perfect continuous

Past perfect continuous
› NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five
She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes."
minutes.

Modal verb forms also sometimes change:

Direct speech Indirect speech

will would
›
She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow." She said she would teach English online tomorrow.

can could
›
She said, "I can teach English online." She said she could teach English online.

must had to
She said, "I must have a computer to teach English › She said she had to have a computer to teach English
online." online.

shall should
›
She said, "What shall we learn today?" She asked what we should learn today.

may might
›
She said, "May I open a new browser?" She asked if she might open a new browser.

!Note - There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to.

Direct speech Indirect speech

"I might go to the cinema", he said. He said he might go to the cinema.

You can use the present tense in reported speech if you want to say that something is still true i.e. my name has always
been and will always be Lynne so:-

Direct speech Indirect speech

She said her name was Lynne.

"My name is Lynne", she said. or

She said her name is Lynne.

You can also use the present tense if you are talking about a future event.

Direct speech (exact quote) Indirect speech (not exact)

"Next week's lesson is on reported speech",

She said next week's lesson will be on reported speech.
she said.

Time change

If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting.

For example we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of
reporting.

Now + 24 hours - Indirect speech

 She said yesterday's lesson was on presentations.

"Today's lesson is on presentations." or

She said yesterday's lesson would be on presentations.

Expressions of time if reported on a different day

this (evening) › that (evening)

today › yesterday ...

these (days) › those (days)

now › then

(a week) ago › (a week) before

last weekend › the weekend before last / the previous weekend

here › there

next (week) › the following (week)

tomorrow › the next/following day

In addition if you report something that someone said in a different place to where you heard it you must change the
place (here) to the place (there).

For example:-

At work At home

"How long have you worked here?" She asked me how long I'd worked there.

Pronoun change

In reported speech, the pronoun often changes.

For example:

Me You

Direct Speech

She said, "I teach English online."

"I teach English online", she said.

"I teach English online." Reported Speech

She said she teaches English online.

or

She said she taught English online.

Reporting Verbs

Said, told and asked are the most common verbs used in indirect speech.

We use asked to report questions:-

For example: I asked Lynne what time the lesson started.

We use told with an object.

For example: Lynne told me she felt tired.

!Note - Here me is the object.

We usually use said without an object.

For example: Lynne said she was going to teach online.

If said is used with an object we must include to ;

For example: Lynne said to me that she'd never been to China.

!Note - We usually use told.

For example: Lynne told me (that) she'd never been to China.

There are many other verbs we can use apart from said, told and asked.

These include:-

accused, admitted, advised, alleged, agreed, apologised, begged, boasted, complained, denied, explained,
implied, invited, offered, ordered, promised, replied, suggested and thought.

Using them properly can make what you say much more interesting and informative.

For example:

He asked me to come to the party:-

He invited me to the party.

He begged me to come to the party.

He ordered me to come to the party.

He advised me to come to the party.

He suggested I should come to the party.

Use of 'That' in reported speech

In reported speech, the word that is often used.

For example: He told me that he lived in Greenwich.

However, that is optional.

For example: He told me he lived in Greenwich.

!Note - That is never used in questions, instead we often use if.

For example: He asked me if I would come to the party.

The sneaky comma

I'm British, so I only tend to place the comma inside quotation marks when it's part of the sentence being quoted.

"I didn't notice that the comma was inside the quotation marks," Lynne said, "but Hekner did."

That said, I read so much American literature, that even I tuck them away sometimes.

Really, no one has set in stone what the rules of the English language are. It's a diverse language, and the rules that exist
have arisen through usage, and they can change in exactly the same way, so maybe it doesn't matter, but it's best to be
consistent. (Thanks Hekner.)
Examples of Signal Phrases in Grammar and Composition

In English grammar, a signal phrase is a phrase, clause, or sentence that introduces a quotation, paraphrase, or
summary. It's also called a quotative frame or a dialogue guide.

A signal phrase includes a verb (such as said or wrote) along with the name of the person who's being quoted. Although
a signal phrase most often appears before a quotation, the phrase may instead come after it or in the middle of
it. Editors and style guides generally advise writers to vary the positions of signal phrases to improve readability
throughout a text.

Examples of How to Vary Signal Phrases

 Maya Angelou said, "Start loving yourself before you ask someone else to love you."

 "Start loving yourself before you ask someone else to love you," Maya Angelou said.

 "Start loving yourself," Maya Angelou said, "before you ask someone else to love you."

 As Mark Twain observed, "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions."

 According to Frito-Lay research, women snack only 14 percent ...

 The candidate insisted that the tariff must be reduced to a "competitive basis" and taxes ...

 Undernourished children have long been India’s scourge—“a national shame,” in the words of its prime
minister ...

Common signal phrase verbs include the following: argue, assert, claim, comment, confirm, contend, declare, deny,
emphasize, illustrate, imply, insist, note, observe, point out, report, respond, say, suggest, think, and write.

Context, Flow, and Citation

In nonfiction, signal phrases are used to give attribution rather than set off dialogue. They are important to use when
you are paraphrasing or quoting someone's ideas other than your own, as at best it's intellectually dishonest if not
plagiarism to do so, depending on the amount of text used and how closely it mirrors the original text.

"A signal phrase usually names the author of the source and often provides some context for the source material. The
first time you mention an author, use the full name: Shelby Foote argues. ... When you refer to the author again, you
may use the last name only: Foote raises an important question.
"A signal phrase indicates the boundary between your words and the source's words."
(Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers, A Pocket Style Manual, 6th ed. Macmillan, 2012)

"Readers should never be in doubt about your use of a source. Your frame can introduce, interrupt, follow, or even
surround the words or ideas taken from sources, but be sure that your signal phrases are grammatical and lead
naturally into the material."
(John J. Ruszkiewicz and Jay T. Dolmage, How to Write Anything: A Guide and Reference With Readings. Macmillan,
2010)

"If we mention the author's name in the text in a signal phrase ('According to Richard Lanham ...'), then the
parenthetical citation includes the page number only (18). If we use more than one work by an author, and we have
identified his or her name in the text, our parenthetical citation must include a short title of the work cited and a page
number ( Style 18)."
(Scott Rice, Right Words, Right Places. Wadsworth, 1993)

"You ... need to integrate borrowed material naturally into your own work so that it reads smoothly as part of your
paper. ... Leaving the signal phrase out results in an error known as dropped quotation. Dropped quotations appear out
of nowhere. They can confuse your reader and interrupt the flow of your own writing."
(Luis A. Nazario, Deborah D. Borchers, and William F. Lewis, Bridges to Better Writing, 2nd ed. Cengage, 2013)
Punctuating Signal Phrases

Punctuating signal phrases in a sentence is simple and straightforward. "If the quotation begins the sentence, the words
telling who is speaking ... are set off with a comma unless the quotation ends with a question mark or an exclamation
point. ...

"'I didn't even know it was broken,' I said.

"'Do you have any questions?' she asked.
"'You mean I can go!' I answered excitedly.
"'Yes,' she said, 'consider this just a warning.'

"Notice that most of the previous quotations begin with a capital letter. But when a quotation is interrupted by a signal
phrase, the second part doesn't begin with a capital letter unless the second part is a new sentence."
(Paige Wilson and Teresa Ferster Glazier, The Least You Should Know About English: Writing Skills, 12th ed. Cengage,
2015)

Quotation

Definition:

The reproduction of the words of a speaker or writer.

In a direct quotation, the words are reprinted exactly and placed in quotation marks. In an indirect quotation, the
words are paraphrased and not put in quotation marks.

See Examples and Observations below. Also, see:

 Adage

 Aphorism

 Block Quotation

 Citation

 Commonly Confused Words: Quotation and Quote

 Commonplace Book

 Documentation

 Epicrisis

 Guidelines for Using Quotation Marks Effectively

 Intertextuality

 Logical Punctuation

 Padding (Composition)

 Paraphrase

 Pastiche

 "Quotation," by Isaac D'Israeli

  Quotative

 "Quote . . . Misquote": The Challenge of Verifying Quotations

 Reporting Clause and Reporting Verb

 Sic and Sick: Commonly Confused Words

 Signal Phrase

Etymology:

From the Latin, "of what number; how many"

Examples and Observations:

 "Use quotes when a writer says something so well that you could not possibly capture the idea as well by
paraphrasing or summarizing. Quote when your paraphrase would end up being longer or more confusing than
the original. Quote when the original words carry with them some importance that helps make a point, such as
when the writer is an absolute authority on the subject . . ..

"Do not, however, fill your research paper with quote after quote. If you do, your reader is likely to conclude
that you really have few or no ideas of your own on the subject or that you have not studied and understood
the subject well enough to begin to form your own opinions."
(Dawn Rodrigues and Raymond J. Rodrigues, The Research Paper: A Guide to Internet and Library Research, 3rd
ed. Prentice Hall, 2003)

Overusing Quotations

 "Poor writers are apt to overuse block quotations . . .. Those who do this abrogate their duty, namely, to write.
Readers tend to skip over single-spaced mountains of prose . . ..

"Especially to be avoided is quoting another writer at the end of a paragraph or section, a habit infused with
laziness. Skillful quoters subordinate the quoted material to their own prose and use only the most clearly
applicable parts of the previous writing. And even then, they weave it into their own narrative or analysis, not
allowing the quoted to overpower the quoter."
(Bryan Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage. Oxford University Press, 2003)

Trimming Quotations

 "Speakers are wordy. They are always speaking in the first draft. Remember, you are aiming for maximum
efficiency. That means getting the most work out of the few words, which includes quotes. Don't change the
speaker's meaning. Just throw away the words you don't need."
(Gary Provost, Beyond Style: Mastering the Finer Points of Writing. Writer's Digest Books, 1988)

Altering Quotations

 "The accuracy of quotations in research writing is extremely important. They must reproduce the original
sources exactly. Unless indicated in brackets or parentheses . . ., changes must not be made in the spelling,
capitalization, or interior punctuation of the source."
(MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 2009)

"Never alter quotations even to correct minor grammatical errors or word usage. Casual minor tongue slips may
be removed by using ellipses but even that should be done with extreme caution. If there is a question about a
quote, either don't use it or ask the speaker to clarify."
(D. Christian et al, The Associated Press Stylebook. Perseus, 2009)

"Should editors 'correct' quotes? No. Quotes are sacred.

"This doesn't mean we need to reproduce every um, every er, every cough; it doesn't mean a reporter's
 transcription errors can't be corrected; and it certainly doesn't mean that stories should attempt to re-create
dialect (plenty of literate people pronounce should have as 'should of'). But it does mean that a reader should
be able to watch a TV interview and read the same interview in the newspaper and not notice discrepancies in
word choice."
(Bill Walsh, Lapsing Into a Comma. Contemporary Books, 2000)

Pronouns in Quotations

 "[P]lease let me indulge in a parenthetical peeve, which has to do with the way in which pronouns can infect
sentences that contain interior quotes--the pronouns apparently changing horses in midstream. To give just one
random example: 'He arrived at the pier, where he learned that "my ship had come in."' Whose ship The
author's ship? Try reading something like that before an audience or on an audio CD. It is factual and correctly
punctuated, yes, but it is no less awkward."
(John McPhee, "Elicitation." The New Yorker, April 7, 2014)

Citing Quotations

 "For every summary, paraphrase, or quotation you use, cite its bibliographic data in the appropriate style . . ..
Under no circumstance stitch together downloads from the Web with a few sentences of your own. Teachers
grind their teeth reading such reports, dismayed by their lack of original thinking."
(Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research, 3rd ed. The University of
Chicago Press, 2008)

On the Record

 "Ground rules for conversation between reporters and sources come in commonly accepted categories: 'On the
record' means that everything said can be used, and the speaker can be quoted by name.

"'Not for attribution' and 'on background' are used to mean that a source's comments can be quoted, but he or
she must not be directly identified."
("Forms of Speech." Time, Aug. 27, 1984)

Imagining Quotations

 The life I'd been offered was completely unacceptable, but I never gave up hope that my real family might arrive
at any moment, pressing the doorbell with their white-gloved fingers. "Oh, Lord Chisselchin," they'd cry, tossing
their top hats in celebration, "thank God we've finally found you."
(David Sedaris, "Chipped Beef." Naked. Little, Brown and Company, 1997)

Fake Quotations

 "Mr. Duke writes as follows:

Benjamin Franklin said, ' The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

Here it was again, this time attributed to one of the few men who had a hand in drafting both the Declaration and the
Constitution. Could Franklin really have got them confused? . . .

"Now I was really intrigued. The wording of the quotation reminded me less of Franklin’s well-known style than of mid-
twentieth-century self-help. 'You have to catch it yourself,' I soon discovered, is an exceedingly popular bit of
Frankliniana, complete with the awkward reference to the Constitution. It can be found on countless quote-compiling
websites, the modern-day equivalent of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations minus the fact-checking. Authors associated with
the latest right-wing revival routinely attribute great significance to this quotation. Bloggers love it, especially those
bloggers partial to a strict, no-welfare-allowed interpretation of the founding documents. . . .

"Nowhere, though, could I find anyone who sourced the phrase back to a primary work by or about Benjamin Franklin. It
does not appear in Bartlett’s itself. A search of the authoritative database of Franklin’s writings yields no matches.
Google Books assures us it does not come up in any of the major Franklin biographies. I contacted six different Franklin
authorities; none had ever heard of it. . . .
"[G]iven that it is only a little more difficult to use the Internet to check fake quotes than to reproduce them, one
wonders: Why don’t the guardians of Founder purity take that step? Why do fakes proliferate instead of disappear?

"I think the answer is that the myths are so much more satisfying than reality. In a 1989 study of spurious quotes, They
Never Said It, historians Paul F. Boiler Jr. and John George write that quote fakers 'dream up things that never happened
but which they think should have and then insert them into history.'"
(Thomas Frank, "Check It Yourself." Harper's Magazine, April 2011)

H.G. Wells on the "Nobler Method of Quotation"

 "The nobler method of quotation is not to quote at all. For why should one repeat good things that are already
written? Are not the words in their fittest context in the original? Clearly, then, your new setting cannot be
quite so congruous, which is, forthwith, an admission of incongruity. Your quotation is evidently a plug in a leak,
an apology for a gap in your own words. But your vulgar author will even go out of his way to make the clothing
of his thoughts thus heterogeneous. He counts every stolen scrap he can work in an improvement--a literary
caddis worm. Yet would he consider it improvement to put a piece of even the richest of old tapestry or gold
embroidery into his new pair of breeks?"
(H.G. Wells, "The Theory of Quotation." Certain Personal Matters, 1901)

Michael Bywater on the Lighter Side of Pretentious Quotations

 "[T]here are some figures of speech which are not to be taken at face value, but which are to be taken at
precisely their between-the-lines value. Take, for example, the hoary old 'I think it was X who said . . .' followed
by a plausible but obscure quote. What that meant was 'I have just looked through my Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations and found this quote from Pindar, whom I have never read but who is generally thought to be the
marker of a pretty spiffy sort of mind. Since I would like you to think I have a pretty spiffy mind, I wish to give
you the impression that I am intimately familiar with the works, not only of Pindar, but of absolutely bloody
everybody, so while I am happy to expose to you an inch or so of my massive, throbbing intellectual
armamentarium, I do so with the entirely false caveat that, having been plucked from my capacious intellect, it
may be falsely labelled."
(Michael Bywater, Lost Worlds. Granta Books, 2004)

Pronunciation: kwo-TAY-shun

Paraphrase

When you paraphrase or summarize someone else's words and ideas, you still have to document your source.
Hh5800/Getty Images

A paraphrase is a restatement of a text in another form or other words, often to simplify or clarify meaning.

"When you paraphrase," says Brenda Spatt, "you retain everything about the original writing but the words."

Meaning

"When I put down words that I say somebody said they needn't be the exact words, just what you might call the
meaning."
(Mark Harris, The Southpaw. Bobbs-Merrill, 1953

Paraphrasing Steve Jobs

"I've often heard Steve [Jobs] explain why Apple's products look so good or work so well by telling the 'show car'
anecdote.

'You see a show car,' he would say (I'm paraphrasing here, but this is pretty close to his words), 'and you think, "That's a
great design, it's got great lines." Four or five years later, the car is in the showroom and in television ads, and it sucks.
And you wonder what happened. They had it. They had it, and then they lost it.'"
(Jay Elliot with William Simon, The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation. Vanguard, 2011

Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation

"A summary, written in your own words, briefly restates the writer's main points. Paraphrase, although written in your
own words, is used to relate the details or the progression of an idea in your source. Quotation, used sparingly, can lend
credibility to your work or capture a memorable passage." (L. Behrens, A Sequence for Academic Writing. Longman,
2009

How to Paraphrase a Text

"Paraphrase passages that present important points, explanations, or arguments but that don't contain memorable or
straightforward wording.

Follow these steps:

(R. VanderMey, The College Writer. Houghton, 2007

1. Quickly review the passage to get a sense of the whole, and then go through the passage carefully, sentence by
sentence.

2. State the ideas in your own words, defining words as needed.

3. If necessary, edit for clarity, but don't change the meaning.

1. If you borrow phrases directly, put them in quotation marks.

2. Check your paraphrase against the original for accurate tone and meaning."

Reasons for Using Paraphrase

"Paraphrasing helps your readers to gain a detailed understanding of your sources, and, indirectly, to accept your
thesis as valid. There are two major reasons for using paraphrase in your essays.

1. Use paraphrase to present information or evidence whenever there is no special reason for using a direct
quotation. . . .
2. Use paraphrase to give your readers an accurate and comprehensive account of ideas taken from a source--ideas that
you intend to explain, interpret, or disagree with in your essay. . . .

"When you take notes for an essay based on one or more sources, you should mostly paraphrase. Quote only when
recording phrases or sentences that clearly merit quotation. All quotable phrases and sentences should be transcribed
accurately in your notes, with quotation marks separating the paraphrase from the quotation."
(Brenda Spatt, Writing From Sources, 8th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011

Paraphrase as a Rhetorical Exercise

"A paraphrase differs from a translation in not being a transfer from one language to another. . . . We generally
associate with paraphrase the notion of an expansion of the original thought by definitions, periphrasis, examples, etc.,
with a view to making it more intelligible; but this is not essential.

Here is meant the simpler form, in which the pupil reproduces in his own words the complete thought of an author,
without attempting to explain it or to imitate the style.

"It has been frequently urged against this exercise, that, in thus substituting other words for those of an accurate writer,
we must necessarily choose such as are less expressive of the sense. It has, however, been defended by one of the
greatest rhetoricians--Quintilian."
(Andrew D. Hepburn, Manual of English Rhetoric, 1875

Monty Python and Computer Paraphrasing

"In the famous sketch from the TV show 'Monty Python's Flying Circus,' the actor John Cleese had many ways of saying a
parrot was dead, among them, 'This parrot is no more,' 'He's expired and gone to meet his maker,' and 'His metabolic
processes are now history.'

"Computers can't do nearly that well at paraphrasing.

English sentences with the same meaning take so many different forms that it has been difficult to get computers to
recognize paraphrases, much less produce them.

"Now, using several methods, including statistical techniques borrowed from gene analysis, two researchers have
created a program that can automatically generate paraphrases of English sentences."
(A. Eisenberg, "Get Me Rewrite!" The New York Times, Dec. 25, 2003

The Lighter Side of Paraphrasing

"Some guy hit my fender the other day, and I said unto him, 'Be fruitful, and multiply.' But not in those words.” (Woody
Allen)

"The other important joke for me is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx, but I think it appears originally in
Freud's Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious. And it goes like this--I'm paraphrasing--'I would never want to belong to
any club that would have someone like me for a member.' That's the key joke of my adult life in terms of my
relationships with women."
(Woody Allen as Alvy Singer in Annie Hall, 1977)

Pronunciation: PAR-a-fraz

Meaning Semantics

"The word good has many meanings," said G.K. Chesterton. "For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a
range of 500 yards, I should call him a good shot but not necessarily a good man.". Rob Melnychuk/Getty Images

In semantics and pragmatics, meaning is the message conveyed by words, sentences, and symbols in a context. Also
called lexical meaning or semantic meaning.

In The Evolution of Language (2010), W. Tecumseh Fitch points out that semantics is "the branch of language study that
consistently rubs shoulders with philosophy. This is because the study of meaning raises a host of deep problems that
are the traditional stomping grounds for philosophers."

Here are more examples of meaning from other writers on the subject:

Word Meanings

"Word meanings are like stretchy pullovers, whose outline contour is visible, but whose detailed shape varies with use:
'The proper meaning of a word . . . is never something upon which the word sits like a gull on a stone; it is something
over which the word hovers like a gull over a ship's stern,' noted one literary critic."
(Jean Aitchison, The Language Web: The Power and Problem of Words. Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Meaning in Sentences
"It may justly be urged that, properly speaking, what alone has meaning is a sentence. Of course, we can speak quite
properly of, for example, 'looking up the meaning of a word' in a dictionary. Nevertheless, it appears that the sense in
which a word or phrase 'has a meaning' is derivative from the sense in which a sentence 'has a meaning': to say a word
or phrase 'has a meaning' is to say that there are sentences in which it occurs which 'have meanings'; and to know the
meaning which the word or phrase has, is to know the meanings of sentences in which it occurs. All the dictionary can
do when we 'look up the meaning of a word' is to suggest aids to the understanding of sentences in which it occurs.
Hence it appears correct to say that what 'has meaning' in the primary sense is the sentence." (John L. Austin, "The
Meaning of a Word." Philosophical Papers, 3rd ed., edited by J. O. Urmson and G. J. Warnock. Oxford University Press,
1990)

Different Kinds of Meaning for Different Kinds of Words

"There can't be a single answer to the question 'Are meanings in the world or in the head?' because the division of labor
between sense and reference is very different for different kinds of words. With a word like this or that, the sense by
itself is useless in picking out the referent; it all depends on what is in the environs at the time and place that a person
utters it. . . . Linguists call them deictic terms . . .. Other examples are here, there, you, me, now, and then. "At the other
extreme are words that refer to whatever we say they mean when we stipulate their meanings in a system of rules. At
least in theory, you don't have to go out into the world with your eyes peeled to know what a touchdown is, or a
member of parliament, or a dollar, or an American citizen, or GO in Monopoly, because their meaning is laid down
exactly by the rules and regulations of a game or system. These are sometimes called nominal kinds--kinds of things that
are picked out only by how we decide to name them." (Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought. Viking, 2007)

Two Types of Meaning: Semantic and Pragmatic

"It has been generally assumed that we have to understand two types of meaning to understand what the speaker
means by uttering a sentence. . . . A sentence expresses a more or less complete propositional content, which is
semantic meaning, and extra pragmatic meaning comes from a particular context in which the sentence is uttered."
(Etsuko Oishi, "Semantic Meaning and Four Types of Speech Act." Perspectives on Dialogue in the New Millennium, ed. P.
Kühnlein et al. John Benjamins, 2003)

Pronunciation: ME-ning

Etymology: From the Old English, "to tell of"