CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY, DATA, AND GENERAL FINDINGS
3.1. Projection in English Clause Complexes
3.1.2. How does Projection Work in English Clause Complexes?
3.1.2.2. How does Hypotactic Reporting Work in English Clause Complexes?
In English hypotactic clause complexes of reporting, as the two constituent clauses are interdependent, they are both syntactically and semantically intermingled. As the dependent clause, the projected clause can be either free or bound, thus can be either finite or non-finite. Since the dependent clause is the original locution / idea projected to the new cotext and context, it therefore takes on a set of new features to fit into the new speech event.
The most outstanding feature of English hypotactic clause complexes of reporting is the agreement between deitic expressions in the hypotactically reporting clause and deictic expressions in the hypotactically reported clause. Deixis is the process of pointing via language and this process is realized through three major types of deictic expressions, which are: personal deictic expressions, temporal deictic expressions, and spatial deictic expressions. The prerequisite in employing and interpretating deictic expressions is the identification of the deictic center, which provides information about the
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time and location of the production of a locution / idea in relation to the speaker, based on which the desired targets of the pointing process can be traced. In hypotactic reporting, as the projecting clause is the dominant clause, the deictic center of the whole complex is determined by the speech event in this clause; all the deictic expressions in the reported clause are therefore projected in accordance with the new deictic center – the speech event in the dominant clause. All the three kinds of deictic expressions in hypotactically reported clauses are modified to match those in the projecting clauses.
a. The Change of Personal Deictic Expressions
Personal deictic expressions are linguistic expressions used to point to people, usually demonstrated by pronouns. In clause complexes of reporting, personal deictic expressions in the reported clauses are, in most cases, not preserved as in the original locution / idea but changed to fit the personal deictic expressions of the projecting clauses.
In other words, pronouns in the reported clauses are modified in relation with those in the projecting clauses
35a. After all, educators have to constantly ask themselves ||what aspects of the given culture they would like to transmit to children and how. 110_23
35b. After all, educators have to constantly asks themselves: || ―What aspects of the given culture do we want to transmit to children and how?‖
36a. Equally, Christians and other non-Muslim communities, || who had always been treated as second-class members of society, || now told || that they were equal to Muslims. (108_21)
36b. Equally, Christians and other non-Muslim communities, || who had always been treated as second-class members of society, || now told: || ―We are equal to Muslims‖
Clause complex 110_23 in 35a is in the mode of reporting and can be changed into the mode of quoting as in 35b. Clause complex 108-21 in 36a, similarly, can be changed in to the mode of quoting as in 36b. The major differences between the reported clauses and the quoted clauses as illustrated are in the change of deictic expressions. As seen in the above complexes, personal deictic expressions in clause complexes of reporting agree (there is a perfect agreement in person and number among educators –
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themselves and they in 35a, Christians and other non-Muslim communities and they in 36a), while those in the complexes of quoting need not (the grammatical categories of person and number of the words educators – themselves are independent from the person and number of pronoun we in the quoted clause of 35b, and the grammatical categories of person and number of the phrase Christians and other non-Muslim communities are also independent from the person and number of pronoun we in the quoted clause of 36b.)
b. The Change of Temporal Deictic Expressions
In English, temporal deixis is usually expressed through verb tenses and expressions of time. Verbs tenses and expression of time in the hypotactically reported clause match those in the projected clause.
37a. Over one hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud concluded || that dreams constituted the royal road to the unconscious. (107_13)
37b. Over one hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud concluded: ―Dreams constitute the royal road to the unconscious.‖
38a. Fans were actively complaining || that the episodes and even the season as a whole seemed scattered. (107_19)
38b. Fans were actively complaining: || ―The episodes and even the season as a whole seem scattered.‖
As illustrated in the two complexes above, the verb in the original locution, as quoted in 37b, is in present tense - constitute, but is then shifted back to the past tense – constituted – in 107_13 (37a) to fit the past-tensed verb concluded in the projecting process. The reason is the deictic center of the locution has been projected from present tense to past tense, the tensed verb as a temporal deictic expression is also projected in accordance with the deictic center. The same shift of verb tense happens to the verb in the original locution, as quoted in 38b, when being reported in a new speech event in 38a: the deictic center change so the temporal deictic expressions – the tensed verb change as well.
Other expressions of time, if there are any, are also projected to fit the new speech event like changing from today in the original locution / idea to that day in the reported clause, from tomorrow in the original locution / idea to the next day in the
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reported clause, etc., which has been discussed much in what traditional grammar calls reported speech.
c. The Change of Spatial Deictic Expressions
Just like personal and temporal deictic expressions, when a locution / idea is shifted to a new speech event through hypotactic reporting, spatial deictic expressions are also shifted in accordance with the deictic center changes, as demonstrated in the complexes below:
39a. Melinda Beck, a columnist of The Wall Street Journal, wrote me: || 'Would you kindly tell me how you arrived at this motto?'' (104_30)
39b. Melinda Beck, a columnist of The Wall Street Journal, wrote me to ask how I arrived at that motto.
40a. "During the voyages I made," || Falconbridge recalled || "I was frequently witness to the fatal effects of this exclusion of fresh air." (105_37)
40b. Falconbridge recalled that during the voyage he had made, he had been frequently witness to the fatal effects of that exclusion of fresh air.
When being reported, the locution / idea is distanced away from the original location, the proximal term this is therefore substituted by the distal term that like in 39b and 40b, the substitution can also be those for these, there for here, etc.