Chapter 19 Subordinate clauses
Direct and indirect speech
Phi separates quoted Phi wording from a report of what someone meant. sha ... sho preserves the words inside the frame; tha ... tho carries their propositional content.
Direct speech: sha ... sho
sha opens a quotation and sho closes it. The surrounding verb follows the closer and says whether the framed words were spoken or heard.
ne sulae sha mia so wepu sho to shemui.
NAME sulae QUOT.COMP 1SG FUT go QUOT.COMP.CLOSE PST utter.
mia sha wa thia towe nai sho to hea.
1SG QUOT.COMP Q 2SG well be QUOT.COMP.CLOSE PST hear.
mia sha mia thia lothea sho to shemui.
1SG QUOT.COMP 1SG 2SG love QUOT.COMP.CLOSE PST utter.
Inside the frame, pronouns, tense, and clause force remain as spoken. The first quotation therefore keeps mia, the original speaker's "I," and the second keeps its direct-question particle wa.
The claim of exactness applies to grammatical Phi wording. If the source used another language or a form that depends on its own script, the original remains outside the Phi sentence. A Phi rendering may translate or report it, but sha ... sho does not turn a translation into the source's exact words.
Indirect speech: tha ... tho
Indirect speech reports content without claiming to preserve the wording:
ne sulae tha shia so wepu tho to shemui.
NAME sulae DECL.COMP 3SG FUT go DECL.COMP.CLOSE PST utter.
ne sa sulae tha lo peloru thuroa tho to shemui.
NAME HON.RESPECT sulae DECL.COMP PL flower grow DECL.COMP.CLOSE PST utter.
In the first report, sulae's quoted mia would become shia from the reporter's point of view. Other wording may also be condensed or rearranged, provided the reporter does not pretend that a paraphrase is a quotation.
Choosing the frame
Direct speech is appropriate when the Phi wording itself matters and the reporter can stand behind its accuracy. Indirect speech is appropriate when the proposition matters more than its original phrasing. Neither frame rates the truth of what was said.
Evidential ti can mark the matrix speech event as received information:
shia tha ne sulae so wepu tho to ti shemui.
3SG DECL.COMP NAME sulae FUT go DECL.COMP.CLOSE PST REP utter.
Here ti says that the present speaker learned of the saying through a report. It does not count every person in the chain or certify any of them. If the source or exact record matters, the surrounding account identifies it beside the Phi passage.