請教 reported speech/indirect speech﹙最近更新：8-3-2006﹚

anthony

１‧我的英文教科書說在 reported speech 中，一些永遠不變的事實如果是 present tense 需保留為 present tense。
但是，為何一個人說自己的名字時，在 reported speech 中要用 past tense？

例如：

"My name is John," the boy said to Mary.

但是當 Mary 覆述那男孩說的話時，是這樣說的：

Mary said (that) the boy's name was John.

名字應該是不會改變的東西，那麼在 reported speech 中用 ".... name is John" 不是更適合嗎？

２‧以下是 Roddy 對 Michael 說的說話，而現在 Michael 要將說話覆述給 Lisa.

(Roddy to Michael):
"Last year, the competition organizers asked for a short film, but I heard that this year they want an animated cartoon."

(Michael to Lisa):
"Roddy said that last year the competition organizers had asked for a short film, but told me that he had heard that they wanted an animated film this year."

在 reported speech 中，"this" 字不是應改為 "that" 字嗎？而如果在這句中 "this" 字應不改為 "that" 字，那麼 "wanted" 不應保留為 "want" 嗎？

希望大家能夠解答本人的問題，並盡量詳細解釋，多謝。

３‧﹙新加入的問題﹚
在 direct speech 中的 "this" 字，在 reported speech 中需要改成 "that" 字。
那麼請問 direct speech 中的 "come" 字，需要轉成 "go" 字嗎？

以以下句子為例：

"Come and see me," the teacher said to the student.

如果要轉成 reported speech，請問以下哪一句才正確呢？

A. The teacher told the student to go and see him/her.
B. The teacher told the student to come and see him/her.

在 direct speech 轉換成 reported speech 中，除了 "this" 字要轉成 "that" 字，請問還有哪些字需要作改變呢？希望大家可以舉一些例子﹙如果有的話﹚。

[ 本帖最後由 anthony 於 8/3/2006 19:49 編輯 ]

zubat

1.Mary knew about "the boy's name" in the past, and it may not be true now. I can call myself "Zubat", "Handsome", "Rubbish", etc.
Compare: My teacher told me that ice melts under normal room temperature. (Eternal truth)

2. "Want" has to be changed into "wanted" according to the rule. The tenses used in reported speech cannot be determined by general rules.
Michael reported to Lisa in the same year as Roddy told him, so we need not change "this year" to "that year".

anthony

先說句謝謝。

原帖由 zubat 於 6/3/2006 18:50 發表
Michael reported to Lisa in the same year as Roddy told him, so we need not change "this year" to "that year".

那麼如果兩段對話並非在同一年發生， "this year" 是不是就要轉成 "that year"？

還有，請問以下的句子有沒有犯文法上的錯誤呢？

Mrs Johnson asked Maria how often she went to the dentist.
Maria answered she didn't go very often. She added that she usually sees the dentist once a year.

[ 本帖最後由 anthony 於 6/3/2006 19:12 編輯 ]

zubat

1. Yes.
2. They are grammatically correct.

P.S. For your previous question concerning the "name", both present tense and past tense are acceptable.

zubat

3. A
Similar case: "here" --> "there"