Reporting Someone's Words

Level 5

The reporting clause and its content have separate participants and TAM marking.

How It Works

Ce means ‘say’. Direct quotation presents a speaker's words: zan inside Hauwa's quotation identifies Hauwa, while quoted gobe means tomorrow from her utterance's viewpoint.

Reported propositions can follow cewa. In Hauwa ta gaya wa Musa cewa za ta dawo, embedded ta can refer to Hauwa, but context could identify another female participant. The reporting subject does not automatically determine every pronoun in the content. Omission of cewa depends on the reporting construction.

Reported instructions use subjunctives after suitable predicates. Compare ordering her to bring water with reporting that she will bring it: the first directs an action; the second reports a proposition. Ordinary spelling does not show the subjunctive's distinguishing tone. Interpret embedded TAM and time expressions in context rather than mechanically changing forms to imitate English past-tense reporting. A completed saying event can report content that was still prospective at that event's reference time.

Examples (4)

  1. Hauwa ta ce, “Zan dawo gobe.”

    Hauwa said, “I will return tomorrow.”

    Zan and gobe belong to the quoted speaker's viewpoint.

  2. Hauwa ta gaya wa Musa cewa za ta dawo da yamma.

    Hauwa told Musa that she would return in the evening.

    Embedded ta refers to Hauwa in this reading.

  3. Na umurce shi ya buɗe ƙofa.

    I ordered him to open the door.

    The instructed actor has masculine singular subjunctive marking.

  4. Mun umurce ta ta kawo ruwa.

    We ordered her to bring water.

    Plural reporters and a feminine instructed actor have separate marking.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Reporting Someone's WordsLevel 5

Learn This First

Recognize finite propositions introduced as content and subjunctive instructions before tracking speaker, participants and time expressions within a report.

Words in This Pattern

cêe