Indirect Speech of Qur’anic Discourse

Abstract

In Arabic linguistic research, the term حكاية القول ‘reporting speech’ covers two main uses: حكاية لفظ ‘direct speech’ and حكاية معنى ‘indirect speech’. The reporter is assumed to be faithful to the form and meaning of the original speech when he adopts the former mode, while he is limited to the meaning when adopting the latter. As far as ‘indirect speech’ is concerned, Arab grammarians suggest some formal indicators of the occurrence of this mode, like pronouns and deictic expressions backshift, and the use of the ‘explanatory’ أنَّ  ‘anna’. However, misconception of the real nature of indirect reported speech by Arab scholars is apparent since most of them consider the absence of such indicators as a sign of direct speech even when it reports speeches of plural subjects. In addition reportive verbs of indirect speech have not been studied thoroughly either. The present study hypothesises that there are some linguistic indicators which precisely reveal the indirect nature of a reported speech in Arabic, and that this reportive mode employs a limited number of reportive verbs and reportive constructions in the Qur’anic discourse. In its theoretical account, the study characterizes the linguistic indicators of this mode in Arabic. The stylistic and statistical types of analysis validate the hypotheses of the study. They describe uses of this reportive mode, its speakers, and the reportive verbs adopted in the Qur’anic discourse.

Keywords: indirect reported speech, Qur’anic discourse, reportive verbs, reportive constructions, reportive mode.