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539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Speech representation | 815

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The report may simply be an expansion or elaboration of the reporting noun in a

separate clause:

[electrical engineering university tutorial]

Well again we come back to 

the point that we made earlier: 

are you actually

plotting it against T, you know have you had to plot it against T or against

something else?

QUOTING AND ATTRIBUTING 

498

The speech of others, especially of famous people, and proverbs and conventional

sayings may be quoted, in order to support arguments, to invoke particular

emotions, etc. Different structures may occur:

[Tony Blair was the British Prime Minister at the time of speaking]

To quote Tony Blair, ‘Education, education, education’. 

(verb infinitive)

Dr Fanshaw has this, 

I quote, ‘miracle cream’ that he gives to all his ladies to

reduce the stretch marks, and it really does work.

(present simple tense)

As the old proverb says, ‘There’s no smoke without fire.’

(present simple tense)

As she put it, ‘I thought my time was up.’

(past simple tense)

Speech may also be attributed to others by the use of expressions such as

according to X

, so X says/said, or more vaguely or obliquely with adverbs such as

allegedly

, apparently, evidently and expressions such as or so I was/have been

told, I’ve heard (that)

, they say/’re saying. These expressions are particularly

frequent in everyday conversation. Impersonal passive-voice expressions such as

it is said (that)/it is reported (that)

, it has been claimed/suggested/proposed (that)

are more frequent in formal (especially academic) texts (

Û

502b, below

):

A: We’re not getting copies.

B: Well according to Gillian

you are

.

He happened to be an archer

, 

or so he said.

I was told that

I look nineteen

.

They say

it’s a bad road, an accident black-spot

.

In ironic contexts, speakers often use the expression quote-unquote to refer

obliquely to what is or has often been said in similar situations:

[ironic reference to a lifeguard’s considerable legal responsibility when

working with children]

A: Is Sarah all right with them? 

B: Yeah. Because she’s a qualified lifeguard so she’s been with the teachers.

She’s okay to cover them, 

quote-unquote. 

816 | Speech representation

Cambridge Grammar of English

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