Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
1. Introducción.
El estilo directo es fácil de describir desde un punto de vista formal. Solo es necesario copiar el
contenido original (literalmente), encerrar dicho contenido entre comillas y atribuir ese
contenido mediante verbos como say o expresiones como according to.
Original: (J. Smith) School budgets will not be cut during this recession.
Estilo directo: According to Smith, ‘School budgets will not be cut during this
recession’.
El estilo indirecto, donde uno desea reproducir el contenido original sin repetirlo literalmente
como fue pronunciado, requiere más reglas de conversión que el estilo directo:
Original: (Smith) School budgets will not be cut during this recession.
Estilo indirecto:
a. Smith reports that no school Budget cuts will occur during this recession.
b. Smith said that school budgets would not be cut during this recession.
c. Smith claimed that during this/that recession, there would be no reduction in scool
budgets.
d. Smith predicted that no school Budget cuts would occur during this/that recession.
Según la regla de la secuencia de tiempos o desplazamiento hacia atrás el tiempo del verbo en
la proposición está controlado por el tiempo del verbo en la oración principal de manera que
cuando el verbo en la oración principal se encuentra en tiempo de pasado el tiempo del verbo
en la proposición debe desplazarse hacia atrás, hacía el tiempo inmediatamente anterior al
que se utiliza en el estilo directo. A continuación, se presentan algunos ejemplos
Normalmente, los cambios que se producen en la proposición son cambios en el tiempo
verbal, en los pronombres (de primera persona a tercera persona) y cambios en las referencias
de tiempo y de lugar (por ejemplo, de tomorrow a the next day y de yesterday a the day
before).
La forma ordinaría de introducir el estilo indirecto es mediante verbos comunes como ‘say’,
‘tell’, ‘ask’, ‘speak’ y ‘talk’ utilizando el conector ‘that’ para introducir la proposición. El
conector ‘that’ es opcional y puede ser omitido.
She said, ‘I saw him’ (estilo directo) = She said that she had seen him (estilo indirecto).
She told him that she was happy = She told him she was happy.
Los verbos ‘say’ y ‘tell’ son verbos muy comunes para introducir el estilo indirecto. Cuando no
se menciona al interlocutor debemos usar ‘say’ mientras que cuando se menciona al
interlocutor debemos usar ‘tell’.
- Con los verbos modales: might, could, would, should, ought to.
Las órdenes pueden ser atribuidas de varias maneras. Podemos utilizar tres tipos diferentes de
complementos en la proposición para atribuir órdenes de forma indirecta.
En el estilo directo tenemos preguntas de tipo SI/NO (con verbos modales o sin ellos) y
preguntas acompañadas de pronombres interrogativos.
De tipo SI/NO (con verbos modales o sin ellos).
Where does Peter live? She asked him where Peter lived.
Where are you going? He asked where I was going.
Why is she crying? He asked why she was crying.
The policeman said to the boy ‘Where do you live’ The policeman asked
the boy where he lived.
‘What time does the train arrive?’, she asked She asked what time
the train arrived.
We wondered [what we did] in case of a emergency.
We wondered [what to do] in case of an emergency.
We wondered [what plants we had to water].
We wondered [what plants to water].
- Pronombre interrogativo o pronombre interrogativo relativo.
Existe una sutil diferencia entre una pregunta indirecta con pronombre interrogativo y una
proposición de relativo libre: La diferencia está en sí el pronombre interrogativo puede ser
parafraseado como un pronombre interrogativo relativo o como un pronombre interrogativo.
Si el pronombre interrogativo puede ser parafraseado como un pronombre interrogativo
relativo entonces se trata de una proposición de relativo libre. Si el pronombre interrogativo
puede ser parafraseado como un pronombre interrogativo entonces se trata de una pregunta
indirecta con pronombre interrogativo.
We discovered what the cause of the leak was = We discovered the thing that
was the case of the leak.
*We discovered, ‘what was the cause of the leak?’.
Pronombre interrogativo.
El uso del estilo indirecto puede requerir no solo modificaciones en el tiempo verbal de la
proposición, sino también modificaciones en los adverbios de tiempo y de lugar y los
pronombres personales y demostrativos.
Podeos resumir las modificaciones que sufren los adverbios de tiempo y de lugar en el estilo
indirecto mediante las siguientes tablas. La primera tabla toma como punto de referencia el
momento en el que se habla y la segunda tabla toma como punto de referencia algún punto en
el pasado.
A continuación, se muestran algunos ejemplos.
"I saw him today", she said. She said that she had seen him that day.
Frase en estilo directo Equivalente en estilo indirecto
"I saw him yesterday", she said. She said that she had seen him the day before.
The day before yesterday (antes de ayer) two days before (dos días antes)
"I met her the day before yesterday", he said. He said that he had met her two days before.
"I'll see you tomorrow", he said He said that he would see me the next day.
The day after tomorrow (pasado mañana) in two days time/ two days later (dentro de dos
días)
"We'll come the day after tomorrow", they They said that they would come in two days time/
said. two days later.
Next week/month/year (la semana / mes / the following week/month/year (la semana / mes /
año siguiente) año siguiente)
"I have an appointment next week", she said. She said that she had an appointment the following
week.
Last week/month/year (la semana / mes / the previous/week/month/year (la semana / mes /
año pasada/o) año anterior)
"I was on holiday last week", he told us. He told us that he had been on holiday the previous
week.
"I saw her a week ago," he said. He said he had seen her a week before.
Frase en estilo directo Equivalente en estilo indirecto
"I'm getting a new car this week", she said. She said she was getting a new car that week.
"Do you like this shirt?" he asked He asked if I liked the shirt.
He said: "I like your new car." = He told her that he liked her new car.
I said: "I'm going to my friend's house." = I said that I was going to my friend's house.
"I always drink coffee", she said She said that she always drank coffee.
"Bill arrived on Saturday", he said. He said that Bill had arrived on Saturday.
"I have been to Spain", he told me. He told me that he had been to Spain.
"I had just turned out the light," he explained. He explained that he had just turned out the light.
They complained, "We have been waiting for They complained that they had been waiting for
hours". hours.
"We were living in Paris", they told me. They told me that they had been living in Paris.
"I will be in Geneva on Monday", he said. He said that he would be in Geneva on Monday.
She said, "I'll be using the car next Friday". She said that she would be using the car next
Friday.