Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from 24.03.2018 16:56

 AH> Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 ak>> ----- Beginning of the citation -----
 ak>> The engineering firm building the bridge at Florida International
 ak>> University had ordered Thursday that the cables be tightened, Mr.
 ak>> Rubio, a Republican, said in a late Thursday tweet. "They were
 ak>> being tightened when it collapsed," he said.
ak>   ----- The end of the citation -----


 AH>> According to my CANADIAN OXFORD DICTIONARY "reported speech" =
 AH>> what would have been referred to as an indirect quotation when I
 AH>> was in school. It is somebody's account of what somebody else
 AH>> said, but the reporter is under no obligation to copy the words
 AH>> exactly & may alter verb tenses as s/he sees fit.

 ak>> You write "the reporter... may alter verb tenses as s/he sees
 ak>> fit." Does it mean that he can alter the verb tenses "as he
 ak>> likes"?


 AH> Within reason, we accept that the reporter may alter some verb
 AH> tenses to make them fit together with other verb tenses in his or
 AH> her report.

 AH> Years ago, for example, I read a cartoon in which Mr. Dithers told
 AH> an employee he was fired. His actual words were "Bumstead, you're
 AH> fired!" I have not changed the meaning by using the past tense in
 AH> my account of the situation.

Yes, you should do it when transferring direct speech into reported speech, and
 you really didn't change the meaning. You followed the rule.

<skipped>

 ak>> In other words the tense switching is not obligatory?

 AH> I think it's almost certain in a case like this, because the
 AH> reporter is telling us about an event which occurred in the past &
 AH> probably doesn't know the exact wording the engineering firm used.
 AH> I would agree that it's common... but I wouldn't go so far as to
 AH> say it's obligatory.

Any reported speech can be transferred back into direct speech:

-----
Mr. Rubio said in a late Thursday tweet, "The engineering firm building the
bridge at Florida International University ordered Thursday that the cables be
tightened".
----

 AH> Suppose I order some widgets from the XYZ Company, and I'm
 AH> told "They should be at your door by 8:00 PM Friday." At 9:00 PM on
 AH> Friday I might say to Dallas "The XYZ Company told me those widgets
 AH> should be here by now." I see no need to change the verb tense
 AH> there if the widgets have not yet arrived.

When your words are in quotation marks it is direct speech, no changes are
needed. In reported speech you remove quotation marks:

At 9:00 on Friday I said ... that the XYZ Company _had told_ me those widgets
should have been here by then.

 AH> Another example: I notice my friend Sheila sitting alone in a
 AH> coffee shop & crying quietly. I sit next to her & say "Hi,
 AH> Sheila... what's up?"

OK, direct speech

 AH> She answers "I was expecting [my boyfriend]
 AH> to meet me here tonight, but I think he must have forgotten."

Quotation marks here - direct speech is detected again.

 AH> Later she finds out he hadn't forgotten but was involved in an
 AH> accident while en route to the coffee shop. From that time onward
 AH> Sheila or I might say she thought he'd forgotten until she had more
 AH> information. What a person said in the past may or may not reflect
 AH> accurately what they would say now. If Susie said "The moon is made
 AH> of green cheese" awhile ago the situation is less clear & different
 AH> people may use different tenses to report on it.

Take this for instance:

Susie said "The moon is made of green cheese."
but
Susie said that the moon was made of green cheese.

It is also correct, both sentences mean the same.


Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
ENGLISH_TUTOR 2018

--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox
 * Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)