An overview of the reported speech and reporting verbs in English

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to review the reported speech and reporting verbs in English. The study reveals that there are three approaches to the reported speech and reporting verbs in English, namely syntactic - semantic feature, grammatical structure and functional grammar approaches, in order to clarify the functions of reporting signals and different messages of reporting. Although different approaches have different attitudes to reported speech and the classification of reporting verbs in English, it is undeniable that the reported speech and reporting verbs are essential in any spoken and written language. Hopefully, the findings of this study are a contribution to the theoretical background for research on the reported speech and reporting verbs in English and it may be helpful for Vietnamese learners in the process of learning English.