In Russian, to convey someone’s words in the text, such a syntactic construction as direct speech is used. Schemes (four of them) in a visual form show which signs and where are placed. To understand this, you need to understand the abbreviations indicated in them.
The difference between direct and indirect
You can communicate someone’s statements either on behalf of the person who makes them (this is direct speech), or from a third party, and then it will be indirect. In the article, we consider the first option in more detail. The schemes of direct and indirect speech are different, as they are formed and sound differently in the text, for example:
- “Today I’ll be late from work,” said Mom . Text word for word reflects what the mother said, transmitting information from her personally. In this case, the direct speech scheme is divided into the one who speaks, and directly into the content.
- Mom said it would be late from work today . In this embodiment, words are not transmitted on behalf of the speaker. In writing, indirect speech is a complex syntactic construction in which the author’s words come first and are its main part.
There are 4 direct speech transmission schemes that use the following notation:
- P - indicates the capital letter with which direct speech begins.
- p - means the beginning of speech with a small letter.
- And - these are the author’s words starting with a capital letter.
- A is a lowercase letter.
Depending on what designations are used and where they stand in the scheme, you can build a sentence. Which will correspond to it or, conversely, the existing text will allow you to paint schematically.
Direct speech at the beginning of the text
Schemes of direct speech in which it precedes the words of the author, are as follows:
- "P" - a.
- "P?" - a.
- "P!" - a.
If the author’s words are preceded by direct speech, the rules (the diagram displays this) require you to enclose it in quotation marks, and put a punctuation mark between them, corresponding to the emotional coloring of the statement. If it is narrative, then the parts are separated by a comma. With interrogative or exclamatory emotions in speech, signs are put that convey this stylistic coloring of the sentence. For instance:
- “We go to the sea in the summer,” said the girl.
- “Do we go to sea at summer?” - asked the girl.
- “We go to the sea in the summer!” - the girl shouted joyfully .
In these examples, the same content of direct speech is transmitted with different emotional colors. The words of the author also change in accordance with these changes.
The words of the author at the beginning of the speech
Direct speech schemes (with examples below), in which the author’s words begin a syntactic construction, are used when it is important to point to the speaker. They look like this:
According to the diagrams, it is necessary to put a colon behind the words of the author, which begin with a capital letter, since they are at the beginning of the sentence. Directly direct speech on both sides is enclosed in quotation marks and begins with a capital letter, as an independent syntactic construction. At the end, a punctuation mark is placed corresponding to the emotional content of the text. For instance:
- The boy came up and said in a low voice: "I need to go home to my sick mother." In this example, direct speech is located behind the words of the author and has a neutral color, so at the end a dot is placed.
- A cry of indignation burst from her lips: “How can you not notice this injustice!” The sentence has an emotionally expressive color, conveying strong indignation. Therefore, a direct speech, which is behind the author’s words and enclosed in quotation marks, ends with an exclamation point.
- The girl looked at him in surprise: “Why don’t you want to go camping with us?” Although the author’s words indicate such an emotion as surprise, direct speech sounds like a question, so there’s a question mark at the end .
It is important to remember that the direct speech behind the author’s words is always capitalized and separated by a colon.
Third circuit
Not always direct speech with the words of the author follow each other. Often, to improve the sound of the artistic style, they can interrupt each other, and in this case, the sentence schemes look like this:
- "P, - a, - p."
- "P, - a. - P".
The diagrams show that direct speech is divided into 2 parts by the words of the author. The punctuation in these sentences is such that they are always separated from direct speech by hyphens on both sides. If a comma is placed after the author’s words, the continuation of direct speech is written with a small letter, and if the period is a point, it begins as a new sentence with a capital letter. For instance:
- “I'll pick you up tomorrow,” said Yegor, getting into the car, “don’t sleep.”
- “Mom arrives in the early morning,” dad reminded. “You need to order a taxi in advance.”
- "What are you doing here? - asked Mary. “Shouldn't you be at the lecture?”
- “How stubborn you are! - exclaimed Sveta. “I don't want to see you anymore!”
Important: although in the last two examples the initial part of direct speech does not end with a comma, but with question and exclamation marks, the author’s words are capitalized.
Direct speech between the words of the author
The fourth scheme of direct speech explains what signs are placed when it stands between the words of the author.
- A: “P” - a.
- A: “P?” - a.
- A: “P!” - a.
For instance:
- The announcer said, “Today is the news,” and for some reason he stumbled.
- The echo brought from afar: "Where are you?" - And it became quiet again.
- Brother replied rudely: "Not your business!" - and quickly walked out the door .
You can not be limited only to the schemes listed above, since direct speech can consist of any number of sentences, for example:
“How good! - exclaimed the grandmother, - I thought we would never get home. Tired of death . ” The schema for this syntax is as follows:
"P! - a, - p. "
The Russian language is very expressive and there are more ways to transmit someone else’s speech in a letter than fits into 4 classical schemes. Knowing the basic concepts of direct speech and punctuation marks with it, you can make a sentence of any complexity.