Direct speech: schemes and punctuation

In Russian, to convey in the text someone'swords, a syntactic structure is used, such as direct speech. Schemes (four of them) in a visual form reflect what signs and where are put. To understand this, it is necessary to understand the abbreviations indicated in them.

The difference between direct speech and indirect

Tell someone's statements can be either on behalf ofthe one who pronounces them (this is a direct speech), or from a third person, and then it will be indirect. In the article, let us consider the first variant in more detail. Schemes of direct and indirect speech differ, because they are differently formed and sounded in the text, for example:

• "Today I will be late from work," said my mother. Text word for word displays what the mother said, passing information from her personally. In this case, the scheme of direct speech is divided into the one who speaks and directly to the content.
• Mom said that today it will be late from work. In this version, words are not transmitted from the personspeaking. In written form, indirect speech is a complex syntactic structure in which the author's words go at the beginning and are its main part.

There are 4 direct speech transmission schemes, in which the following notations are used:

• P - indicates the capital letter with which direct speech begins.
• n means the beginning of the speech with a small letter.
• And - these are author's words, beginning with a capital letter.
• a is a lowercase letter.

Depending on what is useddesignations, and where they stand in the scheme, we can construct a sentence. Which it will correspond to, or, conversely, the already available text will allow to paint schematically.

Direct speech at the beginning of the text

Schemes of direct speech, in which it precedes the words of the author, look like this:

• "P", - a.
• "P?" - Yes.
• "P!" - Yes.

If the author's words are preceded by a direct speech,rules (the scheme displays this) require you to enclose it in quotation marks, and between them put a punctuation mark corresponding to the emotional coloring of the statement. If it is narrative, then the parts are separated by a comma. When interrogative or exclamatory emotion is put in the speech signs conveying the given stylistic coloring of the sentence. For example:

• "We go to the seaside in summer," the girl said.
• "Are we going to the sea in summer?" The girl asked.
• "We are going to the sea in summer!" - joyfully shouted the girl.

In these examples, the same content of direct speech is transmitted with a different emotional coloring. The author's words also change in accordance with these changes.

The author's words at the beginning of the speech

Direct speech schemes (with examples below) in which the author's words begin a syntactic construction are applied when it is important to point to the speaker. They look like this:

• A: "P".
• A: "P?"
• A: "P!"

According to the diagrams, it is clear that the author's words, whichbegin with a capital letter, because they are at the beginning of the sentence, you need to put a colon. Directly direct speech from both sides is covered by quotes 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 example:

• The boy came up and said in a low voice: "I need to go home to my sick mother." In this example, the direct speech is located behind the author's words and has a neutral color, so at the end a dot is put.
• A cry of indignation escaped her lips: "How can you not notice this injustice!" The sentence has an emotionally expressive coloring, conveying a strong perturbation. Therefore, the direct speech, which is behind the words of the author and is quoted, ends with an exclamation mark.

• The girl looked at him in surprise: "Why do not you want to go camping with us?" Although the author's words refer to such an emotion as surprise, direct speech sounds like a question, so at the end there is a question mark.

It is important to remember: the direct speech behind the author's words is always written with a capital letter and separated from them by a colon.

Third scheme

Far from 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:

• "П, - а, - п".
• "P, - a. - P".

It can be seen from the diagrams that the direct speech is divided into 2parts of the author's words. The punctuation in these sentences is such that they are always separated from direct speech from both sides by dashes. If after the words of the author a comma is placed, the continuation of direct speech is written with a small letter, and if the point, then it begins as a new sentence with a capital letter. For example:

• "I'll pick you up tomorrow," said Yegor, getting into the car, "do not oversleep."
• "Mom comes early in the morning," Dad reminded. - We need to book a taxi in advance. "
• "What are you doing here? Asked Maria. "Should not you be at the lecture?"
• "What a stubborn man you are!" Exclaimed Sveta. "I do not want to see you again!"

Important: although in the last two examples, the initial part of direct speech ends not with a comma, but with interrogative and exclamation marks, the author's words are written with a small letter.

Direct speech between the words of the author

The fourth scheme of direct speech explains what signs are put, when it stands between the words of the author.

• A: "P" - a.
• A: "P?" - Yes.
• A: "P!" - Yes.

For example:

• The announcer said: "Today in the news" - and for some reason he stopped.
• The echo brought from afar: "Where are you?" - and again it became quiet.
• The brother said rudely: "It's none of your business!" - and walked briskly through the door.

It is not possible to be limited only to the schemes listed above, since a direct speech can consist of any number of sentences, for example:

"How good! Cried my grandmother, "I thought we'd never get home." Tired of death ". The scheme of this syntactic structure is as follows:

"P! - a, - n. P. "

Russian language is very expressive and waysthe transfer of someone else's speech on the letter is more than fit into 4 classical schemes. Knowing the basic concepts of direct speech and punctuation with it, you can make a proposal of any complexity.