| discourse consisting not of an exact quotation of a speaker's words but of a version transformed from them for grammatical inclusion in a larger sentence. He said he was hungry is an example of indirect discourse. |
| indirect discourse | |
noun | |
| a report of a discourse in which deictic terms are modified appropriately (e.g., "he said 'I am a fool' would be modified to 'he said he is a fool'") [ant: direct discourse] |