So I just run across this old post on So Long As It’s Words, and it is interesting how languages evolve flexibility in how we report things more cleanly. So many choices for how close to quote people! But it reminds me of this time I was presenting on this panel on loanwords in Japan. (Hint:…
Hmm! I wonder! When I think about it, it seems unreasonable to assume people of previous generations literally only said “he said” “she said” when reporting the speech and actions of others, in their everyday conversation. We wouldn’t have suddenly come up with extra gradations of meaning/subtext in like, a generation. So what did they say? Any ideas? I feel like looking in old books might not help that much, since it’ll have been filtered by literary conventions of the time… Baaah, where’s my time machine!!
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