Some of the papers, with questionable taste, present Mrs. [Alice Roosevelt] Longworth to their readers as the American “Princess.” There is nothing in her ways, bearing, or appearance to warrant the epithet which I give, as printed, in inverted commas.

The following paradigm will serve to illustrate what we mean by this term:
(37) (a) ‘Will I get a degree?ʼ John wondered
(37) (b) John wondered whether he would get a degree
(37) (c) John wondered would he get a degree
The italicised sequence in (37) (a) is said to be an instance of direct speech: John's exact words are recorded verbatim, and are bounded in the spelling by a question mark and inverted commas; points to note here include the use of the present tense Auxiliary will, the inversion of the Auxiliary, and the use of the first person pronoun I to represent the speaker.

Inverted comma

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms