This collection of essays on reported speech covers such topics as: the verb in indirect speech in Old French; reported speech in latin; modality of verb forms in German reported speech; and free indirect speech in Chinese.

1. List of contributors; 2. Abbreviations used in the glosses; 3. Introductory remarks on reported speech and thought (by Janssen, Theo); 4. 1. Slavic languages; 5. Shifting points of orientation in Modern Russian: Tense selection in 'reported perception' (by Barentsen, Adriaan); 6. Reported speech in South Slavic (by Gvozdanovic, Jadranka); 7. 2. Romance languages; 8. The verb in indirect speech in Old French: System in change (by Bauer, Brigitte L.M.); 9. Modal patterns of direct and indirect discourse in Peninsular Spanish: An analysis within the framework of speech act typology (by Haverkate, Henk); 10. Reported speech in Latin (by Bolkestein, A. Machtelt); 11. Tense in (free) indirect discourse in French (by Landeweerd, Rita); 12. 3. Germanic languages; 13. Reported speech in Swedish (by Perridon, Harry); 14. Modality of verb forms in German reported speech (by Cate, Abraham P. ten); 15. Tense and temporal ordering in English and Dutch indirect speech (by Boogaart, Ronny); 16. Tense in reported speech and its frame of reference (by Janssen, Theo); 17. Sequence of tenses in English and Bengali (by Wurff, Wim van der); 18. 4. Chinese; 19. Free indirect speech in Chinese (by Hagenaar, Elly); 20. Index