Friday, June 17, 2016

backshifting - I asked + present/past tense

Consider the examples:






    1. "My name is Ricky."



    1. He said his name is Ricky.




The tense is not backshifted in #2 because his name is and will always be Ricky. Also consider:






    1. Ricky says: "I live in Paris."



    1. Ricky said that he lives in Paris.





The tense is not backshifted in #4 because he still lives in Paris.



For examples #2 and #4, it is possible to not backshift the tense because the reporting words are still true at the time of reporting, but what will you say about the following examples:





  1. I asked what his name is.

  2. I asked where he lives.





Here, is it correct for #5 and #6 to not backshift the tense?



If #5 and #6 are correct, then under what conditions is it correct to not backshift the verb like that?

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