ABSTRACT
Social work conversations are usually rich with talk about past events and encounters. In professional–client discussions clients might describe incidents with their family members or visits to a health care centre. Additionally, in meetings among professionals, participants can inform each other about situations or the behaviour of clients that they have recently met. This kind of talk about the past is commonly done by reporting what other people or the narrator said in a described situation. In other words, past voices are brought into conversations. This can be seen in professional–client conversa tions: ‘My husband said to me that I have looked very tired over the last few weeks’, ‘The doctor assumed that I might suffer from depression.’ It can also be seen in meetings among professionals: ‘Maria (the client) said she cannot afford to pay her rent’, ‘Erik (the client) was very angry yesterday and swore at me, saying you are a bloody idiot.’ These kinds of past voices used in conversations are called reported speech and in this chapter we shall look at its use in social work interaction.
