7.2. The exceptional sequence of tense 7.2.1. The effective utterance When the indirect speech is used, the sequence of tense occurs. This was explained in the previous section. But it is not occurred, if the utterance is still effective, that is, the speaker can treat the event as the present fact. See the following examples. (12) a. She said that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. b. Tom told me that he gets up at eight every morning. c. Mary told me that her husband is still sick in bed. The sequence of tense is not occurred in the above, therefore, the present tense is used in each subordinate clause. The reason why these are seen is because her utterance of (12a) is still the present fact, Tom's habitualness of (12b) is continued up to the present and Mary's husband of (12c) is still sick in the present. These time representation is as follows. (13) a. b. Usually the sequence of tense is occurred because the tense of the subordinate clause is bounded in that of the main clause. But in those phenomena, the subordinate clauses are not bounded, that is to say, the speaker treats them independently. The next example is the same. (14) He said she is now only a memory. His utterance is obviously the past but the speaker thinks his feelings are the same in the present.

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