I'm not sure that you can see this in terms of exact algorithms Tom. My problem with reported speech is that in the past it's been taught as if there's an all-encompasssing and deterministic rule set to it, whereas the reality of

becky wrote on 26 Nov 2004: I came across this transcript: "Suppose you were laid off through no fault of your own. You turn to an ... first one you got? That wouldn't be likely." But then all the would's and its contractions

marek wrote on 03 Jun 2004: Hello, There's been a little debate fired in another newsgroup with an innocent question of how many tenses are used ... all of the tenses and then some more! :) It might be somewhat difficult to establish what