direct speech of indirect speech in 1st & 2nd person singular form

Question

Hans: Ich bin 30 Jahre alt (direct speech)
Hans sagte, er sei 30 Jahre alt (indirect speech)

In above indirect speech or conjunctive 1 sentence, the pronoun "ich" changed into "er", which I understand but what if the pronouns "ich" or "du" come in indirect speech form like given below sentences, then what would be their direct speech form?

Er sagte, ich sei Polizist.
Er sagte, du seist Polizist.

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from a comment: I want the direct speech form of the last two sentences "Er sagte, ich sei Polizist. and Er sagte, du seist Polizist."

I tried but I'm not sure about these forms:

• Hans: Du bist 30 Jahre alt. Hans sagte, ich sei 30 Jahre alt
• Hans: Er ist 30 Jahre alt. Hans sagte: Du seist 30 Jahre alt

Answer 1

First and second person pronouns are called deictic pronouns: They point (refer) to the person speaking or hearing an utterance. Their meaning changes depending on who speaks or hears, i.e. depending on the context of the utterance.

Let's look at some examples.

Maria₁ zu Josef₂: "Ich₁ bin dumm. Du₂ bist klug."
Josef₂ zu Maria₁: "Du₁ hast recht, ich₂ bin klug."

The indices indicate coreference. In the first situation, Maria is the speaker and therefore, ich refers to Maria; in the second situation, Josef is the speaker and ich refers to him. (The situation or context of the utterance is to the left of the colon, the utterance itself is to the right of the colon.)

Now let's look at examples involving indirect speech.

(A) Maria₁ zu Josef₂: "Hans₃ sagte, ich₁ sei Polizist."
(B) Maria₁ zu Josef₂: "Hans₃ sagte, du₂ seist Polizist."
(C) Maria₁ zu Josef₂: "Hans₃ sagte, er₃ sei Polizist." [*]

When looking for direct speech equivalents, we have to change the context of the utterance, because it is Hans who is speaking.

(A') Hans₃ zu Maria₁: "Du₁ bist Polizist."
(B') Hans₃ zu Maria₁: "Josef₂ ist Polizist."
(C') Hans₃ zu Maria₁: "Ich₃ bin Polizist."

I think what caused you problems (and what also might make your question sort of hard to understand) is that usually, when talking about grammar, it is sufficient to give an utterance, but here you need to give an utterance (what is said) and a context (who says it to whom).

_{* A remark about (C). Third person pronouns are called anaphoric. They are independent of the context of the utterance: er refers to Hans, which is part of the utterance.}

Answer 2

Actually, it is:

Hans sagte: "Ich bin 30 Jahre alt". (direct speech)
Hans sagte, er sei 30 Jahre alt. (indirect speech form)

Now the reverse applies if you want to go the other way around:

Er sagte, er sei Polizist
Er sagte: "ich bin Polizist."

Er sagte, du seist Polizistin.
Er sagte: "Du bist Polizistin".
or:
Er sagte: "Sie ist Polizistin".
That depends on who is talking to whom exactly.

The last sentence in the update is wrong. Correct is:

Hans: "Er ist 30 Jahre alt".
Hans sagte, er sei 30 Jahre alt.