Quotation and Advances in Understanding Syntactic Systems

Abstract

At first glance, the syntax of quotation appears to be a rather straightforward matter of transitivity and complementation. However, quotation raises a number of intriguing and perplexing questions for the functioning, structure, and development of syntactic systems, and for their interactions with the semantic–interpretative interface. The purpose of this review is to articulate and exemplify these challenges as raised in the literature of various linguistic domains, and to highlight the ways in which quotation evokes a range of empirical and theoretical implications. This article begins by discussing the issues faced by traditional syntactic analyses of quotation, then examines the types of changes implicated by this sector: grammaticalization, lexicalization, and systemic change and variation. The view that emerges is that approaches that privilege the syntax as the sole structure-building component of the grammar are insufficient for accounting for the linguistic and discourse–pragmatic facts; advances in understanding this linguistic system necessarily require a more holistic approach that incorporates both intrinsic and extrinsic factors.