Quoting and reporting across languages: A system-based and text-based typology

Abstract

This paper reports on a cross-linguistic corpus-based investigation of linguistic strategies of quoting and reporting of speech and thought across six genetically unrelated languages (Arabic, English, Dagaare, Hindi, Spanish and Japanese). Specifically, the study draws on Michael Halliday's concept of projection that covers the traditional categories of quoting and reporting as a type of logico-semantic relation. The study also examines projection “trinocularly”, by viewing quoting and reporting from three viewpoints, namely their semantics, their lexicogrammatical realizations and the structural configuration they display. The use of projection as a unified domain of inquiry and the trinocular perspective ensures a systematic accounting of the generality and specificity of projection across the languages. Section 1 specifies our investigation, relating it to the traditional account of quoting and reporting. Section 2 describes our corpus data. Section 3 introduces the theoretical and descriptive categories used to describe verbal and mental projection as a type of logico-semantic relation, using English for illustration. Section 4 presents a crosslinguistic discussion of the data from the six languages. Finally, Section 5 compares and contrasts the results of this study, discusses the general and language-specific features of projection and concludes by commenting on how our approach to quoting and reporting extends previous approaches.