The syntax of direct quotes with special reference to Spanish and English

Abstract

This paper provides an in-depth study of the syntax of direct quotes in Spanish. It compares the results to those reported for English (Collins and Branigan 1997, and Collins 1997), and reveals substantial differences between the languages. Not only do the two contrast with respect to the possibility for null subjects, V raising to T and adverb positions, but when subject-verb inversion occurs in quotative expressions, English but not Spanish (nor French) obeys the complex verb and the transitivity constraints, and bans sentential negation. It is argued here that the main differences arise from the overt positions V occupies and the way in which the null object of the quotative expression moves. The object always raises to an A'-position in Spanish, whereas in English it lands in an A-position in the inversion variant and in an A'-position in the non-inverted one. Essentially, little specific to the syntax of direct quotes is needed to account for the facts in Spanish since the construction partakes of well-established patterns of the language; in English, however, quotative inversion has a rather atypical constituent order that requires construction-specific mechanisms, such as short V movement to Asps, for example.