Quotative Marker Research Articles

On the Development of the Lexeme aya in Paiwan

This study investigates the development of the multifunctional lexeme aya in Paiwan, a Formosan language spoken in the southern part of Taiwan. Though the lexeme aya has long been identified as having utterance-related usages, few studies were devoted to examining the morphosyntactic behavior of the lexeme, nor did any of these studies provide a systematic account of the relations and the development of its various usages. Based on data collected from fieldwork as well as from One hundred Paiwan texts, this study identifies two major functional domains of aya, represented by say verb aya and demonstrative aya: these two instances of aya display distinct morphosyntactic behavior in addition to their diverse functions. Say verb aya is grammaticalized as a quotative marker, a complementizer-like marker, and an evidential marker, while demonstrative aya develops into a stance marker. Despite these two seemingly unrelated development paths, say verb aya and demonstrative aya do share some features in common. It is proposed that Paiwan say verb aya, predominantly used in direct quotation of speech events, is inherently encoded with two important features, mimeticity and deicticity, and, therefore, provides a mechanism from which demonstrative aya evolved.

Being a former Second World War partisan: Reported speech and the expression of local identity

AbstractThis paper presents a qualitative analysis of narrative sequences extracted from a sample of semistructured interviews to a group of former Second World War partisans living in the Camonica valley (in the province of Brescia), for a total of roughly 15 hours of recordings. The analysis combines the interpretative frameworks of conversation analysis and interactional sociolinguistics with the study of reported speech and of the strategies of voice representation in dialogic and narrative texts. Special attention is devoted to the use of code-switching as a ‘contextualisation cue’ (Gumperz 1982) in order to mark portions of reported speech and set them off from the surrounding talk or from the main flow of a narrative episode, even in the absence of explicit recourse to verba dicendi or other quotation devices. Our findings show that code-switching may serve as a quotative marker, whereby speakers index the beginning of the reported utterances and shape the characters alternating in a dialogic sequence by drawing on the various linguistic resources at their disposal.

Embedded finite complements, indexical shift, and binding in Tsez

This report documents grammatical patterns associated with Tsez finite clauses that combine with the quotative enclitic =ƛin. Based on the distributional properties of such finite clauses and their co-occurrence with different matrix verbs, I suggest that the marker =ƛin is structurally ambiguous between a genuine quotative marker, marking direct speech, and a complementizer, heading finite clauses. In the former function, =ƛin can be compared to English like, go or all. The quotative =ƛin does not impose restrictions on the word order of the embedded clause and is compatible with a large set of verbs, including but not limited to verbs of speaking, cognition, and propositional attitude predicates. As a complementizer heading finite clauses, the marker =ƛin appears on clauses that are strictly predicate-final and attaches directly to that predicate. When selected by propositional attitude verbs, the finite complement clause becomes the context in which the interpretation of pronouns can undergo indexical shift. The Tsez pattern of indexical shift is in many ways similar to patterns of indexical shift reported for other languages. However, the description of this pattern also adds a novel generalization to the growing body of knowledge about indexical shifts: in Tsez, the shifted interpretation is made obligatory if the embedded clause includes a long-distance reflexive. This usage is particularly striking given that the binder in the matrix clause and the bindee do not match in person.

The Quotative System in Spanish and English Youth Talk. A Contrastive Corpus-based Study

The speech of teenagers is rich in narratives, with the direct reproduction of speech, thoughts, and non-lexical material often introduced through the use of quotatives. This paper aims to compare such quotative markers in English and Spanish.. Findings indicate that both Spanish and British teenagers make use of a wide range of specific quotatives in their speech. For example, in English go and (be) like prevail clearly over general reporting verbs such as say, think and ask. In Spanish, we also find a system of both general reporting verbs (decir, ‘say’, contar, ‘tell’, preguntar ‘ask’) and those more typical of teenager speech (y yo…. ‘and I ...’, en plan ‘like’, es como “it's like”, saltar , ‘come up with’, etc). However, in Spanish the latter represent only 25 percent of the total, compared to almost 50 percent in English. Linguistic factors (grammatical person, aspect, tense, content of the quote) seem to constrain differently the choice and function of the quotatives observed in the teen talk of English and Spanish.

Kategorien der Redewiedergabe im Deutschen: Konjunktiv I versus sollen

Abstract In present-day German, the present subjunctive (Konjunktiv I) and the modal verb sollen ‘shall’ are used to mark reported discourse. In this paper, we aim at clarifying the semantic relationship between these two markers. We suggest that they basically pertain to two separate semantic-functional domains, viz. origo-shifting versus evidentiality. While Konjunktiv I is an origo-shifting quotative marker, sollen is a reportive evidential marker. We argue that the proposed basic difference in semantics accounts for the different behavior of these elements in present-day German: e. g. with respect to their distribution over different contexts of use, to complementation patters, to combinatorial potential with certain prepositional phrases, etc. These theoretical observations are corroborated by the results of two small corpus studies: the one analyzing sollen that is embedded under a communicative matrix predicate, and the other focusing on combinatorial regularities with prepositional phrases with nach ‘after’, laut ‘as per’, and zufolge ‘according to’.

On the Grammaticalization of the Kavalan SAY Verb zin

SAY verbs crosslinguistically have been widely reported to undergo certain grammaticalization processes and to be used as quotative markers, complementizers, evidential markers, and discourse markers. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the grammaticalization of the SAY verb zin in Kavalan, a highly endangered Austronesian language spoken on the eastern coast of Taiwan. It is shown that the Kavalan SAY verb zin has undergone the process of grammaticalization and come to be used as a semicomplementizer and stance marker. It is proposed that zin has undergone two pathways of grammaticalization and that there are two different forces underlying these two pathways. On the one hand, the mechanism of morphosyntactic reanalysis leads zin to be grammaticalized as a semicomplementizer. On the other hand, it is the forces of (inter)subjectification that lead zin to be open to being reinterpreted as a stance marker.

Discourse Functions of like in the American Sitcom ‘Friends’

This paper discusses the multifunctional uses of like with the examples found in the American sitcom, ‘Friends’. The uses of like as a discourse marker and a quotative complementizer occur with high frequency in the colloquial everyday English of adolescents and young adults. Although some normativist grammarians and school teachers have defined these colloquial uses of like as nonstandard, they have attracted the attention of many studies since the 1980s. Many researchers have subcategorized the meanings of like into an approximator, an exemplifier, a hedge, a filler, a focus marker, a quotative complementizer, etc. However, following Buchstaller (2001), this paper suggests that all of the functions of nonstandard like basically convey a semantic trait of comparison or approximation, and that like functions as a hedge, a filler, a focus marker, or a quotative marker on the pragmatic level. This paper demonstrates that its interpretation depends heavily on the discourse context. This study also suggests some implications for ESL/EFL teaching. Since the multifunctional uses of like are very frequently found in everyday English, teachers need to pay attention to the discourse particle like and guide the learners to understand and use it appropriately.

`And then I'm really like . . .': `preliminary' self-quotations in adolescent talk

This article explores the discursive uses of a self-quotation in adolescent talk. The self-quotation uses the quotative marker be + like to convey or project bold statements as part of a larger narrative. We will demonstrate how the preface leading up to the self-quotation is designed as hard to counter, and instructs the hearer how to understand what comes next. The self-quotation, on the other hand, constitutes the assessment as a `mere characterization' that provides the speaker with a number of opportunities for testing the proposed view. Speakers are thus able to bolster potentially controversial views against refutation while also giving them a preliminary status. These features make for an interesting conversational resource that enables speakers and recipients to engage in a collaborative process of putting potentially bold statements to the test.

Quotation markers as intertextual codes in electoral propaganda

This article explores the intertextual nature (as defined by Kristeva) of linguistic markers used to denote quotations (quotation markers) in the 1999 Israeli televised electoral campaign. Three kinds of quotation markers were identified: source markers (references, qualifiers), describing the source; speech markers (lexical, graphical), attesting to speech production; and circumstance markers, describing the context (time, place, participants, background) in which the quotation was produced. It was found that, in addition to their overt role as references to the quotation, quotation markers also encode the ideological and argumentative value attributed by the parties to the quotations and their sources. Source markers serve to affiliate the sources with the positively regarded “we” group, to exclude them, or to establish them as neutral; speech and circumstance markers serve to affiliate quotations with the positively regarded ideological text of the party, to exclude them, or to mark them as neutral. Moreover, these three markers serve to reinforce the reliability of quotations that fulfill a corroborative role. These values are encoded by the mere presence of the markers, as well as by such devices as variation in the frequency of the markers, their content, emotive connotations, grammatical forms, and incorporation in recurring patterns.

A grammar of Semelai (review)

Reviewed by: A grammar of Semelai Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald A grammar of Semelai. By Nicole Kruspe. (Cambridge grammatical descriptions.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xxii, 493. ISBN 0521814979. $170 (Hb). Aslian languages, of the Mon-Khmer division of Austroasiatic, are not widely known. Most of them are in danger of disappearance, under the encroaching influence of the dominant Malay. This grammar of Semelai, by Nicole Kruspe, is the first comprehensive grammar of an Aslian language. It is based on substantial fieldwork, and cast—just like all worthwhile grammars—within basic linguistic theory. The grammar starts with a detailed discussion of Aslian languages, their place within Mon-Khmer, and their prehistory and typological characteristics, followed by an up-to-date report on every language still spoken. In subsequent chapters, K offers readers a refined analysis of Semelai. This is a most complex language, in just about every area. Among its most remarkable features is a nonconcatenative morphological system of prefixes and infixes (including infix reduplication), whereby affixes are attached to the left edge of the word as prefixes or as infixes depending [End Page 415] on the number of syllables in the word. So the comparative marker rʔ is prefixed to a monosyllabic root, as in sey ‘be thin’ versus rʔ -sey ‘be thinner’. If a root has two syllables it is infixed, as in jləŋ ‘be long’ versus jə-ra-ləŋ ‘be longer’. This property is inherited from Mon-Khmer. In addition to these inherited affixes, Semelai has borrowed a variety of suffixes, prefixes, and circumfixes from Malay, and thus acquired a whole new concatenative morphological system as a result of intensive contact. ‘Light syllable’ reduplication has also been borrowed from Malay; nowadays, all of these processes apply to roots of Semelai and also of Malay origin. This is a spectacular example of system-altering contact-induced change. And it goes against quite a few assumptions—including the belief that bound morphemes are hardly ever borrowed, or that suffixes are borrowed and prefixes are not, or that borrowing can only happen between two structurally compatible systems. In its phonology, Semelai has thirty-two consonants and twenty vowel phonemes, whose distribution is related to the position they occupy within the syllable. The open word classes are nouns, verbs, and expressives (iconic utterances that simultaneously provide information about both the predicate and its arguments). Adjectival notions are expressed through a subtype of intransitive verbs. Semelai has a rich array of verbal morphology that change word class or affect transitivity. Among the latter are four causativizing morphemes and a ‘middle’. An additional valency-increasing suffix has an applicative-like function with intransitive verbs, and marks iterative aspect with transitive verbs. Serial verb constructions express manner and motion. Like many Southeast Asian languages, Semelai employs synonymous serialization. The only means of reporting speech is direct quotation introduced by the quotative marker, which is of verbal origin. Every section of K’s grammar is supplied with information on other Aslian languages, a feature that makes the book an invaluable asset for comparative linguists, besides its being a must-have for typologists and grammar analysts. This grammar makes exciting reading for a wide variety of audiences. An anthropologist will appreciate the special avoidance speech style used by the Semelai in the jungle, when collecting forest products or preparing a swidden. As K puts it, ‘the jungle is seen as fraught with peril’ (7), and lexical taboo is a way of avoiding an attack from a dangerous animal or a malevolent spirit. Detailed and competent reference grammars based on original fieldwork are the backbone of an empirically based science of linguistics. K’s fundamental work on Semelai is one such grammar. The editors of ‘Cambridge grammatical descriptions’, and Cambridge University Press, are to be congratulated on this seminal publication. Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald La Trobe University Research Centre for Linguistic Typology La Trobe University Victoria 3086 Australia [A.Aikhenvald@latrobe.edu.au] Copyright © 2008 Linguistic Society of America

A diachronic and synchronic account of the multifunctionality of Saramaccan táa

This article bears on the properties and on the historical derivation of the multifunctional lexical item táa in Saramaccan, an English and Portuguese based Creole of Surinam. Táa fulfills several functions: it may be used as a verb, a complementizer, a quotative marker, and as a marker conveying similarity or manner. Táa is thus a multifunctional lexical item. Its functions parallel in a remarkable way those of the semantically closest substrate languages lexical entries. Furthermore, a review of the early sources reveals that táa was already a multifunctional item in early SA. This constitutes a major drawback for a grammaticalization account of the relationship between táki and táa. The properties of táa are argued to have been derived through the process of relexification. This process consists in assigning a new label to an existing lexical entry; relexification thus reduces to relabeling. Finally, the parameters of relexification/relabeling are shown to be compatible with a monosemic account of multifunctionality, and to not be compatible with a polysemic account of the phenomenon.

Het Quotatieve Van

Since the 1970s, the use of the Dutch preposition van in the (semi-)quotative function has been noted by several linguists and language users as rapidly increasing in informal speech. In this sense, it can be compared to the English quotative marker like, which is also used to introduce direct speech. Dutch van, however, can also occur before indirect speech. This paper concentrates on the pragmatic function(s) of this marker. The typifying function is considered to be of central relevance. Exploiting this meaning in specific contexts, additional pragmatic effects can occur, such as positive and negative politeness, focusing the quote and facilitating expressivity. Whereas (American) English like seems to have sociolinguistic connotations ('young females'), a similar connotation has not been found for Dutch van, although further sociolinguistic research is necessary. Variation in individual use has been observed: some speakers seem to avoid the use of the marker, whereas others use it frequently.

Reported Discourse: A Meeting Ground for Different Linguistic Domains (review)

Reviewed by: Reported discourse: A meeting ground for different linguistic domains ed. by Tom Güldemann and Manfred von Roncador Timothy Jowan Curnow Reported discourse: A meeting ground for different linguistic domains. Ed. by Tom Güldemann and Manfred von Roncador. (Typological studies in language 52.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2002. Pp. xi, 423. ISBN 1588112276. $156 (Hb). This collection contains fifteen papers and a comprehensive bibliography on reported discourse within a linguistic framework, as well as indices of names and languages. The papers are divided into four groups. Part 1 deals primarily with issues of the classification of reported discourse. While more recent linguistic works on reported speech often accept that the traditional binary distinction between direct and indirect speech is insufficient to capture what languages actually do, these six papers clearly show the range of options for reporting discourse in genetically and typologically diverse languages and why the traditional binary division is inadequate. Winfried Boeder’s ‘Speech and thought representation in the Kartvelian (South Caucasian) languages’ focuses on Old Georgian, Modern Georgian, and Svan, and shows that different features, such as person, tense, and local and temporal expressions, may ‘shift’ in reported discourse. It becomes clear that a division between direct and indirect speech is not sufficient to account for the morphosyntactic possibilities, a theme that continues throughout the volume. Andrea Golato’s paper, ‘Self-quotation in German: Reporting on past decisions’, brings forth another theme, namely that even in a linguistic analysis of reported speech we must look beyond the morphosyntax and examine constructions in their discourse contexts. The remaining papers in Part 1 look at similar issues that arise in a range of other languages: ‘Direct and indirect speech in Cerma narrative’ by Ivan Lowe and Ruth Hurlimann; ‘Direct and indirect discourse in Tamil’ by Sanford B. Steever; ‘The acceptance of “free indirect discourse”: A change in the representation of thought in Japanese’ by Yasushi Suzuki; and ‘Direct, indirect and other discourse in Bengali newspapers’ by Wim van der Wurff. The two papers in Part 2—Gerda Haßler’s ‘Evidentiality and reported speech in Romance languages’ and Tomoko I. Sakita’s ‘Discourse perspectives on tense choice in spoken-English reporting discourse’—attempt to account for the range of ‘shift’ phenomena found in these languages using ideas such as evidentiality and point of view. In Part 3, Christopher Culy focuses on the use of logophoric marking with different matrix predicate types in ‘The logophoric hierarchy and variation in Dogon’, and Yan Huang’s ‘Logophoric marking in East Asian languages’ looks at Chinese, Japanese, and Korean long-distance reflexive use and attempts to account for their use in a neo-Gricean pragmatic framework. The five papers in Part 4 examine quotative constructions in a range of languages, focusing in particular on development and change over time. Many take up issues of grammaticalization of quotatives, complementizers, and the verbs ‘say’ and ‘do’, such as: ‘The grammaticalization of “say” and “do”: An areal phenomenon in East Africa’ by David Cohen, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, and Martine Vanhove; ‘When ‘“say” is not say: The functional versatility of the Bantu quotative marker ti with special reference to Shona’ by Tom Güldemann; ‘“Report” [End Page 776] constructions in Kambera (Austronesian)’ by Marian A. F. Klamer; and ‘All the same? The emergence of complementizers in Bislama’ by Miriam Meyerhoff. One general conclusion is that the development of verbs of speech into quotatives is by no means the only path of development, with verbs of speech developing into other grammatical elements, and quotatives and complementizers developing from different sources. Frank Kammerzell and Carten Peust’s ‘Reported speech in Egyptian: Forms, types and history’ follows the (often radical) changes in reported speech in Egyptian over time. While all of the papers in this part have slightly different foci, they each demonstrate the problem of treating reported discourse as direct versus indirect speech. I believe that this book will become a central reference for any descriptive or...

Tte and nante: Markers of psychological distance in Japanese conversation

In the present study uses of colloquial expressions tte and nante are related to the notion of incorporation of information. It is argued that these forms are used when the degree of incorporation of information is low. The degree is considered low if the speaker (i) has acquired information from an outside source, (ii) is not strongly convinced of the truth or credibility of information, and/or (iii) is emotionally detached from information. In other words, tte and nante are used when the speaker feels psychologically distanced from the information. This connotation of psychological distance might come from the expressions' function as quotation markers. What is quoted represents somebody else's voice, from which the speaker is naturally distanced. Furthermore, a quote represents part of a sentence that is not well integrated into the rest of the sentence. What is not well-incorporated grammatically is appropriate in expressing what is not well-incorporated psychologically. In addition, the lexical meaning of nante (‘the likes of’), which signifies repeatability and thus devaluation (If it is repeatable, it must not be so special), adds to the connotation of distance.

Meta-quotation

This paper explores the thematic and interactional significance of the quotative marker tte in Japanese comics. The quotative expressions examined are 'meta-quotations', their main function being to self-qualify the quoter's speaking act. Although a similar use is observed in the standard quotation marker to followed by the verbs of saying and thinking, this study primarily focuses on tte that appears independently in casual speech as depicted in comics targeted at adolescent girls. Extending beyond the concept of speech act qualification, I argue that meta-quotation offers a device in Japanese discourse to qualify and manipulate multiple discourse organizational and interactional meanings, including theme presentation, 'pseudo-quotation', and quotation across Speakers* Through tte's function as a metalinguistic device, this study illustrates that language not only describes events and states but also reflexively qualifies the speaker's voice that describes these events and states.

A case of grammaticalization in modern Swedish: The use of ba in adolescent speech

The purpose of this paper is to describe the grammaticalization of the Swedish word bara (Eng. just) in present day adolescent speech. Bara (normally pronounced ba) has in the last fifteen years started to be used with two new functions in spoken, narrative discourse: to foreground central events and to introduce quotations. In the paper, it is demonstrated that the foregrounding function can be inferred from the meaning of bara in standard use, and how the quotative function has, subsequently, developed out of the foregrounding function. In both these developments, crucial characteristics of narratives, and the way quotations are used within these, play an important part. It is also shown that the development described constitutes an exception to an important assumption about the direction of grammaticalization, i.e. that the change proceeds from a propositional to a textual to an interpersonal meaning but not in the opposite direction. (Adolescent speech, grammaticalization, spoken narratives, quotation markers, Swedish.)