A ''verbum dicendi'' (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "word of speaking" or "verb of speaking"), also called verb of utterance, is a
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...
that expresses speech or introduces a
quotation
A quotation is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written. In oral speech, it is the representation of an utterance (i.e. of something that a speaker actually said) that is introduced by ...
. English examples of verbs of speaking include
''say'', ''utter'', ''ask'' and ''rumble''. Because a verbum dicendi ("verb of speaking") often introduces a quotation, it may
grammaticalize into a
quotative
A quotative (abbreviated ) is a grammatical device to mark quoted speech in some languages, and as such it preserves the grammatical person and tense of the original utterance rather than adjusting it as would be the case with reported speech. I ...
.
The plural of ''verbum dicendi'' is ''verba dicendi''.
Complement of a verbum dicendi: direct and indirect speech
A
complement
A complement is something that completes something else.
Complement may refer specifically to:
The arts
* Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave
** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...
of a verbum dicendi can be
direct
Direct may refer to:
Mathematics
* Directed set, in order theory
* Direct limit of (pre), sheaves
* Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces
Computing
* Direct access (disambiguation), a ...
or
indirect speech. Direct speech is a single unit of linguistic object that is '"mentioned" rather than used.'
[Oshima, D. Y. (2006). Perspectives in Reported Discourse. Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University.] In contrast, indirect speech is a
proposition
In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, " meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...
whose parts make semantic and syntactic contribution to the whole sentence just like parts of the matrix
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
(i.e. the
main clause
An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself.
Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or ...
/sentence, as opposed to an embedded clause).
Cross-linguistically, there are syntactic differences between direct and indirect speech, which include verbatimness, interpretations of deictic expressions, tense, presence or absence of complementizers, and syntactic opacity.
The complement clause may or may not be verbatim
If a complement of a verbum dicendi is direct speech, it is presented as a faithful report of what the original speaker exactly said. In the following examples, the first means that "I will go to Tokyo" was the exact sentence that John uttered. In the second, on the other hand, John might have uttered a different sentence, for example, "I'll spend my vacation in Tokyo."
a. John said (to me): "I will go to Tokyo"
b. John said (to me) that he would go to Tokyo.
Indexicals in the complement clause may or may not be utterance-bound
If a complement of a verbum dicendi is direct speech,
deictic expressions in the complement are interpreted with respect to the context in which the original sentence was uttered.
In (2)a, the embedded clause is direct speech; the first person
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
''I'' and the second person pronoun ''you'' in "''I''
i will give ''you''
j a hand" respectively refer to the utterer and the addressee in the context in which this quoted speech was uttered. In contrast, if the embedded clause is indirect speech, all deictic expressions in the sentence are interpreted in the context in which the matrix clause is uttered. In (2)b, the embedded clause is indirect speech, so all the occurrences of the first person pronoun ''me'' and the second person pronoun ''you'' in the sentence respectively refer to the utterer and the addressee in the immediate context in which 2(b) is uttered.
(2)a. Youi said to mej: "''I''i will give ''you''j a hand."
(2)b. Youi said to mej that ''you''i would give ''me''j a hand.
Sequence of tense
Some languages, including English, show difference in
tense between direct and indirect quotes. This phenomenon is formalized as "
the sequence of tense rules."
Complementizer
In some languages, the distinction between direct and indirect speech can be diagnosed by presence of an overt
complementizer
In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a s ...
. Many languages, including English, have an overt complementizer (e.g. ''that'' in English) when the complement of a verbum dicendi is indirect speech, as seen in (1)b and 2(b) above. Some languages, such as
Tikar
The Tikar (also Tikari, Tige, Tigar, Tigre, Tikali) are a central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau in Cameroon. They are known as great artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of ...
, on the other hand, use an overt complementizer to introduce indirect speech.
Syntactic opacity
If a complement of a verbum dicendi is direct speech, it is "syntactically opaque,"
meaning that syntactic elements inside this embedded clause cannot interact with elements in the matrix clause.
For example,
Negative Polarity Items (NPI) inside an embedded direct quote cannot be licensed by a syntactic element in the matrix clause.
(3)a. ?Nobody said "we saw anything."
(3)b. Nobody said that they had seen anything.
Note that (3)a is still syntactically well-formed but cannot communicate the same meaning as (3)b, in which the NPI ''anything'' inside the embedded indirect quote
hey had seen anythingis licensed by ''nobody'' in the matrix clause.
Another example is that
wh-movement
In linguistics, wh-movement (also known as wh-fronting, wh-extraction, or wh-raising) is the formation of syntactic dependencies involving interrogative words. An example in English is the dependency formed between ''what'' and the object position ...
out of an embedded direct quote is prohibited, as seen in (4)a below.
(4)a. *What did John say: "I read _"?
(4)b. What did John say that he had read _?
In English
In English, verba dicendi such as ''say'' and ''think'' are used to report speech and thought processes.
[Buchstaller, Isabelle (2014). Quotatives: New Trends and Sociological Implications. Oxford. Wiley & Sons. ]
(1)a. If you touched a one they would say ‘wey you’re on’. (UK)
b. And I thought ‘Well we need some more popcorn’. (US)
Such examples are prototypical, but many variants exist within an open class of manner-of-speaking verbs, such as ''ask'', ''shout'', ''scream'', ''wonder'', ''yell'', ''holler'', ''bellow'', ''grunt'', ''mumble'', ''mutter'', etc. These may be considered
semantically
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
more specific, implying a clause type (as in ''ask'') or indicating the intensity or
prosody of the reported material (e.g. ''shout'', ''mutter'').
Quotation
A quotation is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written. In oral speech, it is the representation of an utterance (i.e. of something that a speaker actually said) that is introduced by ...
indicates to a listener that a message originated from a different voice, and/or at a different time than the present. An utterance like “Jim said ‘I love you’” reports at the present moment that Jim said “I love you” at some time in the past. Thus, there are two distinct active voices: that of the narrator and that of the reportee.
Written English often employs manner-of-speaking verbs or verba dicendi in conjunction with quotation marks to demarcate the quoted content. Speakers use more subtle phonetic and prosodic cues like intonation, rhythm, and
mimesis
Mimesis (; grc, μίμησις, ''mīmēsis'') is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including ''imitatio'', imitation, nonsensuous similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the act ...
to indicate reported speech.
Properties
There are numerous
syntactically and
semantically
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
relevant properties of verba dicendi and manner-of-speaking verbs, several of which are highlighted below:
i. They are so-called Activity Verbs. They may occur in progressive and imperative forms, among other tests:
(2)a. He was shouting obscenities.
b. Yell to George about the new quota.
c. What John did was lisp French to Mary.
ii. The subject of verba dicendi is normally
sentient
Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings and sensations. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin '' sentientem'' (a feeling), to distinguish it from the ability to ...
:
(3)a. My father howled for me to pick up the chair.
b. *My desk howled for me to pick up the chair.
However, it is possible, at least colloquially, to assign the subject role of some verba dicendi to
abstracta
In metaphysics, the distinction between abstract and concrete refers to a divide between two types of entities. Many philosophers hold that this difference has fundamental metaphysical significance. Examples of concrete objects include plants, hum ...
. An expression like "When you're late, it says you don't care" could be one such example.
iii. Verba dicendi may have an
indirect object
In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
, which may be marked by ''to'' and which is also normally sentient:
(4)a. Scream ‘Up the Queen’ (to the first person who passes)
b. *She will howl 'O my stars and garters' to the essence of friendship
iv. Manner-of-speaking verbs may have a
direct object
In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
, which may be a
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
describing the speech act itself, a desentential
complement
A complement is something that completes something else.
Complement may refer specifically to:
The arts
* Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave
** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...
(that-clause, indirect question or infinitive), or a direct quotation:
(5)a. Hoffman will probably mutter a foul oath.
b. Martin shrieked that there were cockroaches in the caviar.
c. Regrettably, someone mumbled, “I suspect poison.”
Further, the direct object of some manner-of-speaking verbs may be deleted, resulting in a sentence that does not indicate an act of communication, but rather a description of the sound made:
d. My companion shrieked.
Other verba dicendi do not permit this, however. ''Say'', ''ask'', ''tell'', for instance, cannot occur freely without an object:
e. *Said John
''Speak'' may occur without an object. In fact, its occurrence with an object is restricted. A that-clause, for example, is ungrammatical:
f. Margaret spoke (to me)
g. *Margaret spoke that there were cockroaches in the caviar
v. Some manner-of-speaking verbs may occur with directional
adverbials, which cannot co-occur with indirect objects:
(6)a. He bellowed at us (*to Sam)
Other verba dicendi cannot occur in ''at'' constructions:
b. *She (something) at me
vi. Some manner-of-speaking verbs may have a nominal (noun) counterpart which sounds the same, but which has no communicative content, such as ''mutter'', ''bellow'', ''shriek'', ''whine'' and ''whisper''. Notice that other verba dicendi do not have these
homophonous
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
nouns (e.g. ''speak''/''speech'', ''tell/tale'', ''declare/declaration'').
There are many such observations. Another property of verbs of speaking is the lack of so-called
factivity effect; in other words, the speaker is not required to actually believe what they are saying.
This has implications for the
truth conditions
In semantics and pragmatics, a truth condition is the condition under which a sentence is true. For example, "It is snowing in Nebraska" is true precisely when it is snowing in Nebraska. Truth conditions of a sentence do not necessarily reflect cu ...
of quotative constructions:
(7) Mary says that Paul is her friend.
Mary's statement may be false, though it may be true that she actually said it. In fact, she may even believe it to be false. However, whether or not believing is part of speaking has been debated for some time.
Syntax
The
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
of quotation and verba dicendi appears at first glance to be a straightforward case of
transitivity, in which the quoted material is interpreted as a direct object. In a case like
(8) Jim said “I love you”
![English Tree1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/English_Tree1.png)
the traditionally held analysis takes the reported clause “I love you” to be the
complement
A complement is something that completes something else.
Complement may refer specifically to:
The arts
* Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave
** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...
of ''say''. Thus the quote is termed an
NP (noun phrase) and introduced as a direct object.
This analysis is supported by some of the typical syntactic tools for testing direct objects, such as moving into the focus of a question and
clefting
A cleft sentence is a complex sentence (one having a main clause and a dependent clause) that has a meaning that could be expressed by a simple sentence. Clefts typically put a particular Constituent (linguistics), constituent into Focus (linguisti ...
.
However, constituency, movement and replacement tests show that the quotative clause does not behave like a normal transitive construction. For example,
clefting
A cleft sentence is a complex sentence (one having a main clause and a dependent clause) that has a meaning that could be expressed by a simple sentence. Clefts typically put a particular Constituent (linguistics), constituent into Focus (linguisti ...
and
passivization
A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
of these forms give marked (ungrammatical, or strange at least) results:
(9)a. ?“I’ll call you” was said by Pat
cf. The cat was held by Pat
b. ?What Pat did with “I’ll call you” was say it
cf. What Pat did with the cat was hold it
Quotation may also be less restricted than ordinary transitive verbs. They may occur parenthetically, unlike other verbs:
(10)a. “I’ll call you” Pat said “and I hope you answer”
cf. ?The cat Pat held and a book
b. “I” Pat said “will call you and I hope you answer”
cf. *The Pat held cat and a book
Another issue is that manner-of-speaking verbs are not always obligatorily transitive. Verbs like ''think'', ''laugh'', ''scream'', ''yell'', ''whisper'' may be
intransitive
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...
.
A different model has been proposed, which does not rely on transitivity, but rather an
asymmetrical
Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...
construction containing a reporting clause (head) and an independent reported clause.
Note that the asymmetry arises from the fact that the reporting clause is dependent on the quoted content for grammaticality, while the reverse is not true.
(11)a.*I said
b.“I love you”
In this model, the dependent clause has a site of elaboration (e-site) which is filled by the independent clause:
HEAD
at said e-site COMPLEMENT
I’ll call you” HEAD
at thought e-site COMPLEMENT
I’ll call you” HEAD
at was like e-site COMPLEMENT
I’ll call you”ref name="Darcy"/>
Direct/indirect quotation
Direct quotation is reported from the perspective of the experiencer:
(12) He said “I am leaving now”
However, indirect quotation is often paraphrased, and reported by a narrator from the perspective of the reportee. Verbs like ''ask'' and ''tell'' are frequently associated with indirect speech. English indirect quotation also shows a
sequence-of-tense effect: a past tense reporting verb requires a "back-shift" in verb tense within the indirect quote itself
(13)a. He said "I am leaving now"
b. He said (that) he was leaving immediately
Indirect quotation is, in theory, syntactically constrained and requires that the quoted content form a
subordinate clause
A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
under the
CP node.
However, what is heard in speech does not necessarily conform to theory. The
complementizer
In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a s ...
''that'', though considered to be a marker of indirect quotation, is not obligatory and is often omitted. Further, it can (and does) occur with direct quotes in some dialects of English (e.g. Hong Kong, Indian).
Verbs of speaking often employ the
Conversational Historical Present tense, whereby actions in the past are referred to with present-tense
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
. This is considered to add immediacy or authority to the discourse.
However, it also illustrates the difficulty in differentiating direct and indirect quotation.
(14) So uh ... this lady says ... uh this uh Bert (‘)His son’ll make them. He’s an electrician(‘)
Inverted constructions
Sentences with verba dicendi for direct quotation may use the somewhat antiquated verb-first (V2) order of English syntax. Inversion of this type with verbs of speaking or thinking frequently occurs in written English, though rarely in spoken English. It is also possible to invert the clause without changing subject-verb order. This is not possible with regular English transitives:
(15)a. “No no no” said Harry
b. “You’re not drunk” she says
cf. *The cat held Pat (where Pat did the holding)
There are several restrictions, however. For example,
quantifiers may occur to the right of the subject in a non-inverted quotative sentence, but not in an inverted sentence. They can, however, occur to the immediate left of the subject in an inverted sentence:
(16)a.”We must do this again”, the guests all declared to Tony
b.”We must do this again”, declared all the guests to Tony
c.*”We must do this again”, declared the guests all to Tony
Inversion and negation with verba dicendi may co-occur only if the reporting clause itself is not inverted:
(17)a.“Let’s eat”, said John just once
b.“Let’s eat”, John didn't just say once
c.*”Let’s eat”, said not John just once
d.*”Let’s eat”, not said John just once
Other constraints involve subject position,
DP direct objects, and movement, among others.
Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization
In historical linguistics, grammaticalization (also known as grammatization or grammaticization) is a process of language change by which words representing objects and actions (i.e. nouns and verbs) become grammatical markers (such as affixes or p ...
is the attribution of grammatical character to a previously independent, autonomous word.
There is significant cross-linguistic evidence of verba dicendi grammaticalizing into functional syntactic categories. For instance, in some African and Asian languages, these verbs may grammaticalize into a complementizer.
In other East African languages, they may become markers of Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM).
In English, the verb ''say'' in particular has also developed the function of a
comment clause:
(18)a. Say there actually were vultures on his tail
b. What say he does answer?
c. Buy a big bottle – say about 250 mils
d. If we ran out of flour or sugar, say, we would gather up a few eggs and take them to Mr. Nichols's general store
e.“Say, isn’t that–” Lance started, but Buck answered before the question was even asked
f.“Say, that’s our City,” bubbles Dolores
g. Jump, I say, and be done with it
In these examples, the verb ''say'' fulfils many roles. In the first two examples (a & b), it means ‘suppose', or 'assume.’ In the third and fourth examples (c & d) the meaning of ''say'' could be paraphrased as 'for example', or 'approximately.' Example (e) uses ''say'' as an
imperative introducing a question and connotes 'tell me/us.' ''Say'' may also function as an
interjection
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...
to either focus attention on the speaker or to convey some emotional state such as surprise, regret, disbelief, etc.
Finally, example (f) uses ''say'' in an emphatic, often imperative way. This function dates from the (early) Middle English period
Emergence of innovative forms: ''go'', '' be all'', ''be like''
In addition to basic verba dicendi and manner of speaking verbs, other forms are frequently used in spoken English. What sets these apart is that they are not, semantically speaking, reporting verbs at all. Such forms include ''be like'', ''be all'', and ''go''.
(19)a. Pat was like “I’ll call you.”
b.
..nd then my sister’s all “excuse me would you mind if I gave you, if I want your autograph” and she’s like “oh sure, no problem.”
c. And he goes “yeah” and looks and you can tell maybe he thinks he's got the wrong address
..ref name="Barbieri">
These forms, particularly ''be like'', have captured the attention of much linguistic study and documentation. Some research has addressed the syntax of these forms in quotation, which is highly problematic. For example, a verbum dicendi like ''say'' may refer to a previously quoted clause with ''it''. However, this is not possible with these innovative forms:
(20)a. “I don’t know if he heard it, but I know I definitely said it
b. *I’m like it
c. *She was all it
d. *I went it
Notice that these forms also don’t behave as basic verba dicendi in many other ways. Clefting, for example, produces ungrammatical forms like
(21)a. *That’s nice was gone by me
b. *Um, yah, I know, but there’s going to be wine there was been all by her
They also can’t participate in inverted constructions like other manner-of-speaking verbs:
(22)a. *“Go home”, he was like
b. *“I’m leaving”, was all John
Several other issues concerning these forms are the topic of much current study, including their
diachrony
Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A ''synchronic'' approach (from grc, συν- "together" and "time") considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. Synchronic l ...
, or change in use over time. ''Go'', for example, dates as far back as the eighteenth century, in contexts like ''go bang'', ''go crack'', ''go crash'', etc.
Research on these forms has also shown that ''be like'' in particular is associated with young people. However, this assumption is questioned on the basis of more recent findings which suggest that it is used by older speakers as well.
It has also been largely attributed to female speakers, especially white females in California (Valley Girls). However, it is regularly used by speakers of both sexes, and in dialects of English outside of the US, including Canada and the UK.
This is a topic of a great deal of research in current syntax and
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...
.
In Japanese
Syntactic construction
In Japanese, verba dicendi (発話行為動詞 ''hatsuwa kōi dōshi''
'speech act verb'), also referred to as verbs of communication
or verbs of saying,
include 言う ''iu/yuu'' 'say', 聞く ''kiku'' 'ask', 語る ''kataru'' 'relate', 話す ''hanasu'' 'talk', and 述べる ''noberu'' 'state'.
Verba dicendi occur in the following construction: ________ Verbum dicendi.
と -''to'' has been described as a complementizer and a quotative particle.
Historically, use of と -''to'' was restricted to reporting a statement by another speaker, but it has a much wider distribution in modern Japanese.
In conversational Japanese, って -''tte'' is more frequently used, and it has been described as a quotative particle, a hearsay particle, a quotation marker, and a quotative complementizer.
In the above construction, the underlined phrase headed by can be a word, a clause, a sentence, or an onomatopoetic expression.
Like in English, verba dicendi in Japanese can introduce both direct and indirect speech as their complement.
This is contrasted with verbs of thinking, which only introduce indirect speech. An exception to this is a verb of thinking 思う ''omou'' 'think', which can introduce a speech that is not uttered but takes place in one's mind as direct speech in the simple past tense; this use of 思う ''omou'' 'think' is called a "quasi-communicative act".
Direct or indirect speech: ambiguity
In Japanese, a complement of a verbum dicendi can be ambiguous between direct and indirect readings, meaning that the distinction can only be inferred from the discourse context.
For example, in (1),
oku ga Tookyoo e iku which is in the complement of the verb 言う ''iu'' (past tense: ''itta''), can be interpreted as either direct speech (2)a or indirect speech (2)b.
(1) 太郎は僕が東京へ行くと言った。
Taroo wa oku ga Tookyoo e ik-u to it-ta
Taro TOP I(MALE) NOM Tokyo to go-PRS QUOT say-PST.
(2)a. Taroi said, "Ii will go to Tokyo."
(2)b. Taroi said that Ij would go to Tokyo.
![Sentence_(1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Sentence_%281%29.png)
One reason for this direct-indirect ambiguity in Japanese is that Japanese indirect speech does not involve "backshifting of tense"
observed in other languages including English. In the English translations, the direct speech in (2)a has ''will'' in the tense of the embedded clause, but in (2)b, it has been "backshifted" to ''would'' so that it matches the past tense of the matrix clause. Tense does not serve as a diagnostics of direct-indirect distinctions in Japanese.
Another reason for the ambiguity is that both direct and indirect quotes are introduced by in Japanese. Hence, presence of an overt complementizer cannot disambiguate direct and indirect speech either.
Diagnostics of direct speech in Japanese
Disambiguation of direct and indirect speech in Japanese depends on switches in deictic expressions and expressions of "speaker-addressee relationship".
One language-specific diagnostics of direct speech is so-called "addressee-oriented expressions,"
which trigger a presupposition that there is an addressee in the discourse context. Some examples are listed below:
sentence final particles: さ -''sa'' 'let me tell you'; ね -''ne'' 'you know'; よ -''yo'' 'I tell you'; わ -''wa'' 'I want you to know'
imperative forms: 「走れ!」''hashire'' 'Run!’
polite verbs/polite auxiliary verbs: です ''desu''; ございます ''gozaimasu''; ます''masu''
For example, in (3),
me da yoin the complement of the verb 言う ''iu'' (past tense: ''itta'') is unambiguously interpreted as direct speech because of the sentence final particle よ -''yo'' 'I tell you'.
(3) 太郎は花子に「雨だよ」と言った。
Taro wa Hanako ni me da yo to it-ta
Taro TOP Hanako DAT rain COP ''yo'' QUOT say-PST
'Taro said to Hanako, "It is raining, I tell you."
Similarly, in (4),
me desuin the complement of the verb 言う ''iu'' (past tense: ''itta'') is unambiguously interpreted as direct speech because of the polite verb です ''desu''.
(4) 太郎は花子に「雨です」と言った。
Taro wa Hanako ni me desu to it-ta
Taro TOP Hanako DAT rain ''desu'' QUOT say-PST
'Taro said to Hanako politely, "It is raining."
Diagnostics of indirect speech in Japanese
One diagnostics of indirect speech in Japanese is presence of the reflexive pronoun 自分 ''zibun'' 'self'. It is a gender-neutral pronoun that uniformly refers to "the private self,"
or an agent of thinking, as opposed to "the public self," an agent of communicating, expressed by various personal pronouns (e.g. 僕 ''boku'' 'I(MALE)'), occupational roles (e.g. 先生 ''sensei'' 'teacher'), and kinship terms (e.g. お母さん ''okaasan'' 'mother').
For example, in (5),
ibun ga Tookyoo e ikuin the complement of the verb 言う ''iu'' (past tense: ''itta'') is unambiguously interpreted as indirect speech because of the presence of 自分 ''zibun'' 'self', which is
co-referential
In linguistics, coreference, sometimes written co-reference, occurs when two or more expressions refer to the same person or thing; they have the same referent. For example, in ''Bill said Alice would arrive soon, and she did'', the words ''Alice'' ...
with 太郎 ''Taro''.
(5) 太郎は自分が東京へ行くと言った。
Tarooi wa i ga Tookyoo e iku">ibuni ga Tookyoo e iku to it-ta
Taro TOP self NOM Tokyo to go QUOT say-PST.
'Taro said that he would go to Tokyo.'
Note that (5) only differs from (1) in the subject of the embedded clause; (5) has 自分 ''zibun'' 'self' and (1) has 僕 ''boku'' 'I(MALE)'.
Simultaneously direct and indirect speech
It has been reported that some sentences in Japanese have characteristics of both direct and indirect modes simultaneously.
This phenomenon is called "semi-indirect mode" or "quasi-direct mode". It is also observed in a reported speech, and Kuno (1988) has termed it "blended discourse".
(6) is an example of blended discourse.
(6) 太郎は奴のうちに何時に来いと言ったのか。
Taroi wa i-no uti-ni nanzi-ni ko-i">atui-no uti-ni nanzi-ni ko-ito it-ta no ka?
Taro TOP e-GEN house-DAT what.time-DAT come-IMPQUOT say-PST Q Q
'What time did Taroi say, i house ______">ome to hisi house ______'
atu-no uti-ni nanzi-ni ko-iin the complement of the verb 言う ''iu'' (past tense: ''itta'') appears to be direct speech because it has an imperative verb form 来い ''ko-i'' 'Come!'.
On the other hand, the third person pronoun 奴 ''yatu'' 'he' inside the embedded clause is co-referential with the matrix subject 太郎 ''Taro''.
This means that this deictic expression inside the embedded clause is interpreted in the context in which the whole sentence (6) is uttered; cross-linguistically, this is considered to be a property of indirect speech.
Moreover, the wh-phrase 何時 ''nanzi'' 'what time' inside the embedded clause is taking matrix
scope
Scope or scopes may refer to:
People with the surname
* Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer
* John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution
Arts, media, and entertainment
* Cinem ...
, meaning that it interacts with the matrix clause to influence the meaning of the whole sentence.
This sentence means that, for example, 太郎 ''Taro'' had said "Come to my house at ten o'clock!," and the utterer of (6), not knowing the content of "ten o'clock," is requesting for this information. Availability of this meaning is an indication of indirect speech because if the embedded clause was direct speech, it would be syntactically opaque.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verbum dicendi
Syntax