A verbum dicendi (Latin for "word of speaking" or "verb of speaking"), also called verb of utterance, is a word that expresses speech or introduces a quotation. English examples of verbs of speaking include say, utter, ask and rumble. Because a verbum dicendi often introduces a quotation, it may grammaticalize into a quotative.
The plural of verbum dicendi is verba dicendi.
Complement of a verbum dicendi: direct and indirect speech A complement of a verbum dicendi can be direct 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 whose parts make semantic and syntactic contribution to the whole sentence just like parts of the matrix clause (i.e. the main clause/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 I and the second person pronoun you in "Ii will give youj 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: "Ii will give youj a hand."(2)b. Youi said to mej that youi would give mej 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. 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, 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 [they had seen anything] is licensed by nobody in the matrix clause.
Another example is that wh-movement 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 more specific, implying a clause type (as in ask) or indicating the intensity or prosody of the reported material (e.g. shout, mutter).
Quotation 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 to indicate reported speech.
Properties There are numerous syntactically and semantically 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: (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. 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, 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, which may be a noun describing the speech act itself, a desentential complement (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 {said/remarked/declared} (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 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 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 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”
the traditionally held analysis takes the reported clause “I love you” to be the complement 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. However, constituency, movement and replacement tests show that the quotative clause does not behave like a normal transitive construction. For example, clefting and passivization 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. A different model has been proposed, which does not rely on transitivity, but rather an asymmetrical 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[Pat said e-site] COMPLEMENT[“I’ll call you”] HEAD[Pat thought e-site] COMPLEMENT[“I’ll call you”] HEAD[Pat was like e-site] COMPLEMENT[“I’ll call you”]
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 under the CP node. However, what is heard in speech does not necessarily conform to theory. The complementizer 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. This is considered to add immediacy or authority to the discourse. However, it also illustrates the difficulty in differentiating direct and indirect quotation.