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{{Short description|Repetition of one expression as part of another one}}
:''This article is about quoting. For information about the punctuation mark, see ]''
{{About|quoting text and speech|information about the punctuation mark|Quotation mark|economic usage|Financial quote|7=Quotation (disambiguation)|10=other uses|11=Quotation (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
A '''quotation''' is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written.<ref name="oxford">{{cite book |editor1-last=McArthur |editor1-first=Tom |editor2-last=Lam-McArthur |editor2-first=Jacqueline |editor3-last=Fontaine |editor3-first=Lisa |title=The Oxford Companion to the English Language |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191744389 |edition=2nd}}</ref> In oral speech, it is the representation of an utterance (i.e. of something that a speaker actually said) that is introduced by a quotative marker, such as a verb of saying. For example: John said: "I saw Mary today". Quotations in oral speech are also signaled by special ] in addition to quotative markers. In written text, quotations are signaled by quotation marks.<ref name="sdq bonami">{{cite web |last1=Bonami |first1=Olivier |last2=Godard |first2=Danièle |title=On the Syntax of Direct Quotation in French | date=2008 | url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00751080/document |website=HAL |access-date=10 April 2020}}</ref> Quotations are also used to present well-known statement parts that are explicitly attributed by ] to their original source; such statements are marked with (] with) ]s.


As a form of ], '''direct''' or '''quoted speech''' is spoken or written text that reports speech or thought in its original form phrased by the original speaker. In ], it is usually enclosed in quotation marks,<ref name="Leech"/> but it can be enclosed in ]s (« ») in some languages. The cited speaker either is mentioned in the tag (or attribution) or is implied. Direct speech is often used as a literary device to represent someone's point of view. Quotations are also widely used in spoken language when an interlocutor wishes to present a proposition that they have come to know via hearsay.
A '''quotation''' is a fragment of a human expression that is being referred to by somebody else. Like a ], a quotation is introduced by a ]. Most often a quotation is taken from ], but sentences from ]s, dialogue from ]s, and lines from song ] are also used. Aside from simply using words a quotation can also refer to any use of a piece of an artistic work in another place. This can include elements of a ], scene from a ] and sections from a ].


==Comparison between direct, indirect, and free indirect speech==
A typical, and perhaps ideal, quotation is usually short and commonly only one sentence long. There are two broad categories which most quotations fall into, beauty and truth, although some quotations fit equally well into both these groups. 'Beautiful' quotations are words remembered for their aesthetically pleasing use of language, whereas many other quotations are remembered because they are thought to express some ]. These latter quotations are often called ]s or ]s and they are highly regarded for being pithy renderings of ideas that most people have but most have not been able to express so clearly. A third type of quotation may be any line which merely reminds the person who quotes it of a particularly memorable work, sometimes making a subtle comparison to the situation or topic at hand.
* '''Quoted''' or '''direct speech''':{{efn|name=TerminologicalNote|Both direct speech and indirect speech purport to report the speech or thoughts of an original speaker. Some writers use the terms ''reported direct speech'' and ''reported indirect speech''<ref name="Huddleston 2002 p1023">{{Cite book|quote='''Direct reported speech''' purports to give the actual wording of the original, whereas '''indirect reported speech''' gives only its content. ... Some writers omit the 'reported' and simply talk of 'direct speech' and 'indirect speech', while others restrict the term 'reported speech' to the indirect type; we believe, however, that it is useful to have a term for covering both. Further alternative terms for direct and indirect reported speech are 'oratio recta' and 'oratio obliqua', respectively. |pages=1023–1030|last1=Huddleston |first1=Rodney |authorlink1=Rodney Huddleston|last2= Pullum |first2= Geoffrey |authorlink2=Geoffrey Pullum|title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge; New York |isbn=0-521-43146-8}}</ref>}}
''Direct speech'' and ''indirect speech'' can also refer to the difference between speech acts where the ] is conveyed directly and indirectly, respectively. Thus, "What time is it?" is a direct speech act that might also be expressed by the indirect speech act "Do you know what time it is?"<ref name="Huddleston 2002 p861">{{Cite book|pages=861–865|last1=Huddleston |first1=Rodney |authorlink1=Rodney Huddleston|last2= Pullum |first2= Geoffrey |authorlink2=Geoffrey Pullum|title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge; New York |isbn=0-521-43146-8}}</ref>


:He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. "And just what pleasure have I found since I came into this world?" he asked.
Beauty:</br>
* '''Reported''' or normal ''']''':{{efn|name=TerminologicalNote}}
:"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
:Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; "
::''Ode To Autumn'', ]


:He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. He asked himself what pleasure he had found since he came into the world.
Truth:</br>
* ''']''':{{efn|name=TerminologicalNote}}
:"Authority is never without hate."
:He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. And just what pleasure had he found since he came into this world?
::''Ion'', ]


A crucial semantic distinction between direct and indirect speech is that direct speech purports to report the exact words that were said or written, whereas indirect speech is a representation of speech in one's own words.<ref name="Leech">{{cite book|pages=, 101 |last1=Leech |first1=Geoffrey|title=A Glossary of English Grammar|url=https://archive.org/details/glossaryenglishg00leec |url-access=limited |year=2006 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-1729-6}}</ref>
Memorable:</br>
:"Abandon all hope, whoever enters here."
::''Inferno'' III, 9, ] - Inscribed above the gates of Hell


The distinction between indirect speech and free indirect speech is mostly one of style, hence free indirect speech is sometimes described as a free indirect style.
Quotation is used for a variety of reasons; to pay homage to the original work or ], to illuminate the meaning of the work it is being quoted in, to make the user of the quotation seem well-read and even to ridicule the original author. ]s are ] quotations that have survived in oral form. They are usually an important part of a country's culture and are often significantly older than much of that country's other ].


==As a literary device==
The art of quotation is fraught with difficulties. If the source of a quotation is not given it can lead readers to think that the author using the quotation originated the thought or that he is being dishonest. Some people are thought to have said certain things but there is no evidence of theses words in any of their surviving writings, when this is the case the words have to merely be attributed to them. Too much quotation can lead a reader to think the author does not have any original ideas. Many quotations are routinely incorrect or attributed to the wrong authors. Quotations from obscure writers are often attributed to far more famous writers by lax quoters. Good examples of this are ] who gets many political quotations of uncertain origin given to him and ] who has said far more witty things then he has ever had the time for.
A quotation can also refer to the repeated use of units of any other form of expression, especially parts of artistic works: elements of a ], scenes from a ] or sections from a ].


===Reasons for using===
:"If, with the literate, I am
Quotations are used for a variety of reasons: to illuminate the meaning or to support the arguments of the work in which it is being quoted, to provide direct information about the work being quoted (whether in order to discuss it, positively or negatively), to pay homage to the original work or ], to make the user of the quotation seem well-read, and/or to comply with copyright law.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.elc.edu/english-grammar-lesson-using-quotes/|title=English Grammar Lesson - Using Quotes! - ELC|date=2016-11-16|work=ELC - English Language Center|access-date=2017-10-24|language=en-US}}</ref> Quotations are also commonly printed as a means of inspiration and to invoke philosophical thoughts from the reader. Pragmatically speaking, quotations can also be used as language games (in the Wittgensteinian sense of the term) to manipulate social order and the structure of society.<ref>Capone, A., & Salmani Nodoushan, M. A. (2014). On indirect reports and language games: Evidence from Persian. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 8(2), 26-42.</ref><ref>Salmani Nodoushan, M. A. (2015). The secret life of slurs from the perspective of reported speech. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 9(2), 92-112.</ref>
:Impelled to try an epigram,
:I never seek to take the credit;
:We all assume that Oscar said it."
::]


===Common sources===
Deliberate misquotation is very common either through the fact that a misquotation is much better known than the original or simply because the ] fits the situation better. Possibly worse than misquotation is inappropriate quotation, where an author's words are taken out of context and are used to support a position or idea that the author would never have agreed with and was not the author's intention. In case of extensive quoting from a work one needs to consider ]. Famous quotations are frequently collected in books either for reference of the correct quotation and author or to entertain and inspire the readers. To this end daily quotations are often included in diaries and on calendars.
Famous quotations are frequently collected in books that are sometimes called quotation dictionaries or treasuries. Of these, '']'', '']'', ''The ] Dictionary of Quotations'', '']'' and ''The ] Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases'' are considered among the most reliable and comprehensive sources. Diaries and calendars often include quotations for entertainment or inspirational purposes, and small, dedicated sections in newspapers and weekly magazines—with recent quotations by leading personalities on current topics—have also become commonplace.


===Misquotations===
A sister project of Wikimedia Foundation called ] was created on June 27, 2003 as a free online encyclopedia of quotations in every language. ] is another free and open source project based on user-edited quotations in all languages.
{{Further|False attribution|Straw man}}
{{See also|List of movie misquotes}}
Many quotations are routinely incorrect or attributed to the wrong authors, and quotations from obscure or unknown writers are often attributed to far more famous writers. Examples of this are ], to whom many political quotations of uncertain origin are attributed, and ], to whom anonymous humorous quotations are sometimes attributed.<ref>See ''A Book of Misquotations'', edited by Elizabeth Knowles, Oxford University Press, 2006.</ref>


Some quotations commonly believed to be quotations from literature, film, etc. do not actually appear in the source material, but are paraphrases of phrases that do. The ''Star Trek'' catchphrase "]" did not appear in that form in the original series. Other misquotations include "]" (attributed to ]'s character of ] on '']''), "Heavy lies the crown" from Shakespeare's Play ], "]" (attributed to ]; it was, however, said in the films '']'' and '']''), "]" (attributed to ] in ]), "]" (attributed to Ilsa in '']''), "]" (attributed to ] in '']'') and "]" (attributed to Gold Hat in '']'').<ref>The Holmes phrase originated in a radio play. See ] and at Snopes.com</ref><ref>Webb ''did'' say: "All we want are the facts ma'am". See ], ] and at Snopes.com</ref><ref>, Tim Dirks at filmsite.org</ref><ref>{{YouTube|nsdZKCh6RsU|We Dont Need No Stinkin Badges!}} although the last of these is spoken by one of the Mexican Bandits that Hedley Lamarr attempts to hire as mercenaries in ''Blazing Saddles''</ref>
There are many other quotation sites on the ]. However, very few of them seem to facilitate accurate information and correct ].


===Quotative inversion===
:"I hate quotation. Tell me what you know."
Quotative inversion occurs in sentences where the direct quotation can occur before a verb of saying or after a verb of saying. It can trigger inversion of the verb and the verb's ]. Subject-verb inversion occurs most often in written works, being rare in speech.<ref name="collins">{{cite journal |last1=Collins |first1=Chris |last2=Branigan |first2=Phil |title=Quotative Inversion |journal=Natural Language & Linguistic Theory |date=February 1997 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1–41 |doi=10.1023/A:1005722729974 |s2cid=189899706 }}</ref> Quotations may appear before the inverted verb, but can also appear after the subject,<ref name="bruening">{{cite journal |last1=Bruening |first1=Benjamin |title=Alignment in Syntax: Quotative Inversion in English |journal=Syntax |date=15 April 2016 |volume=19 |issue=2 |page=113 |doi=10.1111/synt.12121 }}</ref> such as: ''"I am going to follow you all the rest of my life," declared the man'' <ref name="bruening"/> and ''Said the woman: "I see you with both my eyes."''<ref name="bruening"/>
::''Journals'', ]


====Syntax====
:"I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation."
In syntactic terms, these direct quotations can be presented in two forms. The first is as the ] of a quotative verb (e.g. Marie said: "My brother has arrived"), and the second being as a head clause with a quotative ] (e.g. "My brother has arrived", Marie announces).<ref name="sdq bonami"/> The ] can be further expanded to include a complement, such as: "They'll never make it!" cried John ''to Mary''. Subjects must precede the complement, otherwise the structure formed will be ungrammatical (e.g. *"They'll never make it!" cried ''to Mary'' John).<ref name="collins"/> Quotative inversion is only allowed when the verb is in the ] or the ]. The most common pairing is the verb ''said'' with a ] subject, such as: "That's the whole trouble," said Gwen.<ref name="anna">{{cite journal |last1=Cichosz |first1=Anna |title=Parenthetical reporting clauses in the history of English: the development of quotative inversion |journal=English Language and Linguistics |date=March 2019 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=183–214 |doi=10.1017/S1360674317000594 |s2cid=125456450 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/parenthetical-reporting-clauses-in-the-history-of-english-the-development-of-quotative-inversion/D9796FA7297499AFD9B021EEA1A6F56C |access-date=17 April 2020}}</ref> Additionally, ]s are not permitted in addition to the subject when inversion takes place.<ref name="collins"/> They are allowed only when there is no subject-verb inversion, or when part of a preposition phrase.<ref name="bruening"/>
::], attributed
:: a. "Why?" Gabrielle asked the attendant.<ref name="bruening"/> - <small>No subject-verb inversion</small>
:: b. "Why?" asked Gabrielle of the attendant.<ref name="bruening"/> - <small>NP part of a preposition phrase</small>
:: c. ''*''"Why?" asked Gabrielle the attendant.<ref name="bruening"/> - <small>Subject-verb inversion unlikely with an NP in addition to the subject</small>


In English, both verb-subject and subject-verb word orders are permitted:
:"Quotation, <I>n</I>: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."<br>
::'']'', ]


:: a. "Don't turn back!" warned Marcel.<ref name="collins"/> - <small>Verb-subject order</small>
Quotation can also be used for comedic purposes, and can be taken from any context, book, film, remembered conversation etc.
:: b. "Who's on first?" Swami demanded.<ref name="collins"/> - <small>Subject-verb order</small>


This however, is not the case in all languages. For example, in Peninsular Spanish, this inversion is not allowed. Quotatives must follow verb-subject order:
:"We messed up big time on sunday, I had sponsors in the stand, and im huggin and holding hands, and im kissin them in the ear and praying for a good showin, and whatta we do!? We end up lookin like a monkey fuckin a football out there!": ''Days of Thunder''


:: a. ''«No, no es un enanito», rectifica el viejo.''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Suñer |first1=Margarita |title=The Syntax of Direct Quotes with Special Reference to Spanish and English |journal=Natural Language & Linguistic Theory |date=August 2000 |volume=18 |issue=3 |page=532 |jstor=4047939 }}</ref> - <small>Verb-subject order</small>
Quotations are often very short and cryptic, which makes them ideal for automated writing experiments. , for example, can generate a quote that will contain any expression you submit. The trouble is that many of these quotes do actually make sense. That is another proof that the beauty - or truth - is in the eye of the beholder.
:::"No, he is not a gnome", corrects the old man.


:: b. ''*«No, no es un enanito», el viejo rectifica.''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Matos |first1=Gabriel |title=Quotative Inversion in Peninsular Portuguese and Spanish, and in English |journal=Catalan Journal of Linguistics |date=2013 |volume=12 |page=112 |doi=10.5565/rev/catjl.86 |doi-access=free |hdl=10451/32653 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> - <small>Subject-verb order unlikely for introducing quotations</small>
==See also==
:::"No, he is not a gnome", the old man corrects.
*]


===Brackets in quotes in English language===
==External links==
] are used to indicate an addition or a modification from the original quote. Various uses of brackets in quotes are:<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/when-to-use-brackets-in-quotes/ | title=When to Use Brackets in Quotes: Your Punctuation Guide - UoPeople | date=5 May 2021 }}</ref>
]
* Clarification ("She is an expert in botany.")
* Change in capitalization ("ccording to this article, this is untrue.")
* Translation ("Hola, soy Brandon .")

When "" is added, it means that errors are present in the original text. For example,
"Domestic cats are valued by hoomans {{sic}} for companionship."
{{main article|sic}}

==In spoken discourse==
Traditionally, quotations—more specifically known as direct quotations<ref name="clark" />—have been distinguished from indirect quotations. Direct quotations differ from indirect quotations in that they are reported from the perspective of the experiencer, while indirect quotations are reported from the perspective of the reporting speaker (e.g. "He said: 'I am leaving now'" versus "He said (that) he was leaving immediately"); are free in their syntactic form, while indirect quotations are subject to language-specific structural requirements (e.g. indirect quotations in many ] are required to have the syntactic form of a ] declarative ]); incorporate extralinguistic material and pragmatic markers, while indirect quotations do not. Crucially, direct quotations have a performative aspect (i.e. occur simultaneously with re-enactments of previous behaviours), which indirect quotations lack.<ref name="buch" /><ref name="clark">{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=Herbert |last2=Gerrig |first2=Richard |title=Quotations as Demonstrations |journal=Language |date=December 1990 |volume=66 |issue=4 |pages=764–805 |doi=10.2307/414729 |jstor=414729 |s2cid=143541258 }}</ref>

Both direct and indirect quotations in spoken discourse are not intended to be ] reproductions of an utterance that has been produced. Instead, direct quotations convey the approximative meaning of such an utterance along with the way in which that utterance was produced. From a ] perspective, a direct quotation in spoken discourse can therefore also be defined as "a performance whereby speakers re-enact previous behaviour (speech/thought/sound/voice effect and gesture) while assuming the dramatic role of the original source of this reported behaviour".<ref name="buch">{{cite book |last1=Buchstaller |first1=Isabelle |title=Quotatives: New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications |date=2014 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |isbn=9780470657188 |edition=1st}}</ref> Indirect quotations are simply paraphrases of something that a reporting speaker heard.<ref name="tracy"/>

===Reasons for using===

Quotations are employed in spoken discourse for many reasons. They are often used by speakers to depict stories and events that have occurred in the past to other ]. The speaker does not necessarily have to have been an original participant in the story or event. Therefore, they can quote something that they did not hear firsthand. Quotations are also used to express thoughts that have never been uttered aloud prior to being quoted. For example, while telling a story, a speaker quotes inner thoughts that they had during a specific situation. Finally, speakers use quotations to propose future dialogue for participants in a situation that may take place in the future. For example, two friends talk about their 10-year high school reunion that will take place in the future and propose what they would say. While future dialogue can be proposed for a situation that will likely happen, it can also be based on a situation that will not actually take place. In the latter usage, the proposed dialogue only exists in the conversational context.<ref name="jessie">{{cite journal |last1=Sams |first1=Jessie |title=Quoting the unspoken: An analysis of quotations in spoken discourse |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |date=November 2010 |volume=42 |issue=11 |pages=3147–3160 |doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2010.04.024 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216610001220 |access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref>

The quoted material is usually not a verbatim replication of an utterance that someone originally said. Instead, quotations in spoken discourse reproduce what a speaker wishes to communicate to their recipients; quotations demonstrate something that someone said, the manner in which that person said it, and the current speaker’s feelings about what was said.<ref name="jessie" /><ref name="clark" /> In this way, quotations are an especially effective storytelling device; the speaker is able to give a voice to the protagonists in their stories themselves, which allows the speaker’s audience to experience the situation in the way that the speaker themselves experienced it.<ref name="buch" />

===Form===

In most languages, quotations in spoken discourse are introduced by a ] and a ]. For example, a quotation in English can be introduced by "She said". In some languages, there is a ] in addition to the verb of saying that functions as verbal quotation marks.<ref name="tracy">{{cite book |editor1-last=Tracy |editor1-first=Karen |title=The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction |date=2015 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |isbn=9781118611463 |pages=1272–1276}}</ref> For example, Japanese uses the quotative particle (a type of quotative marker) ''to'' along with the ] verb of saying ''itta'':

{{fs interlinear |lang=ja |indent=2 |abbreviations=COM:complementizer
|c1= <ref name="tracy"/>
| ゆき は あなた には 彼女 が 好き '''と''' '''言った'''。
| Yuki wa anata {ni wa} kanojo ga suki '''to''' '''itta'''.
| Yuki TOP you {DAT (TOP)} her NOM like COM said
| "Yuki said that you liked her."
}}

Verbs of saying (known as quotative verbs when used to introduce quotations) and quotative particles are used as quotative markers, which signal quotations in utterances.<ref name="tracy"/> Quotative evidentials are also used in some languages to indicate quoted speech (e.g. ] spoken in Peru, ] spoken in lowland southeastern Peru, ] spoken in Chad).<ref name="quechua">{{cite journal |last1=Korotkova |first1=Natasha |title=Evidentials and (relayed) speech acts: hearsay as quotation |journal=Proceedings of SALT 25 |date=2017 |volume=25 |pages=676–694 |doi=10.3765/salt.v25i0.3969|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="nanti">{{cite book |editor1-last=LaPolla |editor1-first=Randy |editor2-last=De Busser |editor2-first=Rik |title=Language Structure and Environment |date=2015 |publisher=John Benjamins |pages=99–103}}</ref><ref name="laal">{{cite web |last1=Lionnet |first1=Florian |title=More than reported speech: Quotative evidentiality in Laal |url=http://www.princeton.edu/~flionnet/papers/Lionnet-WOCAL-Laal-evidential.pdf |access-date=19 April 2020}}</ref>

====Quotative markers====
Quotative markers are used to mark a section of an utterance as quoted speech (i.e. a quotation). In oral speech, quotative markers act as quotation marks and often include a verb of saying (e.g. ''say''). A quotative marker usually appears either before or after the reported speech or thought, depending on the ] of the language.<ref name="tracy"/> For example, compare the following languages:

=====English=====

In English, the quotative verb ''say'' occurs before the quotation:<ref name="tracy"/>
:: a. She '''said''' "Will you answer the phone, will you answer the phone"<ref name="frederica">Frederica Barbieri. ''Quotative Use in American English'', Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 33/No.3, September 2005.</ref>

In American English, verbs such as ''be like'', ''go'', and ''be all'' are non-standard quotatives that are commonly used in ].<ref name="tracy"/><ref name="adfoolen"/> They are observed in the speech of young people not only in American English, but in other ] of English as well (e.g. ''be like'' in New Zealand English,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=King |first1=Brian |title="All us girls were like euuh!": Conversational work of be like in New Zealand adolescent talk |journal=New Zealand English Journal |date=2010 |volume=24 |pages=17–36 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249335742 |access-date=19 April 2020}}</ref> ''be like'' and ''go'' in ] English<ref name="adfoolen"/>).<ref name="frederica"/><ref name="adfoolen">{{cite book |editor1-last=Ahrenholz |editor1-first=Bernt |editor2-last=Bredel |editor2-first=Ursula |editor3-last=Klein |editor3-first=Wolfgang |editor4-last=Rost-Roth |editor4-first=Martina |editor5-last=Skiba |editor5-first=Romuald |title=Empirische Forschung und Theoriebildung |date=2008 |publisher=Peter Lang |location=Frankfurt am Main |isbn=978-3-631-56930-6 |pages=117–128}}</ref> Though not semantically considered verbs of saying, they are used to convey the same meaning as such verbs. Like ''say'', ''be like'', ''go'', and ''be all'' occur before the quotation:<ref name="tracy"/>
:: b. I'm '''like''' "I'm so sorry you had to wait"<ref name="frederica"/>
:: c. She '''went''' "Who are you going with?"<ref name="adfoolen"/>
:: d. He''''s all''' "Okay, come with me come with me"<ref name="adfoolen"/>

In conversational speech, the use of ''say'' and ''be like'' occurs at about the same frequency,<ref name="frederica"/> though ''say'' tends to be used in more formal contexts (e.g. office hours between professors and students) and ''be like'' tends to occur in more informal contexts (e.g. a conversation between two young people).<ref name="adfoolen"/>

In African American Vernacular English, ''talkin' 'bout'' occurs as a verb of quotation, introducing both direct and indirect quotes, as in:
:: e. They come '''talkin' 'bout''' they is scared of ''me''!<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jones|first=Taylor|date=2016-12-01|title=AAE Talmbout: An Overlooked Verb of Quotation|url=https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol22/iss2/11|journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics|volume=22|issue=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cukor-Avila|first=Patricia|date=2002|title=She say, She go, She be like: Verbs of Quotation over Time in African American Vernacular English|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/2842|journal=American Speech|volume=77|issue=1|pages=3–31|doi=10.1215/00031283-77-1-3|s2cid=143904503|issn=1527-2133}}</ref>

=====Japanese=====

In Japanese, the quotative particle ''to'' along with the verb of saying ''iu'' (say) occur after the quotation; the conjugated form of ''iu'' (say) is ''itta'':<ref name="tracy"/>

{{fs interlinear |lang=ja |indent=2 |abbreviations=COM:complementizer
|c1= <ref name="Coulmas p164"/>
| 太郎 は 晴海  を 憎んでいる '''と''' '''言った'''。
| Taro wa Harumi o nikundeiru '''to''' '''itta'''.
| Taro TOP Harumi ACC hated COM said
| "Taro said that he hated Harumi." {{lit}} "that 'I hated Harumi'"
}}

The quotative particle ''to'' can also occur with verbs of thinking, such as ''omou'' (think). Like ''to'' and ''iu'' (say), ''to'' and ''omou'' occur after the quotation.

=====Laal=====

In ], the quotative evidential ''mɨ́'' is used for non-self quotation<ref name="laal"/> (i.e. quotation in which the speaker quotes someone else, not themself); it is used with a quotative verb ''ɓɨ́lá''. The use of ''mɨ́'' results in an indirect quotation translation. The quotative verb ''bɨ́lá'' occurs before the quotation, while the quotative evidential ''mɨ́'' occurs within the quoted speech ''já mɨ́ nyàg tāā wó'':

{{interlinear |lang=gdm |indent=2 |abbreviations=QEV:quotative evidential
|c1= <ref name="laal"/>
| à<sub>i</sub> '''ɓɨ́lá''' mɨ́ já<sub>*i/j</sub> '''mɨ́''' nyàg tāā wó
| He '''say''' (say)that I '''QEV''' eat fish NEG
| "He<sub>i</sub> said that I<sub>*i/j</sub> don't/didn't eat fish."
}}

As the above sentence involves a non-self quotation, ''à'' (he) and ''já'' (I) have different indices to show that they refer to different ]s; only this interpretation is ]. The interpretation in which they share identical indices is ill-formed (i.e. ungrammatical), as indicated by the asterisk.

In addition to quotative markers, speakers also use ] shifts, pauses, pronominal choices, and ] to detect the occurrence and boundaries of quotations in spoken utterances.<ref name="tracy"/>

===Syntax===
Different versions of quotative verbs, particles, and evidentials can be used to express the same idea with varying nuances, often to frame how the primary speaker, or the person who is quoting, feels about a quotation. The syntax of quotations varies cross-linguistically. A primary speaker may use the tense and linguistic idiosyncrasies of the speech at the time it was uttered in a quotation, independent from the tense in the main clause in some languages, or use the same tense in both the main clause and quotation in other languages. They will also use ]d pronouns to the direct quotation's first-person subject in the main clause: She<sub>x</sub> said, "I<sub>x</sub>..."; they<sub>y</sub> said "we<sub>y</sub> ..." In many languages, the primary speaker may also attempt to quote an utterance in the same language the original speaker used, even if an interlocutor does not understand it; however, it is mainly context-dependent such as when telling stories.<ref name="Evans Canonical">{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Nicholas |title=Canonical Morphology and Syntax |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=Some problems in the typology of quotation: a canonical approach}}</ref><ref name="Klamer report">{{cite journal |last1=Klamer |first1=Marian |title=How report verbs become quote markers and complementisers |journal=Lingua |date=2000 |volume=110 |issue=2 |pages=69–98 |doi=10.1016/S0024-3841(99)00032-7|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384199000327 | access-date=13 April 2020|hdl=1887/18278 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="DarcyA Review">{{cite journal |last1=D'Arcy |first1=Alexandra |title=Quotation and advances in understanding syntactic systems |journal=Annual Review of Linguistics |date=2015 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=43–61 |doi=10.1146/annurev-linguist-030514-125220|doi-access=free }}</ref>

====Quotative verbs====
Quotative verbs are lexical verbs that indicate the speech, thoughts, or perceptions of the original speaker.<ref name="Evans Canonical"/><ref name="Klamer report"/>

Quotations can be introduced as the complement to a quotative verb or as the head phrase to an adjunct phrase containing a quotative verb in some languages like English and French.<ref name="sdq bonami"/><ref name="DarcyA Review"/>
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! ||Quotation as complement || Quotation as head phrase adjunct <ref name="sdq bonami"/>
|-
| English || Marie said, "My brother has arrived." || "My brother has arrived," Marie said.
|-
| French || Marie a dit, "Mon frère est arrivé." || "Mon frère est arrivé," comme a dit Marie.
|}
English also displays ] (V2) order vestige only in quotation contexts (quotative inversion), requiring the finite verb to appear in the second position of a clause. For example: "No no no" ''says'' Harry.<ref name="DarcyA Review"/>

Direct and indirect quotations are sometimes not distinguishable. Traditionally, English uses an overt complementizer ''that'' after a quotative verb to indicate indirect quotation, but it is also seen to prompt direct quotation in some English varieties like Indian English, Hong Kong English, and Kenyan English.
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
| Hong Kong English || After the movie I just '''said that''' "Oh Frank I cannot walk."<ref name="DarcyA Review"/>
|-
| Indian English || Never a husband '''says that''' "I'll make a cup of tea okay, you sit. I'll make a cup of tea."
|-
| Kenyan English || So Kabuwe Abuwe '''told''' us '''that''' "If it is for wedding I am not going to contribute."
|}]
The newer quotative verb ''be like'' in English is used to only introduce direct quotations. ''Be like'' includes the use of the demonstrative ''that'', which is null in most English varieties, but can be optionally overt in some varieties like Glasgow English. Dutch's quotative verb ''hebben zoiets van'' has a similar structure to Standard American English in that it has a null demonstrative that precedes the quotation. It differs from the English structures in that it uses an overt quantifier ''zoiets'' to be ].<ref name="haddican et al">{{cite journal |last1=Haddican |first1=William |last2=Zweig |first2=Eytan |last3=Johnson |first3=Daniel Ezra |title=The syntax of be like quotatives |journal=Proceedings of the 29th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics |date=2012 |pages=81–89 |url=http://www.lingref.com/cpp/wccfl/29/paper2690.pdf}}</ref>
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Standard North American English !! Glasgow English !! Dutch<ref name="haddican et al"/>
|-
| ]]]] || ]]]] || ]]]]
|-
| ]]]]]
|| ]]]] || ]]]]]
|-
|}

====Quotative particles====
Quotative or hearsay particles are grammatical markers equivalent to full lexical verbs with meanings of ''"say, mention, tell, etc."'' In many languages, they are ] to different extremes from their previously lexical form. Common patterns of grammaticalization trajectories include verb to complementizer in many African and Asian languages and verb to ] markers primarily in African languages, but also in Australian languages and multiple other ].<ref name="DarcyA Review"/><ref name="Matsui and Yamamoto">{{cite journal |last1=Matsui |first1=Tomoko |last2=Yamamoto |first2=Taeko |title=Developing sensitivity to the sources of information: Early use of the Japanese quotative particles tte and to in mother–child conversation |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |date=2013 |volume=59 |pages=5–25 |doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2013.06.008 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216613001598|access-date=13 April 2020}}</ref>
]
Japanese, for example, uses a sentence-final quotative particle ''tte'' verbally to mean "I heard (quote)" with some uncertainty. In sentence-medial position, ''tte'' is sometimes regarded along with ''to'' to be either a quotative particle or complementizer meaning "I heard (quote)" with less uncertainty and often more knowledge of the origin of the quote.

{{fs interlinear |lang=ja |indent=2
|c1= <ref name="Matsui and Yamamoto" />
| 明日 晴れる -'''って'''
| ashita hareru '''tte'''.
| tomorrow will-be-fine QUOT
| "It will be fine tomorrow, I heard."
}}
{{fs interlinear |lang=ja |indent=2 |abbreviations=FP:final particle
|c1= <ref name="Matsui and Yamamoto" />
| 明日 晴れる '''って'''/'''と''' 言ってた よ
| ashita hareru '''-tte'''/'''to''' itteta yo.
| tomorrow will-be-fine QUOT said FP
| "(X) said that it would be fine tomorrow."
}}
Verbs of saying are highly restricted in Australian languages and almost always immediately proceed the complement verb.

{{interlinear |indent=2 |abbreviations=IRR:irregular
|top='''] example'''
|c1= <ref name="DarcyA Review"/>
| wurlan wurr-u-miyangga bud-ma-ra-ngarrugu
| word 3PL-FUT-know 3PL-say-PST-1PL.OBL.IRR
| "They will know this word" they said to us.
}}

====Quotative evidentials====
Quotative or hearsay evidentials provide knowledge of who or where information originated from in speech based on logical assumption. Languages indicate this in various ways: through grammatical marking, additional words and phrases, prosody, gestures, or systematic affixes of verbs. Quotative readings of evidentials are typologically rare. For example, English can express evidentials with an optional adverb, "''Allegedly'', Annie pulled the trigger." The interlocutor then knows the source of the quotation is from elsewhere, but this is not a quotative reading as there is no direct performative quoting or verbs of saying. Languages including Cusco Quechua, Kham, Tagalog, and Kaalallisut are documented as containing quotative evidentials. In languages with "true" quotative evidentials (which usually introduce quoted statements), it is also possible for them to occur with interrogatives and imperatives, yielding quoted interrogatives and quoted imperatives.<ref name="quechua"/><ref name="SRL Ev">{{cite journal |last1=San Roque |first1=Lila |title=Evidentiality |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |date=2019 |volume=48 |pages=353–370 |doi=10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011243 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Similar to quotative particles, quotative evidentials are usually ] from full lexical verbs.<ref name="Chojnicka Latvian">{{cite journal |last1=Chojnicka |first1=Joanna |title=Latvian verbs of speaking and their relations to evidentiality |journal=Kalbotyra |issue=69 |pages=59–81}}</ref>

], a Tupí-Guaraní ] of North-West Amazonia, has a reported evidential marker ''paá''. An example scenario is as follows: X saw John go fishing. Mary then and asks X where John went. X replies "u-sú u-piniatika" (he went fishing). Later, Peter asks Mary where John went. She replies to Peter that she did not see John go herself, but rather heard it from a different source using the evidential marker "u-sú u-piniatika ''paá.''" <ref name="aikhenvald">Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y (2014). The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials, and the expression of information source. Oxford University Press. p.4-5. {{ISBN|9780198701316}}</ref>

{{interlinear |indent=2 |abbreviations=REP:reported evidential marker
|c1= <ref name="aikhenvald"/>
| u-sú u-piniatika '''paá'''
| 3SG-go 3SG-fish '''REP'''
| "He went fishing (they say/I was told)"
}}

]
] quotative evidentials are used with imperative quotations.<ref name="quechua" />

{{interlinear |indent=2 |abbreviations=REP:reported evidential marker; INF:infix
|c1= <ref name="quechua" />
| kumain (ka) '''daw'''
| eat.INF (you) '''REP'''
| Someone said: Eat!
}}

]'s quotative evidential comes as a derivation of a ], ''=si'', for interrogative quotations.<ref name="quechua" />

{{interlinear |indent=2 |abbreviations=REP:reported evidential marker
|c1= <ref name="quechua" />
| pi-ta{{=}}'''s''' Inés-qa watuku-sqa
| who-ACC{{=}}'''REP''' Inés-TOP visit-PST
| 'Someone said: Who did Inés visit?'
}}

=== Hand gesture ===
Hand gesturing a quotation in a conversation can be done with ].<ref name="Phrase Finder">{{cite web |last=Martin |first=Gary |title=Air quotes |url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/air-quotes.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081103020926/http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/air-quotes.html |archive-date=3 November 2008 |access-date=18 November 2008 |work=The Phrase Finder}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{wikiquote}} {{wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource portal|Quotations}}
*
{{div col}}
*: a very amusing collection of quotations.
* ]
*: GIGA Quotes, relatively accurate
* ]
*: Famous Quotations, sorted by authors and subjects with Quotations Screensavers and Quotations Wallpapers
* ]
*: The Quotations Database
* ]
*: A huge collection of quotations
* ]
* Top 50 Quality Quotations Resources
* ]
*: multilingual open source database of quotations, aphorisms and sayings (also a wiki)
* ]
*: Thousands of famous quotes categorized and searcheable.
* ]
* - Online Literature resource with thousands of accurate quotations.
* ]
* - QuotesandSayings.com - one of the first quotations websites with subject and author indexes.
* ]
* - A portal to search all the good quotations databases, in one place.
{{div col end}}
* - LitQuotes features quotes from literature. There is a quote of the day as well as a searchable database of quotations.
<!--===========================({{NoMoreLinks}})===============================
*
| PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS IN ADDING MORE LINKS TO THIS ARTICLE. WIKIPEDIA IS |
*
| NOT A COLLECTION OF LINKS. |
*
| |
*
| Excessive or inappropriate links WILL BE DELETED. |
*
| See ] and ] for details. |
*
| |
*
| If there are already plentiful links, please propose additions or |
| replacements on this article's discussion page. Or submit your link |
| to the appropriate category at the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org)|
| and link back to that category using the {{dmoz}} template. |
===========================({{NoMoreLinks}})===============================-->

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Coulmas p164">Florian Coulmas (Ed.). ''Direct and Indirect Speech (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs)'', p.164. {{ISBN|978-3110105995}}</ref>
}}

{{Appropriation in the arts|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}


]
]
]
]
] ]
]
]

Latest revision as of 09:56, 25 November 2024

Repetition of one expression as part of another one This article is about quoting text and speech. For information about the punctuation mark, see Quotation mark. For economic usage, see Financial quote. For other uses, see Quotation (disambiguation).

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 a quotative marker, such as a verb of saying. For example: John said: "I saw Mary today". Quotations in oral speech are also signaled by special prosody in addition to quotative markers. In written text, quotations are signaled by quotation marks. Quotations are also used to present well-known statement parts that are explicitly attributed by citation to their original source; such statements are marked with (punctuated with) quotation marks.

As a form of transcription, direct or quoted speech is spoken or written text that reports speech or thought in its original form phrased by the original speaker. In narrative, it is usually enclosed in quotation marks, but it can be enclosed in guillemets (« ») in some languages. The cited speaker either is mentioned in the tag (or attribution) or is implied. Direct speech is often used as a literary device to represent someone's point of view. Quotations are also widely used in spoken language when an interlocutor wishes to present a proposition that they have come to know via hearsay.

Comparison between direct, indirect, and free indirect speech

  • Quoted or direct speech:

Direct speech and indirect speech can also refer to the difference between speech acts where the illocutionary force is conveyed directly and indirectly, respectively. Thus, "What time is it?" is a direct speech act that might also be expressed by the indirect speech act "Do you know what time it is?"

He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. "And just what pleasure have I found since I came into this world?" he asked.
He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. He asked himself what pleasure he had found since he came into the world.
He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. And just what pleasure had he found since he came into this world?

A crucial semantic distinction between direct and indirect speech is that direct speech purports to report the exact words that were said or written, whereas indirect speech is a representation of speech in one's own words.

The distinction between indirect speech and free indirect speech is mostly one of style, hence free indirect speech is sometimes described as a free indirect style.

As a literary device

A quotation can also refer to the repeated use of units of any other form of expression, especially parts of artistic works: elements of a painting, scenes from a movie or sections from a musical composition.

Reasons for using

Quotations are used for a variety of reasons: to illuminate the meaning or to support the arguments of the work in which it is being quoted, to provide direct information about the work being quoted (whether in order to discuss it, positively or negatively), to pay homage to the original work or author, to make the user of the quotation seem well-read, and/or to comply with copyright law. Quotations are also commonly printed as a means of inspiration and to invoke philosophical thoughts from the reader. Pragmatically speaking, quotations can also be used as language games (in the Wittgensteinian sense of the term) to manipulate social order and the structure of society.

Common sources

Famous quotations are frequently collected in books that are sometimes called quotation dictionaries or treasuries. Of these, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, The Yale Book of Quotations and The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases are considered among the most reliable and comprehensive sources. Diaries and calendars often include quotations for entertainment or inspirational purposes, and small, dedicated sections in newspapers and weekly magazines—with recent quotations by leading personalities on current topics—have also become commonplace.

Misquotations

Further information: False attribution and Straw man See also: List of movie misquotes

Many quotations are routinely incorrect or attributed to the wrong authors, and quotations from obscure or unknown writers are often attributed to far more famous writers. Examples of this are Winston Churchill, to whom many political quotations of uncertain origin are attributed, and Oscar Wilde, to whom anonymous humorous quotations are sometimes attributed.

Some quotations commonly believed to be quotations from literature, film, etc. do not actually appear in the source material, but are paraphrases of phrases that do. The Star Trek catchphrase "Beam me up, Scotty" did not appear in that form in the original series. Other misquotations include "Just the facts, ma'am" (attributed to Jack Webb's character of Joe Friday on Dragnet), "Heavy lies the crown" from Shakespeare's Play Henry IV, Part 2, "Elementary, my dear Watson" (attributed to Sherlock Holmes; it was, however, said in the films The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Return of Sherlock Holmes), "Luke, I am your father" (attributed to Darth Vader in Star Wars), "Play it again, Sam" (attributed to Ilsa in Casablanca), "Do you feel lucky, punk?" (attributed to Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry) and "We don't need no stinkin' badges!" (attributed to Gold Hat in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre).

Quotative inversion

Quotative inversion occurs in sentences where the direct quotation can occur before a verb of saying or after a verb of saying. It can trigger inversion of the verb and the verb's subject. Subject-verb inversion occurs most often in written works, being rare in speech. Quotations may appear before the inverted verb, but can also appear after the subject, such as: "I am going to follow you all the rest of my life," declared the man and Said the woman: "I see you with both my eyes."

Syntax

In syntactic terms, these direct quotations can be presented in two forms. The first is as the complement of a quotative verb (e.g. Marie said: "My brother has arrived"), and the second being as a head clause with a quotative adjunct (e.g. "My brother has arrived", Marie announces). The verb phrase can be further expanded to include a complement, such as: "They'll never make it!" cried John to Mary. Subjects must precede the complement, otherwise the structure formed will be ungrammatical (e.g. *"They'll never make it!" cried to Mary John). Quotative inversion is only allowed when the verb is in the simple present or the simple past. The most common pairing is the verb said with a nominal subject, such as: "That's the whole trouble," said Gwen. Additionally, noun phrases are not permitted in addition to the subject when inversion takes place. They are allowed only when there is no subject-verb inversion, or when part of a preposition phrase.

a. "Why?" Gabrielle asked the attendant. - No subject-verb inversion
b. "Why?" asked Gabrielle of the attendant. - NP part of a preposition phrase
c. *"Why?" asked Gabrielle the attendant. - Subject-verb inversion unlikely with an NP in addition to the subject

In English, both verb-subject and subject-verb word orders are permitted:

a. "Don't turn back!" warned Marcel. - Verb-subject order
b. "Who's on first?" Swami demanded. - Subject-verb order

This however, is not the case in all languages. For example, in Peninsular Spanish, this inversion is not allowed. Quotatives must follow verb-subject order:

a. «No, no es un enanito», rectifica el viejo. - Verb-subject order
"No, he is not a gnome", corrects the old man.
b. *«No, no es un enanito», el viejo rectifica. - Subject-verb order unlikely for introducing quotations
"No, he is not a gnome", the old man corrects.

Brackets in quotes in English language

Brackets are used to indicate an addition or a modification from the original quote. Various uses of brackets in quotes are:

  • Clarification ("She is an expert in botany.")
  • Change in capitalization ("ccording to this article, this is untrue.")
  • Translation ("Hola, soy Brandon .")

When "" is added, it means that errors are present in the original text. For example, "Domestic cats are valued by hoomans [sic] for companionship."

Main article: sic

In spoken discourse

Traditionally, quotations—more specifically known as direct quotations—have been distinguished from indirect quotations. Direct quotations differ from indirect quotations in that they are reported from the perspective of the experiencer, while indirect quotations are reported from the perspective of the reporting speaker (e.g. "He said: 'I am leaving now'" versus "He said (that) he was leaving immediately"); are free in their syntactic form, while indirect quotations are subject to language-specific structural requirements (e.g. indirect quotations in many Indo-European languages are required to have the syntactic form of a well-formed declarative subordinate clause); incorporate extralinguistic material and pragmatic markers, while indirect quotations do not. Crucially, direct quotations have a performative aspect (i.e. occur simultaneously with re-enactments of previous behaviours), which indirect quotations lack.

Both direct and indirect quotations in spoken discourse are not intended to be verbatim reproductions of an utterance that has been produced. Instead, direct quotations convey the approximative meaning of such an utterance along with the way in which that utterance was produced. From a sociolinguistic perspective, a direct quotation in spoken discourse can therefore also be defined as "a performance whereby speakers re-enact previous behaviour (speech/thought/sound/voice effect and gesture) while assuming the dramatic role of the original source of this reported behaviour". Indirect quotations are simply paraphrases of something that a reporting speaker heard.

Reasons for using

Quotations are employed in spoken discourse for many reasons. They are often used by speakers to depict stories and events that have occurred in the past to other interlocutors. The speaker does not necessarily have to have been an original participant in the story or event. Therefore, they can quote something that they did not hear firsthand. Quotations are also used to express thoughts that have never been uttered aloud prior to being quoted. For example, while telling a story, a speaker quotes inner thoughts that they had during a specific situation. Finally, speakers use quotations to propose future dialogue for participants in a situation that may take place in the future. For example, two friends talk about their 10-year high school reunion that will take place in the future and propose what they would say. While future dialogue can be proposed for a situation that will likely happen, it can also be based on a situation that will not actually take place. In the latter usage, the proposed dialogue only exists in the conversational context.

The quoted material is usually not a verbatim replication of an utterance that someone originally said. Instead, quotations in spoken discourse reproduce what a speaker wishes to communicate to their recipients; quotations demonstrate something that someone said, the manner in which that person said it, and the current speaker’s feelings about what was said. In this way, quotations are an especially effective storytelling device; the speaker is able to give a voice to the protagonists in their stories themselves, which allows the speaker’s audience to experience the situation in the way that the speaker themselves experienced it.

Form

In most languages, quotations in spoken discourse are introduced by a verb of saying and a pronoun. For example, a quotation in English can be introduced by "She said". In some languages, there is a discourse marker in addition to the verb of saying that functions as verbal quotation marks. For example, Japanese uses the quotative particle (a type of quotative marker) to along with the conjugated verb of saying itta:

ゆき

Yuki

Yuki

wa

TOP

あなた

anata

you

には

ni wa

DAT (TOP)

彼女

kanojo

her

ga

NOM

好き

suki

like

to

COM

言った

itta.

said

 

 

ゆき は あなた には 彼女 が 好き 言った

Yuki wa anata {ni wa} kanojo ga suki to itta.

Yuki TOP you {DAT (TOP)} her NOM like COM said

"Yuki said that you liked her."

Verbs of saying (known as quotative verbs when used to introduce quotations) and quotative particles are used as quotative markers, which signal quotations in utterances. Quotative evidentials are also used in some languages to indicate quoted speech (e.g. Cusco Quechua spoken in Peru, Nanti spoken in lowland southeastern Peru, Laal spoken in Chad).

Quotative markers

Quotative markers are used to mark a section of an utterance as quoted speech (i.e. a quotation). In oral speech, quotative markers act as quotation marks and often include a verb of saying (e.g. say). A quotative marker usually appears either before or after the reported speech or thought, depending on the syntax of the language. For example, compare the following languages:

English

In English, the quotative verb say occurs before the quotation:

a. She said "Will you answer the phone, will you answer the phone"

In American English, verbs such as be like, go, and be all are non-standard quotatives that are commonly used in colloquial speech. They are observed in the speech of young people not only in American English, but in other varieties of English as well (e.g. be like in New Zealand English, be like and go in Glasgow English). Though not semantically considered verbs of saying, they are used to convey the same meaning as such verbs. Like say, be like, go, and be all occur before the quotation:

b. I'm like "I'm so sorry you had to wait"
c. She went "Who are you going with?"
d. He's all "Okay, come with me come with me"

In conversational speech, the use of say and be like occurs at about the same frequency, though say tends to be used in more formal contexts (e.g. office hours between professors and students) and be like tends to occur in more informal contexts (e.g. a conversation between two young people).

In African American Vernacular English, talkin' 'bout occurs as a verb of quotation, introducing both direct and indirect quotes, as in:

e. They come talkin' 'bout they is scared of me!
Japanese

In Japanese, the quotative particle to along with the verb of saying iu (say) occur after the quotation; the conjugated form of iu (say) is itta:

太郎

Taro

Taro

wa

TOP

晴海 

Harumi

Harumi

o

ACC

憎んでいる

nikundeiru

hated

to

COM

言った

itta.

said

 

 

太郎 は 晴海  を 憎んでいる 言った

Taro wa Harumi o nikundeiru to itta.

Taro TOP Harumi ACC hated COM said

"Taro said that he hated Harumi." lit. "that 'I hated Harumi'"

The quotative particle to can also occur with verbs of thinking, such as omou (think). Like to and iu (say), to and omou occur after the quotation.

Laal

In Laal, the quotative evidential mɨ́ is used for non-self quotation (i.e. quotation in which the speaker quotes someone else, not themself); it is used with a quotative verb ɓɨ́lá. The use of mɨ́ results in an indirect quotation translation. The quotative verb bɨ́lá occurs before the quotation, while the quotative evidential mɨ́ occurs within the quoted speech já mɨ́ nyàg tāā wó:

ài

He

ɓɨ́lá

say

mɨ́

(say)that

*i/j

I

mɨ́

QEV

nyàg

eat

tāā

fish

NEG

 

ài ɓɨ́lá mɨ́ já*i/j mɨ́ nyàg tāā wó

He say (say)that I QEV eat fish NEG

"Hei said that I*i/j don't/didn't eat fish."

As the above sentence involves a non-self quotation, à (he) and (I) have different indices to show that they refer to different referents; only this interpretation is well-formed. The interpretation in which they share identical indices is ill-formed (i.e. ungrammatical), as indicated by the asterisk.

In addition to quotative markers, speakers also use prosodic shifts, pauses, pronominal choices, and tense to detect the occurrence and boundaries of quotations in spoken utterances.

Syntax

Different versions of quotative verbs, particles, and evidentials can be used to express the same idea with varying nuances, often to frame how the primary speaker, or the person who is quoting, feels about a quotation. The syntax of quotations varies cross-linguistically. A primary speaker may use the tense and linguistic idiosyncrasies of the speech at the time it was uttered in a quotation, independent from the tense in the main clause in some languages, or use the same tense in both the main clause and quotation in other languages. They will also use coreferenced pronouns to the direct quotation's first-person subject in the main clause: Shex said, "Ix..."; theyy said "wey ..." In many languages, the primary speaker may also attempt to quote an utterance in the same language the original speaker used, even if an interlocutor does not understand it; however, it is mainly context-dependent such as when telling stories.

Quotative verbs

Quotative verbs are lexical verbs that indicate the speech, thoughts, or perceptions of the original speaker.

Quotations can be introduced as the complement to a quotative verb or as the head phrase to an adjunct phrase containing a quotative verb in some languages like English and French.

Quotation as complement Quotation as head phrase adjunct
English Marie said, "My brother has arrived." "My brother has arrived," Marie said.
French Marie a dit, "Mon frère est arrivé." "Mon frère est arrivé," comme a dit Marie.

English also displays verb-second (V2) order vestige only in quotation contexts (quotative inversion), requiring the finite verb to appear in the second position of a clause. For example: "No no no" says Harry.

Direct and indirect quotations are sometimes not distinguishable. Traditionally, English uses an overt complementizer that after a quotative verb to indicate indirect quotation, but it is also seen to prompt direct quotation in some English varieties like Indian English, Hong Kong English, and Kenyan English.

Hong Kong English After the movie I just said that "Oh Frank I cannot walk."
Indian English Never a husband says that "I'll make a cup of tea okay, you sit. I'll make a cup of tea."
Kenyan English So Kabuwe Abuwe told us that "If it is for wedding I am not going to contribute."
Quotative verb "be like" in English.

The newer quotative verb be like in English is used to only introduce direct quotations. Be like includes the use of the demonstrative that, which is null in most English varieties, but can be optionally overt in some varieties like Glasgow English. Dutch's quotative verb hebben zoiets van has a similar structure to Standard American English in that it has a null demonstrative that precedes the quotation. It differs from the English structures in that it uses an overt quantifier zoiets to be well-formed.

Standard North American English Glasgow English Dutch
]]]] ]]]] ]]]]
*]]]] ]]]] *]]]]

Quotative particles

Quotative or hearsay particles are grammatical markers equivalent to full lexical verbs with meanings of "say, mention, tell, etc." In many languages, they are grammaticalized to different extremes from their previously lexical form. Common patterns of grammaticalization trajectories include verb to complementizer in many African and Asian languages and verb to tense-aspect-mood markers primarily in African languages, but also in Australian languages and multiple other language families.

Quotative Particle "-tte" and "to" in Japanese.

Japanese, for example, uses a sentence-final quotative particle tte verbally to mean "I heard (quote)" with some uncertainty. In sentence-medial position, tte is sometimes regarded along with to to be either a quotative particle or complementizer meaning "I heard (quote)" with less uncertainty and often more knowledge of the origin of the quote.

明日

ashita

tomorrow

晴れる

hareru

will-be-fine

-って

tte.

QUOT

 

 

明日 晴れる -って

ashita hareru tte.

tomorrow will-be-fine QUOT

"It will be fine tomorrow, I heard."

明日

ashita

tomorrow

晴れる

hareru

will-be-fine

って/

-tte/to

QUOT

言ってた

itteta

said

yo.

FP

 

 

明日 晴れる って/ 言ってた よ

ashita hareru -tte/to itteta yo.

tomorrow will-be-fine QUOT said FP

"(X) said that it would be fine tomorrow."

Verbs of saying are highly restricted in Australian languages and almost always immediately proceed the complement verb.

Ngarinyin example

wurlan

word

wurr-u-miyangga

3PL-FUT-know

bud-ma-ra-ngarrugu

3PL-say-PST-1PL.OBL.IRR

 

wurlan wurr-u-miyangga bud-ma-ra-ngarrugu

word 3PL-FUT-know 3PL-say-PST-1PL.OBL.IRR

"They will know this word" they said to us.

Quotative evidentials

Quotative or hearsay evidentials provide knowledge of who or where information originated from in speech based on logical assumption. Languages indicate this in various ways: through grammatical marking, additional words and phrases, prosody, gestures, or systematic affixes of verbs. Quotative readings of evidentials are typologically rare. For example, English can express evidentials with an optional adverb, "Allegedly, Annie pulled the trigger." The interlocutor then knows the source of the quotation is from elsewhere, but this is not a quotative reading as there is no direct performative quoting or verbs of saying. Languages including Cusco Quechua, Kham, Tagalog, and Kaalallisut are documented as containing quotative evidentials. In languages with "true" quotative evidentials (which usually introduce quoted statements), it is also possible for them to occur with interrogatives and imperatives, yielding quoted interrogatives and quoted imperatives. Similar to quotative particles, quotative evidentials are usually grammaticalized from full lexical verbs.

Nhêengatú, a Tupí-Guaraní lingua franca of North-West Amazonia, has a reported evidential marker paá. An example scenario is as follows: X saw John go fishing. Mary then and asks X where John went. X replies "u-sú u-piniatika" (he went fishing). Later, Peter asks Mary where John went. She replies to Peter that she did not see John go herself, but rather heard it from a different source using the evidential marker "u-sú u-piniatika paá."

u-sú

3SG-go

u-piniatika

3SG-fish

paá

REP

 

u-sú u-piniatika paá

3SG-go 3SG-fish REP

"He went fishing (they say/I was told)"

Quotative Evidential "=si" in Cusco Quechua.

Tagalog's quotative evidentials are used with imperative quotations.

kumain

eat.INF

(ka)

(you)

daw

REP

 

kumain (ka) daw

eat.INF (you) REP

Someone said: Eat!

Cusco Quechua's quotative evidential comes as a derivation of a clitic, =si, for interrogative quotations.

pi-ta=s

who-ACC=REP

Inés-qa

Inés-TOP

watuku-sqa

visit-PST

 

pi-ta=s Inés-qa watuku-sqa

who-ACC=REP Inés-TOP visit-PST

'Someone said: Who did Inés visit?'

Hand gesture

Hand gesturing a quotation in a conversation can be done with air quotes.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Both direct speech and indirect speech purport to report the speech or thoughts of an original speaker. Some writers use the terms reported direct speech and reported indirect speech

References

  1. McArthur, Tom; Lam-McArthur, Jacqueline; Fontaine, Lisa, eds. (2018). The Oxford Companion to the English Language (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191744389.
  2. ^ Bonami, Olivier; Godard, Danièle (2008). "On the Syntax of Direct Quotation in French". HAL. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  3. ^ Leech, Geoffrey (2006). A Glossary of English Grammar. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 34, 101. ISBN 978-0-7486-1729-6.
  4. Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1023–1030. ISBN 0-521-43146-8. Direct reported speech purports to give the actual wording of the original, whereas indirect reported speech gives only its content. ... Some writers omit the 'reported' and simply talk of 'direct speech' and 'indirect speech', while others restrict the term 'reported speech' to the indirect type; we believe, however, that it is useful to have a term for covering both. Further alternative terms for direct and indirect reported speech are 'oratio recta' and 'oratio obliqua', respectively.
  5. Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 861–865. ISBN 0-521-43146-8.
  6. "English Grammar Lesson - Using Quotes! - ELC". ELC - English Language Center. 16 November 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  7. Capone, A., & Salmani Nodoushan, M. A. (2014). On indirect reports and language games: Evidence from Persian. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 8(2), 26-42.
  8. Salmani Nodoushan, M. A. (2015). The secret life of slurs from the perspective of reported speech. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 9(2), 92-112.
  9. See A Book of Misquotations, edited by Elizabeth Knowles, Oxford University Press, 2006.
  10. The Holmes phrase originated in a radio play. See List of misquotations and "Elementary, My Dear Watson" at Snopes.com
  11. Webb did say: "All we want are the facts ma'am". See Just the facts, ma'am, List of misquotations and "Just the Facts" at Snopes.com
  12. Greatest Film Misquotes - Part 2, Tim Dirks at filmsite.org
  13. We Dont Need No Stinkin Badges! on YouTube although the last of these is spoken by one of the Mexican Bandits that Hedley Lamarr attempts to hire as mercenaries in Blazing Saddles
  14. ^ Collins, Chris; Branigan, Phil (February 1997). "Quotative Inversion". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 15 (1): 1–41. doi:10.1023/A:1005722729974. S2CID 189899706.
  15. ^ Bruening, Benjamin (15 April 2016). "Alignment in Syntax: Quotative Inversion in English". Syntax. 19 (2): 113. doi:10.1111/synt.12121.
  16. Cichosz, Anna (March 2019). "Parenthetical reporting clauses in the history of English: the development of quotative inversion". English Language and Linguistics. 23 (1): 183–214. doi:10.1017/S1360674317000594. S2CID 125456450. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  17. Suñer, Margarita (August 2000). "The Syntax of Direct Quotes with Special Reference to Spanish and English". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 18 (3): 532. JSTOR 4047939.
  18. Matos, Gabriel (2013). "Quotative Inversion in Peninsular Portuguese and Spanish, and in English". Catalan Journal of Linguistics. 12: 112. doi:10.5565/rev/catjl.86. hdl:10451/32653.
  19. "When to Use Brackets in Quotes: Your Punctuation Guide - UoPeople". 5 May 2021.
  20. ^ Clark, Herbert; Gerrig, Richard (December 1990). "Quotations as Demonstrations". Language. 66 (4): 764–805. doi:10.2307/414729. JSTOR 414729. S2CID 143541258.
  21. ^ Buchstaller, Isabelle (2014). Quotatives: New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications (1st ed.). Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9780470657188.
  22. ^ Tracy, Karen, ed. (2015). The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction. Wiley Blackwell. pp. 1272–1276. ISBN 9781118611463.
  23. ^ Sams, Jessie (November 2010). "Quoting the unspoken: An analysis of quotations in spoken discourse". Journal of Pragmatics. 42 (11): 3147–3160. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.04.024. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  24. ^ Korotkova, Natasha (2017). "Evidentials and (relayed) speech acts: hearsay as quotation". Proceedings of SALT 25. 25: 676–694. doi:10.3765/salt.v25i0.3969.
  25. LaPolla, Randy; De Busser, Rik, eds. (2015). Language Structure and Environment. John Benjamins. pp. 99–103.
  26. ^ Lionnet, Florian. "More than reported speech: Quotative evidentiality in Laal" (PDF). Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  27. ^ Frederica Barbieri. Quotative Use in American English, Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 33/No.3, September 2005.
  28. ^ Ahrenholz, Bernt; Bredel, Ursula; Klein, Wolfgang; Rost-Roth, Martina; Skiba, Romuald, eds. (2008). Empirische Forschung und Theoriebildung. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. pp. 117–128. ISBN 978-3-631-56930-6.
  29. King, Brian (2010). ""All us girls were like euuh!": Conversational work of be like in New Zealand adolescent talk". New Zealand English Journal. 24: 17–36. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  30. Jones, Taylor (1 December 2016). "AAE Talmbout: An Overlooked Verb of Quotation". University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. 22 (2).
  31. Cukor-Avila, Patricia (2002). "She say, She go, She be like: Verbs of Quotation over Time in African American Vernacular English". American Speech. 77 (1): 3–31. doi:10.1215/00031283-77-1-3. ISSN 1527-2133. S2CID 143904503.
  32. Florian Coulmas (Ed.). Direct and Indirect Speech (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs), p.164. ISBN 978-3110105995
  33. ^ Evans, Nicholas (2012). "Some problems in the typology of quotation: a canonical approach". Canonical Morphology and Syntax. Oxford University Press.
  34. ^ Klamer, Marian (2000). "How report verbs become quote markers and complementisers". Lingua. 110 (2): 69–98. doi:10.1016/S0024-3841(99)00032-7. hdl:1887/18278. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  35. ^ D'Arcy, Alexandra (2015). "Quotation and advances in understanding syntactic systems". Annual Review of Linguistics. 1 (1): 43–61. doi:10.1146/annurev-linguist-030514-125220.
  36. ^ Haddican, William; Zweig, Eytan; Johnson, Daniel Ezra (2012). "The syntax of be like quotatives" (PDF). Proceedings of the 29th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics: 81–89.
  37. ^ Matsui, Tomoko; Yamamoto, Taeko (2013). "Developing sensitivity to the sources of information: Early use of the Japanese quotative particles tte and to in mother–child conversation". Journal of Pragmatics. 59: 5–25. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2013.06.008. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  38. San Roque, Lila (2019). "Evidentiality". Annual Review of Anthropology. 48: 353–370. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011243.
  39. Chojnicka, Joanna. "Latvian verbs of speaking and their relations to evidentiality". Kalbotyra (69): 59–81.
  40. ^ Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y (2014). The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials, and the expression of information source. Oxford University Press. p.4-5. ISBN 9780198701316
  41. Martin, Gary. "Air quotes". The Phrase Finder. Archived from the original on 3 November 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
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