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A quotative 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. It can be equated with "spoken quotation marks". In the English sentence

John said, "Wow,"

there is no word indicating that we are dealing with quoted speech. This is only indicated typographically. In Sinhala on the other hand, the equivalent sentence

John Wow kiyalaa kivvaa

has an overt indication of quoted speech after the quoted string Wow, the quotative kiyalaa.

Dutch

In Dutch, the preposition van can be used to introduce direct speech:

Ik zei er van Japie sta still (a line from a children's song).

I said, 'Japie , stand still.'

Quotative van can be used in combination with a verb of speech, as in the above example, a noun designating something with message-carrying content, or a light verb, e.g. a copula (like for English like).

In the specific colloquial combination zoiets hebben van (literally, "have something suchlike of"), the subsequent quoted speech conveys a (possibly unspoken) feeling:

De ouders hadden zoiets van laten we het maar proberen, wie weet lukt het.

The parents were like, let's try it, who knows it will work.

English

In English colloquial speech, forms of the verb be like are used as a quotative:

He was like, 'You'll love it.'  And I was like, 'You can't be serious!'

In speech, the word like in this use is typically followed by a brief pause, indicated here with a comma. This quotative construction is particularly common for introducing direct speech indicating someone's attitude.

Japanese

In Japanese, the quotative と is used to indicate direct speech in this sentence:

The following example shows the preservation of both grammatical person and the tense in a quoted utterance using the quotative particle:

See Japanese grammar for more examples of when と (to) is used.

Georgian

Georgian marks quoted speech with one of two suffixes depending on the grammatical person of who made the original utterance, -მეთქი for the first person and -ო for the second and third person.

The following sentences show the use of the first person and non-first person quotative particles respectively. Note the preservation of both the person and tense of the original utterances:

First person quotative

Second and third person quotative

Note that this second sentence omits an overt verbum dicendi since the original speaker is already known, and context makes it clear that the speaker was the original addressee.

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek can mark quoted speech in prose with the subordinating conjunction ὅτι:

Turkish

In Turkish, direct speech is marked by following it by a form of the verb demek ("to say"), as in

'Hastayım' dedi.

'I am ill', he said.

In particular, the word diye (literally "saying"), a participle of demek, is used to mark quoted speech when another verb of utterance than demek is needed:

'Hastayım mı?' diye sordu.

'Am I ill?', he asked.

In contrast, indirect speech uses the opposite order. The reported utterance is preceded by the verb of utterance and introduced by the conjunctive particle ki, comparable to English "that":

Dedi ki hastaydı.

He said that he was ill.

See also

• Verbum dicendi
• Quoted speech
• Reported speech

References

1. "Ik zei er van Japie sta stil". De Liedjeskit. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
2. Peter-Arno Coppen; Ad Foolen (2012). "Dutch quotative van: Past and present". In Isabelle Buchstaller; Ingrid van Alphen (eds.). Quotatives: Cross-linguistic and Cross-disciplinary Perspectives. Vol. Volume 15 of Converging evidence in language and communication research. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 259–280. ISBN 978-90-272-3905-1. {{cite conference}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)
3. A. Foolen; I. C. van Alphen; E. J. Hoekstra; D. H. Lammers; H. Mazeland (2006). "Het quotatieve van. Vorm, functie en sociolinguïstische variatie". Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen (in Dutch). 76 (2): 137–149. ISSN 0169-7420.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. George Yule (1998). "Quotative be like". Explaining English Grammar: A Guide to Explaining Grammar for Teachers of English as a Second Or Foreign Language. Oxford University Press. pp. 283–284. ISBN 978-0-19-437172-8.
5. "Japanese example sentences". Retrieved 2013-08-30.
6. Howard I. Aronson, A Reading Grammar, §8.5
7. Howard I. Aronson, A Reading Grammar, p. 218
8. Howard I. Aronson & Dodona Kiziria, Georgian Language and Culture: A Continuing Course, p. 68
9. Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, §2590a
10. Xenophon, Anabasis, 5.4.10
11. Jaklin Kornfilt (2013). "1.1.1.1. Direct speech versus indirect speech". Turkish. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-83252-2.

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