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.' 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.
(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:
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