[Lingtyp] Quotations of speech vs. quotations of thoughts

Tue Jan 9 13:32:27 UTC 2018

Dear All,

There's a recently published article "Non-African Linguists Be Like, “This
Is a New Way to Quote!”" where I and my colleague trace the development of
a quotative complementizer 'that' from a verb of 'like/resemble' in Akan
(spoken in Ghana) and Black English. Perhaps you'll find the information
and data there useful.

Best regards,

/reggie

On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 10:09 PM, Cliff Goddard <c.goddard at griffith.edu.au>
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> The claim that the "SAY/DO/THINK" verb found in many nonPama-Nyungan
> languages is monosemous has been disputed by Knight (2008), in a closely
> reasoned paper about Bunuba. I have a feeling this paper is not widely
> known, so I am attaching it. Regarding DO vs. SAY, see section 5.
>
> Best
>
> -- Cliff
>
> ---------
> *Cliff Goddard | **Professor in Linguistics*
> *Program Director, Bachelor of Languages and Linguistics*
>
> *School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science*
> *Griffith University  *
> *| Nathan Campus | QLD 4111 | Building location N06 Room -1.07T +61 7 3735
> <%2B61%207%203735%204853>
> <%2B61%207%203735%204853>3807| email c.goddard at griffith.edu.au
> <l.weinglass at griffith.edu.au>*
>
> *NSM Homepage: *https://www.griffith.edu.au/humanities-
> languages/school-humanities-languages-social-science/
> research/natural-semantic-metalanguage-homepage [short URL bit.ly/1XUoRRV]
>
>
> On 7 January 2018 at 05:49, Spronck, Stef <stef.spronck at helsinki.fi>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Denys,
>>
>>
>> At the risk of simply restating the two previous responses: I think that
>> given the polyfunctionality and high frequency of quotative indexes not
>> derived from verbs of speech crosslinguistically (as Ekkehard points out),
>> we should be careful to gloss a quotative index as 'say', rather than give
>> it a more generic gloss, unless there is construction-independent evidence
>> for a 'say' meaning of the lexeme (a point Bill McGregor also makes in a
>> recent book chapter about quotative indexes in several Australian
>> Aboriginal languages: McGregor, W. B. In: Robering, K. (Ed.) The 'say,
>> do' verb in Nyulnyul, Warrwa, and other Nyulnylan languages is monosemic
>> Events, Arguments and Aspects: Topics in the Semantics of Verbs,
>> Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2014, 301-327 (would be happy to
>> send you a scanned copy off-list)).
>>
>>
>> That said (!), all descriptions about the polyfunctionality of reported
>> speech constructions/quotative indexes I have seen replicate David's
>> observation about colloquial Indonesian: reported speech constructions may
>> also be interpreted as reported thought, but explicitly marked reported
>> thought (e.g. with a matrix verb commonly meaning 'think') is not
>> interpreted as reported speech. If anyone has a counterexample to this
>> observation I would be very interested!
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Stef
>>
>>
>> Stef Spronck
>>
>> Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki (HU Humanities
>> Programme)
>> Section editor <http://www.degruyteropen.com/people/stef-spronck/>
>> Linguistic Typology and Pragmatics at *Open Linguistics
>> <https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opli>*
>> https://participationgrammar.net
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
>> "Ekkehard König" <koenig at zedat.fu-berlin.de>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, 6 January 2018 7:27:11 PM
>> *To:* Denys T.
>> *Cc:* Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> *Subject:* Re: [Lingtyp] Quotations of speech vs. quotations of thoughts
>>
>> Dear Denys,
>>
>> even if this is not exactly the information you were hoping to get, it may
>> still be of interest to you:
>>
>> - in a wide variety of Indo-European languages quotative markers derive
>> from deomonstratives of manner, typically from the exophoric use (German
>> so; French ainsi, etc.) in combination with verbs of saying or without.
>> (cf. pp. 159 of the article attached)
>>
>> (i)"Bla, bla bla", so die Kanzlerin,...
>>
>> - as is shown in Güldemann (2008) - also quoted in my article - in many
>> African languages manner demonstratives and non-deictic expressions of
>> manner provide the main source of quotative markers and in many cases such
>> expressions of manner have been reanalysed as verbs of saying [rather than
>> the other way round].
>>
>> - similar sources of quotative markers can be observed in languages from
>> other areas, e.g. in Japanese.
>>
>> Another example from my own language comes to mind: like Dutch (betekenis
>> - bedoeling), but in contrast to English, German draws a distinction
>> between sentence/word meaning (bedeuten) and speaker/utterance meaning
>> (meinen). The latter verb can be used for both saying and thinking, at
>> least in certain contexts (Karl meinte....'Karl thought/said').
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Ekkehard
>>
>> -
>>
>> > Dear colleagues (especially those working with quotative markers and
>> > reported speech),
>> >
>> > in Erzya (Mordvinic, Uralic), the verb merģems with the primary meaning
>> > ‘say’ is also used to quote thoughts:
>> >
>> > (1) Mon merģinģ, ton Saransat.
>> > 1sg say.pst.1sg 2sg Saransk.ine.prs.2sg
>> > ‘I thought (lit. I said), you are in Saransk’ (Aasmäe 2012: 66).
>> >
>> > However, out of context, the QI-clause Mon merģinģ would likely be
>> > interpreted as ‘I said’ and instead of quotation of thoughts one will
>> get
>> > the quotation of speech. It is, of course, not a unique thing that one
>> > quotative index (clause) can be used to mark different types of reported
>> > discourse. I am wondering whether there is cross-linguistic evidence,
>> > pointing that the reading ‘I/you/X said’ is prior to the reading
>> ‘I/you/X
>> > thought’ in such cases? For instance, notorious I was like to be
>> > interpreted out of context as 'I said' rather than 'I thought'? Or that
>> > speech verbs are frequently used to mark mental processes, but not vice
>> > versa? Is there any hierarchy in the reading of quotations? Are there
>> any
>> > studies that would show that one would be prior to another? Is it even
>> > reasonable to expect to find something like this? Any suggestions,
>> hints,
>> > (language-specific) examples are more than welcome!
>> >
>> > Cheers!
>> >
>> > Have a nice evening!
>> >
>> > Best wishes from Tartu,
>> > Denys Teptiuk_______________________________________________
>> > Lingtyp mailing list
>> > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>> >
>>
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>
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-- 
Reginald Akuoko Duah (PhD)
------
Lecturer, Department of Linguistics
Coordinator, School of Languages Seminar Series
Fellow, ACLS-AHP (F12, F17)
College of Humanities
University of Ghana, Legon
Email: raduah at ug.edu.gh
Tel: +233-270-674-848
webpage: http://www.reggieduah.ga/
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