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<TITLE>reporting yes & no in Czech</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>In Czech there are several ways of reporting yes/no utterances.<BR>
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Note<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><UL><LI><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>"yes" = ANO, colloquial JO (< German), NO (which seems to trouble Spanish visitors to Czechia for some reason)
</SPAN></FONT><LI><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>"no" = NE, dialectal NE'E, bookish NIKOLI<BR>
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First of all, there is a difference between clauses with a complementiser (the factual complementiser ZE) and those without any; I'm omitting diacritics in the examples:<BR>
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1a. REKLA, ZE ANO "she said yes"<BR>
1b. REKLA, ZE NE "she said no"<BR>
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2a. REKLA ANO "she said “yes”"<BR>
2b. REKLA NE "she said “no”"<BR>
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I think the traditional distinction between ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ speech captures the difference between (1) and (2) quite well. Option (1) is the regular way of reporting a yes/no utterance, while the absence of the complementiser in (2) appears to invoke a greater immediacy of the reported event. It’s also used in contexts when the speaker puts a ‘metalinguistic focus’ on the reported utterance: one would use it when, for example, paralinguistic features of someone’s yes/no utterance are imitated, or when reporting an institutionalised yes/no utterance, such as the “yes” (“I do”) of a wedding ceremony (2a’). Here there is even a neuter agreement of the possessive reflexive with the “yes” word, giving it a status of a ‘metalinguistic’ noun.<BR>
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2a’. REKLA MU SVE ANO [she.said to.him REFL.POSS.NEU yes]<BR>
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With cognition matrix predicates such as “think” or “believe” only option (1) is available. There are no complications of the English type (I THINK SO/NOT), so Czech is like Italian in this respect.<BR>
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A third way to report a yes/no utterance is of course through a lexical verb such as “agree” (3), which however can also be used to report on a more elaborate event involving agreement or disagreement.<BR>
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3a. SOUHLASILA “she agreed”<BR>
3b. NESOUHLASILA “she didn’t agree”<BR>
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Option (3), in addition to (1) but not (2), can be used when reporting a vocal yes/no gesture. A more explicit report on a vocal yes/no gesture would contain the verbs “say” or “do, make” (never “go”), no complementiser, and the vocal gesture itself (4). The lack of the complementiser here is shared with the ‘direct’/’metalinguistic’ option (2).<BR>
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4. REKLA/UDELALA (vocal.gesture) “she said/did (vocal.gesture)”<BR>
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Viktor<BR>
--------------------------------------------------<BR>
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<I>Viktor Elšík (Elsik)<BR>
</I><BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT COLOR="#0000FE">Department of General Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies<BR>
Faculty of Arts and Humanities<BR>
Charles University<BR>
Prague<BR>
</FONT></SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT COLOR="#0000FE"><BR>
</FONT><I>Email: viktor_elsik@email.cz<BR>
Homepage: <a href="http://ulug.ff.cuni.cz/osobni/elsik">http://ulug.ff.cunicz/osobni/elsik</a><BR>
</I><BR>
On 6/4/06 22:15, "Nigel Vincent" <nbvint@YAHOO.CO.UK> wrote:<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">> A question that has always interested me about 'yes'<BR>
> and 'no' is how they are reported. In English it's<BR>
> straightforward: you say 'he said no' or 'they said<BR>
> yes'. In French the yes/no word is introduced by a<BR>
> complementizer ('il a dit que oui), more specifically<BR>
> by a complementizer otherwise reserved for finite<BR>
> constructions, whereas in Italian the connecting word<BR>
> is 'di' which is either the complementizer for<BR>
> infinitival clauses or an item which introduces a<BR>
> nominal (cf 'più intelligente di Giorgio' = 'more<BR>
> intelligent than George'): thus 'ha detto di no' = 'he<BR>
> said no'. But what about when the yes/no word is what<BR>
> people have been calling a 'vocal gesture'? In English<BR>
> reports of non-linguistic sounds are introduced by<BR>
> 'go' not 'say': thus "he went 'uh-uh'" not *he said<BR>
> 'uh-uh'. However, even if someone made a vocal<BR>
> gesture, I think it would be reasonable to report it<BR>
> as 'he said yes' meaning simply 'he gave his consent'.<BR>
> But in English you can't say *'I believe yes/no'<BR>
> whereas in Italian you can say 'credo di sì/no'.<BR>
> How does reporting 'yes/no' words work in other<BR>
> languages?<BR>
> Nigel<BR>
> <BR>
> <BR>
> Professor Nigel Vincent, School of Languages, Linguistics & Cultures, <BR>
> University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.<BR>
> Tel: +44-(0)161-275-3194 Fax: +44-(0)161-275-3031<BR>
> <a href="http://lings.ln.man.ac.uk/">http://lings.ln.man.ac.uk/</a><BR>
> <BR>
> <BR>
> <BR>
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