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<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">Dear Denys,</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">I wonder if the type of usage of the verb merems may typically occur in discourse environments where the speaker prefers to remain noncommittal about his statement for some reason, say, staying in the polite mode (to
avoid making an impression of pushiness). I am also alerted by the association of the past tense in your example which is often seen in the subjunctive mood in many languages. The past tense of 'merin' in your example may have to do with the 'irrealis' mood
which is often associated with the speaker's reserved request/petition to his superior. The polite sentence-final suffix
<i><b>masu</b></i> in Japanese is assumed to have its origin in <span class=""><b style=""><i>moosu</i></b></span> 'to report X to one's superior,' as in 'ik-i-<i><b>masu</b></i> (vs. Ik-u, as neutral in politeness.) Its Pre-modern/Middle Japanese counterpart <span class=""><span class="" style=""><i><b class="">sooroo</b></i>,
which is also a suffix marker of 'say/state/report (to Superior)' is argued (See the reference below) as having an origin in the full reporting verb <span class="" style="">saburafu<b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>and Middle<b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>Korean
<b><i>salp-ta</i></b> and <b><i>saloi</i></b><b style="font-style: italic;">-ta. </b> A</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">lan H. Kim (2006) in William O'Grady et al.(eds.)
<i>Inquiries into Korean Linguistics II</i>, Seoul: Thaehaksa, as well as Alan H. Kim (2014)
<i>Grammatical Encoding of Politeness: A Systemic Metaphorization in Japanese Honorifics</i>. Tokyo: Akashi Publishing. </span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Your New Year's message that reached me this morning via LINGTYP provides insight to me, even though the above phenomena in Japanese and Korean has little to do with your research theme. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span class=""><span class="" style=""><span class="" style=""><br>
</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span class=""><span class="" style=""><span class="" style="">Happy New Year to you, </span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span class=""><span class="" style=""><span class="" style=""><br>
</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span class=""><span class="" style=""><span class="" style="">Alan</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span class=""><span class="" style=""><span class="" style=""><br>
</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span class=""><span class="" style=""><br>
</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><br>
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<p>Alan Hyun-Oak Kim, Ph.D. </p>
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Southern Illinois University Carbondale,</div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Denys T. <denys.teptiuk@gmail.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 6, 2018 8:52 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Lingtyp] Quotations of speech vs. quotations of thoughts</font>
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<div class="" style="word-wrap:break-word">Dear colleagues (especially those working with quotative markers and reported speech),<br class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">in Erzya (Mordvinic, Uralic), the verb <i class="">merìems </i>with the primary meaning ‘say’ is also used to quote thoughts:</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">(1) <i class="">Mon me</i><i class="">rìinì, ton Saransat.</i></div>
<div class="">1sg say.pst.1sg 2sg Saransk.ine.prs.2sg</div>
<div class="">‘I thought (lit. I said), you are in Saransk’ (Aasmäe 2012: 66). </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">However, out of context, the QI-clause <i class="">Mon me</i><i class="">rìinì
</i>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 class="">I was like </i>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
<i class="">vice versa</i>? 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!</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Cheers!</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Have a nice evening! </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Best wishes from Tartu, </div>
<div class="">Denys Teptiuk</div>
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