[Lingtyp] Language without direct speech or reported speech?

Jocelyn Aznar contact at jocelynaznar.eu
Fri Jun 17 07:44:56 UTC 2022


It's a bit cryptic for a message. So I've checked the descriptions of
two of these languages would not have direct speech or reported speech.

From A grammar of Awa Pit (Cuaiquer) : an indigenous language of
south-western Colombia, PhD thesis by Curnow, Timothy Jowan.
Section 10.2.1 on Complement clause 1: Sentence-like complement, p253-4

"""
Sentence-like complements can be used with a number of different
predicate types. They are always used to report direct speech; [...]:

(589)
Alfonso=na [ "miimal i-ti-mtu-s"] kizh-ti

Alfonso=TOP [ Chucunes gcrTERM-IMPF-LOCUT]  say-TERM
'Alfonso said, "I'm going to Chucunes"'
"""

By the way, I love this glossing were the beginning and the end of the
actual content being reported is formally indicated.  So Awa pit has
direct speech, thus reported speech. And also, p.261, there are example
and discussions of indirect speech.

About Evenki, by Igor Nedjalkov, p1, first things written about the
language:
"""
1.1. GENERAL QUESTIONS
1.1.1. Sentence-types
1.1.1.1. Direct and reported speech
1.1.1.1.1. Syntagmatic means
These are the predominant ways of expressing indirect speech, and
involve verbs of reporting followed by object clauses with participial
verb forms. The latter are in fact ordinary noun clauses (see 1.1.2.2.3
for the expression of indirect statements), formed by one of three
participles
"""
So Evenki has reported speech, and even indirect speech. More on direct
speech, p3:
"""
Direct speech is introduced by a verb of saying or asking, etc. either
following or preceding the quoted phrase:
(9) Kungaka-r eri-d'ere-0: 'Ama d'u-la-vi
shout-prs-3pl father home-all-prefl come-prs-3sg

eme-d'ere-n!'
child-pi
'The children shout: "Father is coming home!"'
"""

So could you explain your point?

Jocelyn

Le 16/06/2022 à 10:02, Mark Donohue a écrit :
> https://wals.info/feature/128A#1/28/149
> 
> Cristofaro lists
> 
> Awa Pit
> Cahuilla
> Emberá (Northern)
> Evenki
> Martuthunira
> Nivkh
> Resígaro
> Squamish
> Tamil
> Thakali
> Trumai
> 
> -Mark
> 
> 
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 at 17:29, Jocelyn Aznar <contact at jocelynaznar.eu> wrote:
> 
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Working on reporting speech at the moment, and more precisly on direct
>> speech, I was wondering whether it has been once reported that a speech
>> community wouldn't practice reported speech or direct speech. I'd be
>> also interested by any report or examples from corpus of direct speech
>> that cannot be identified using morphological or syntactical clues.
>>
>> I know of course that indirect speech, or other forms of reported speech
>> else than direct speech, are not so common, but has it been reported
>> that a particular speech community wouldn't practice at all reported
>> speech ? or have you read about a speech community which didn't produce
>> direct speech?
>>
>> Having sent the email with the wrong address first, Daniel Ross had the
>> opportunity to tell me about the word of Daniel Everett on Pirahã. I
>> will take a look at Everett's decriptions and the documentary Grammar of
>> Happiness where there should be an interested occurrence of direct speech.
>>
>> Best,
>> Jocelyn Aznar,
>> postdoc at ZAS,
>> Berlin
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>
> 
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