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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.</blockquote>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.<blockquote>(4)a. *What did John say: "I read _"?<br/>(4)b. What did John say that he had read _?
(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)
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.
Speak may occur without an object. In fact, its occurrence with an object is restricted. A that-clause, for example, is ungrammatical:
f. Margaret spoke (to me)
g. *Margaret spoke that there were cockroaches in the caviar This has implications for the truth conditions of quotative constructions:
(7) Mary says that Paul is her friend.
Mary's statement may be false, though it may be true that she actually said it. In fact, she may even believe it to be false. However, whether or not believing is part of speaking has been debated for some time.
Quotation may also be less restricted than ordinary transitive verbs. They may occur parenthetically, unlike other verbs:
(10)a. “I’ll call you” Pat said “and I hope you answer”
cf. ?The cat Pat held and a book
b. “I” Pat said “will call you and I hope you answer”
cf. *The Pat held cat and a book
In these examples, the verb say fulfils many roles. In the first two examples (a & b), it means ‘suppose', or 'assume.’ In the third and fourth examples (c & d) the meaning of say could be paraphrased as 'for example', or 'approximately.' Example (e) uses say as an imperative introducing a question and connotes 'tell me/us.' Say may also function as an interjection to either focus attention on the speaker or to convey some emotional state such as surprise, regret, disbelief, etc.
These forms, particularly be like, have captured the attention of much linguistic study and documentation. Some research has addressed the syntax of these forms in quotation, which is highly problematic. For example, a verbum dicendi like say may refer to a previously quoted clause with it. However, this is not possible with these innovative forms:
(20)a. “I don’t know if he heard it, but I know I definitely said it
b. *I’m like it
c. *She was all it
d. *I went it
Notice that these forms also don’t behave as basic verba dicendi in many other ways. Clefting, for example, produces ungrammatical forms like
(21)a. *That’s nice was gone by me
b. *Um, yah, I know, but there’s going to be wine there was been all by her 'speech act verb'), also referred to as verbs of communication include 言う iu/yuu 'say', 聞く kiku 'ask', 語る kataru 'relate', 話す hanasu 'talk', and 述べる noberu 'state'. is more frequently used, and it has been described as a quotative particle, a hearsay particle, a quotation marker, and a quotative complementizer. In the above construction, the underlined phrase headed by {と -to, って -tte} can be a word, a clause, a sentence, or an onomatopoetic expression.