Definition:
In discourse analysis, an expression (such as she said or he goes) that introduces reported speech.
The absence of a quotative frame alongside direct reported speech is known as a zero quotative.
See also:
- Direct Quotation
- Direct Speech
- Indirect Quotation
- Indirect Speech
- Quotation
- Reporting Verb
- Signal Phrase
- Tom Swifty
Examples and Observations:
- "There's an old joke. Two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of them says, 'Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.' The other one says, 'Yeah, I know; and such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life: full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly."
(Woody Allen, Annie Hall, 1977) - "First couple of sips, it's like, 'Boy, this is really good! I'm glad I did this!' Then you keep drinking, it goes right to your head, and you go, 'Ow, Ow, Ooooow! What the hell was I thinking?'"
(Jeff Dunham, Arguing with Myself, 2006) - "The following examples show that the teenagers have at their disposal a variety of constructions with like that may be used to frame quotative use of language:
(136) and I'm like, and I'm like, scum! [laugh] . . .
It is not uncommon that like alone functions as a demarcation marker between a quotation and the rest of the utterance. . . .
(141) And then he goes like, sorry man, close the door and get out
(142) She slides down the banister and says like blurgh, la blah la blah loo!
"[I]t seems fair to conclude that the use of GO as a quotative verb is primarily a feature of adolescent speech."
(Anna-Brita Stenström et al., Trends in Teenage Talk: Corpus Compilation, Analysis, and Findings. John Benjamins, 2002) - "So, they decide to ask him, they say, 'Well, why do you think we can't make babies anymore?' And he looks up at them, he's chewing on this great big wing and he says, 'I haven't the faintest idea,' he said, 'but this stork is quite tasty, isn't he?'"
(Michael Caine as Jasper in Children of Men, 2006)
Also Known As: reporting verb, speech verb, quotative verb, introducer
