On quotative recomplementation: Between pragmatics and morphosyntax
Francesc González i Planas
February 2013
 

The aim of this paper is to analyse the Catalan and Spanish quotative recomplementation (QRC) in terms of pragmatic features encoded by morphosyntax. In QRC constructions, the second complementizer (que2) is used to set the boundaries between a reproduced discourse and the clausal elements that were implicit in the original discourse, which must be reintroduced in the new communicative situation because they are not shared by the interlocutor (e.g. Sp. Están sentados en la mesa --> Ha dicho que1 los invitados #(que2) están sentados en la mesa). QRC is an evidence for the existence of two types of complements for assertive verbs: quotative complements (embedded speech acts with a de dicto interpretation) and reportative complements (speech events that are stated, with a de re interpretation; e.g. Sp. Están sentados en la mesa --> Ha dicho que1 los invitados (#que2) ya están en su sitio). Quotative complements have the same propositional structure as the original sentence and can include some elements such as speech act adverbs —which are oriented to the original speaker (i.e. the matrix clause subject)—, Hanging Topics, or discourse connectors. On the contrary, reportative complements may be a summary of the original discourse and they have not such elements oriented to the original speaker or the previous discourse. Besides, reportative complements allow long-distance movement from the embedded CP to the matrix CP.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/001620
(please use that when you cite this article, unless you want to cite the full url: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/001620)
Published in: Under review
keywords: indirect speech, quotation, de re / de dicto distinction, complementation, complementizer doubling, long-distance movement, morphosyntax-pragmatics interface, cartography of syntactic structures, phase theory, catalan, spanish, semantics, morphology, syntax
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