quotatives

Quotatives refer to the linguistic devices used to report or introduce spoken content in discourse. They encompass verbs of speaking such as say, tell, and ask, as well as phrases and particles that function as quotative markers, and, in informal English, constructions such as be like. Quotatives place the reported utterance within a discourse frame, indicating who spoke, what was said, and often the speaker's stance or evidential stance toward the content.

English examples illustrate common patterns. Direct speech: She said, "I'm going home." Indirect speech: She said she was going home. Be like: She was like, "I can't believe it." The latter is common in casual speech and often used to convey immediacy or stance.

Across languages, quotatives can be realized through different devices: a reporting verb plus a finite clause (say that...), a direct quotation with quotation marks, or a dedicated quotative particle that attaches to the quoted material. Some languages encode evidentiality or stance within the quotative system, signaling whether the content is heard, believed, or asserted by the speaker. The study of quotatives intersects syntax, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics, and reveals cross-linguistic variation in how speakers present others' speech and how informality or discourse structure influences the choice of quotative form.