Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Uralic Linguistics
Vol. 2:2 (2023) ► pp.214–241

Reported speech and its extensions in Beserman

ORCID logo | Universität Hamburg
This paper presents a descriptive account of reported speech, understood in terms of Spronck & Nikitina (2019), in Beserman (Uralic > Permic). Two phenomena are described in particular. First, it is demonstrated that, although Beserman generally prefers the direct speech strategy, the interpretation of indexicals in certain contexts may be affected by pragmatic factors. Second, Beserman allows for agreement mismatch between the subject and the predicate of the reported clause, known as “monstrous agreement”. This phenomenon has not been attested in Permic languages before. Apart from that, extended uses of two Beserman reported speech markers are described, whereby they convey pragmatic meanings that resemble English kind of or like. This semantic development reverses a well-known grammaticalization path that turns such pragmatic elements into reported speech markers. The study is based on both corpus and elicited data.
Keywords: reported speech, pragmatics, indexicals, monstrous agreement, Beserman, Udmurt
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Reported speech markers
  • 3.Interpretation of indexicals and pragmatics
  • 4.Agreement mismatch
  • 5.Pragmatic uses of reported speech markers
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jul.00019.ark
References (49)
References
Agyagási, Klára. 2012. Language contact in the Volga-Kama area. Studia Uralo-altaica 491. 21–37.Google Scholar
Andersen, Gisle. 1998. The pragmatic marker like from a Relevance-theoretic perspective. In Andreas H. Jucker & Yael Ziv (eds.), Pragmatics & beyond: New series, vol. 571, 147. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buchstaller, Isabelle & Ingrid van Alphen. 2012. Preface: Introductory remarks on new and old quotatives. In Isabelle Buchstaller & Ingrid van Alphen (eds.), Quotatives: cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary perspectives (Converging evidence in language and communication research, vol. 15), xi–xxx. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Claridge, Claudia. 2013. The evolution of three pragmatic markers: As it were, so to speak/say and if you like . Journal of Historical Pragmatics 141. 161–184. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cysouw, Michael & Jeff Good. 2013. Languoid, doculect and glossonym: Formalizing the notion ‘language.’ Language Documentation and Conservation 71. 331–359.Google Scholar
Davidse, Kristin & Lieven Vandelanotte. 2011. Tense use in direct and indirect speech in English. Journal of Pragmatics 431. 236–250. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dömötör, Adrienne. 2015. A mondván és az úgymond: diskurzusjelölő elemek keletkezése idéző szerkezetekből [ Mondván and úgymond: The emergence of discourse markers from quoting constructions]. Magyar Nyelv 1111. 21–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas. 2013. Some problems in the typology of quotation: a canonical approach. In Dunstan Brown, Marina Chumakina & Greville G. Corbett (eds.), Canonical morphology and syntax, 66–98. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ganenkov, Dmitry. 2016. Eccentric agreement can be monstrous. Presented at the 39th GLOW Conference, Göttingen, April 5–8, 2016.
Güldemann, Tom. 2008. Quotative indexes in African languages: A synchronic and diachronic survey (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT]). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Thetic speaker-instantiating quotative indexes as a cross-linguistic type. In Isabelle Buchstaller & Ingrid van Alphen (eds.), Quotatives: cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary perspectives (Converging evidence in language and communication research, vol. 15), 117–142. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2002. World lexicon of grammaticalization. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, David. 1989. Demonstratives: An essay on the semantics, logic, metaphysics and epistemology of demonstratives and other indexicals. In Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein (eds.), Themes from Kaplan, 481–563. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Karpova, Lyudmila. 2013. Leksika severnogo narechija udmurtskogo jazyka [Vocabulary of the Northern dialect of the Udmurt language]. Izhevsk: Izdatel’stvo Udmurtskogo Universiteta.Google Scholar
Kasenov, Daniar. 2021. Indexical shift and monstrous agreement in Balkar. Presented at the 18th Conference on Typology and Grammar for Young Scholars, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Kelmakov, Valentin. 1998. Kratkij kurs udmurtskoj dialektologii [A brief course on Udmurt dialectology]. Izhevsk: Izdatel’stvo Udmurtskogo Universiteta.Google Scholar
Khachaturyan, Elizaveta. 2020. Marqueurs discursifs du dire (français, russe, norvégien): Des sémantiques lexicales différentes pour des stratégies énonciatives similaires? [Discursive markers of “say” (French, Russian, Norwegian): Different lexical semantics for similar speech strategies?]. Corela (HS-31). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kibardina, Tatyana. 2012. Sredstva vyrazhenija modal’nosti v udmurtskom jazyke [Means of expression of modality in Udmurt]. Mozhga: Udmurtskij universitet.Google Scholar
Kirillova, Lyudmila (ed.). 2008. Udmurtsko-russkij slovar’: Ok. 50000 slov [Udmurt–Russian dictionary: ca. 50,000 headwords]. Izhevsk: Izdatel’stvo Udmurtskogo Universiteta.Google Scholar
Klumpp, Gerson. 2016. Semantic functions of complementizers in Permic languages. In Kasper Boye & Petar Kehayov (eds.), Complementizer semantics in European languages (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 57), 529–586. De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kolyaseva, Alena. 2021. The divergent paths of pragmaticalization: The case of the Russian particles tipa and vrode . Journal of Pragmatics 2011. 181–196. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
König, Ekkehard. 2002. The meaning of focus particles: A comparative perspective. London / New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lytkin, Vasiliy. 1962. Komi-Jaz’vinskij dialekt [Yazva Komi dialect]. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR.Google Scholar
. 1964. Istoricheskij vokalizm permskix jazykov [Historical vocalism of the Permic languages]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Matić, Dejan & Brigitte Pakendorf. 2013. Non-canonical SAY in Siberia: Areal and genealogical patterns. Studies in Language 371. 356–412. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Messick, Troy. 2017. The morphosyntax of self-ascription: A cross-linguistic study. PhD dissertation, University of Connecticut.
Nikitina, Tatiana. 2012. Personal deixis and reported discourse: Towards a typology of person alignment. Linguistic Typology 161. 233–263. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Podobryaev, Alexander. 2014. Persons, imposters, and monsters. PhD dissertation, MIT. [URL]
Schlenker, Philippe. 2003. A plea for monsters. Linguistics and Philosophy 261. 29–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Serdobolskaya, Natalia & Svetlana Toldova. 2010. Grammaticalization of the verb of speech in Finno-Ugric languages. In Congressus XI Internationalis Finno-Ugristarum. Pars VI: Dissertationes symposiorum ad linguisticam. Piliscsaba: Reguly Társaság.
. 2014. Glagol rechi manaš v marijskom jazyke: osobennosti grammatikalizacii [The verb of speaking manaš in the Mari language: Peculiarities of grammaticalization]. Voprosy jazykoznanija 61. 66–91.Google Scholar
Skribnik, Elena. 2022. Clause combining. In Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso, and Elena Skribnik (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages, 996–1017. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorvacheva, V. (ed.). 1961. Sravnitel’nyj slovar’ komi-zyrjanskix dialektov [Comparative dictionary of Komi-Zyrian dialects]. Syktyvkar: Komi knizhnoe izdatel’stvo.Google Scholar
Spronck, Stef & Daniela Casartelli. 2021. In a manner of speaking: How reported speech may have shaped grammar. Frontiers in Communication 61. 624486. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spronck, Stef & Tatiana Nikitina. 2019. Reported speech forms a dedicated syntactic domain. Linguistic Typology 231. 119–159. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sundaresan, Sandhya. 2011. A plea for syntax and a return to first principles: monstrous agreement in Tamil. In Proceedings of SALT 21 1, 674–693. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tánczos, Orsolya. 2013. Hogy ... hogy? Kettős kötőszók az udmurt mondatban [ That... that? Double conjunctions in the Udmurt sentence]. In Klára Agyagási, Attila Hegedűs & Katalin É. Kiss (eds.), Nyelvelmélet és kontaktológia 2 1., 95–112. Piliscsaba: PPKE BTK Magyar Nyelvészeti Tanszék.Google Scholar
Teptiuk, Denys. 2019. Quotative indexes in Finno-Ugric (Komi, Udmurt, Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian). Tartu University. [URL]
. 2021. Self-quotative markers in Permic and Hungarian. Linguistica Uralica 571. 213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Teptiuk, Denys & Johannes Hirvonen. 2021. Perspective shift in reported discourse of Finno-Ugric languages. Presented at 54th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Athens, August 31 – September 3, 2021.
Tyshkevich, Natalia. 2014. Kosvennaja rech’ v besermjanskom dialekte udmurtskogo jazyka [Indirect speech in the Beserman dialect of Udmurt]. Presented at the 2nd Workshop on Beserman and Mari studies, Moscow, February 28, 2014.
Usacheva, Maria, Timofey Arkhangelskiy, Olga Biryuk, Vladimir Ivanov & Ruslan Idrisov. 2017. Tezaurus besermjanskogo narechija: Imena i sluzhebnye chasti rechi (govor derevni Shamardan) [Thesaurus of the Beserman supradialect: Nominals and functional parts of speech (Shamardan village variety)]. Moscow: Izdatel’skie reshenija.Google Scholar
Usacheva, Maria N. 2021. Dialogue-focused experiments in the field: Advantages and disadvantages (a Permic experience). In Tatiana B. Agranat & Leyli R. Dodykhudoeva (eds.), Strategies for knowledge elicitation, 27–62. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vakhrushev, Vasiliy, V. Zakharov & L. Kalinina. 1974. Grammatika sovremennogo udmurtskogo jazyka. Sintaksis slozhnogo predlozhenija [Grammar of contemporary Udmurt. Syntax of the complex sentence]. Izhevsk: Udmurtskij NII istorii, ekonomiki, literatury i jazyka.Google Scholar
Van der Houwen, Fleur. 2012. The effect of genre on reporting speech: conversations and newspaper articles. Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 11. 101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Winkler, Eberhard. 2011. Udmurtische Grammatik [Udmurt grammar] (Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica 81). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Zakirova, Aygul & Alexey Kozlov. 2022. The emphatic identity particle =OK in the Volga-Kama Sprachbund. Presented at Congressus XIII Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum, Vienna, August 21–26, 2022.
Zubova, Iuliia. 2019. Variatsii v ispol’zovanii modal’nyx chastits v literaturnom udmurtskom jazyke i v besermjanskom dialekte [Variation in the use of modal particles in literary Udmurt and in the Beserman dialect]. Uralo-Altajskie issledovanija 41. 71–90.Google Scholar