Quotative expansions

Etxepare (2008, 2010) argues that Spanish quotative constructions involve a basic predicative relation between a clausal entity, characterized in cartographic terms as a Force Phrase, and a result noun expressing the concept of utterance or saying. This paper argues that the quotative predicate may be more complex than a result noun, and provides evidence that it may involve adjectival participles (akin to a participle like said), or even gerundive constructions, constructed out of the combination of a central preposition and a nominal construction expressing a saying. The paper reviews several predicative constructions involving quotative clauses, as well as a class of binominal predicative construction which has a purely quotative interpretation. The analysis of the relevant cases is based on Den Dikken’s (2006a) detailed account of this type of predicative structure.