Cover not available

In:The Documentarist Turn: From observable linguistic behaviour to typological generalizations
Edited by Sonja Riesberg, Uta Reinöhl and Birgit Hellwig
[Studies in Language Companion Series 240] 2026
► pp. 815–843

Chapter 29
Grammaticisation of medial speech verbs

A case study from Yali (West-New Guinea)

ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne | CNRS — LaCiTO
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Reported speech constructions in many Papuan languages exhibit a range of functions that go beyond the primary function of representing an utterance. For some of these languages, it has been pointed out that a specific verb form — the so called medial-verb form — is required to introduce reported speech in these contexts. This paper presents synchronic evidence for a grammaticisation cline that describes the development from a medial speech introducing clause that introduces reported speech proper in a clause chaining construction to a marker of extended reported speech, a quotative marker, a multi-purpose NP marker, and a marker of epistemic stance.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Data
    • 1.2Methods
    • 1.3Speech introducing clauses and quotatives
  • 2.Grammatical background
    • 2.1Clause chaining
    • 2.2Reported speech and extended reported speech
  • 3.Main uses of ulug in Yali
    • 3.1Extended reported speech and ulug
    • 3.2Reported speech + ulug followed by a second speech verb/SIC
    • 3.3Sentence final ulug as a marker of epistemic stance
    • 3.4Ulug with noun (and prepositional) phrases
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1The grammaticisation of ulug in Yali: A possible cline
    • 4.2The gram: Is ulug a quotative marker?
    • 4.3Usage patterns in synchronic language data, or what does it mean to ‘take spoken language seriously’?
  • 5.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (51)
References
Armbruster, Charles H. 1960. Dongolese Nubian. A Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berghäll, Liisa. 2015. A Grammar of Mauwake. Berlin: Language Science Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, and David Weenink. 2021. Praat. Doing Phonetics by Computer. Version 6.1.50. [URL]
Bromley, Myron. 1981. A grammar of Lower Grand Valley Dani. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2003. “Mechanisms of Change in Grammaticization: The Role of Frequency.” In The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, ed. by Brian D. Joseph, and Richard D. Janda, 602–623. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace. 1994. Discourse, Consciousness and Time. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1980. The Pear Stories: Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deibler, Ellis. 1971. “Uses of the Verb ‘to Say’ in Gahuku.” Kivung 4 (2): 101–110. [URL]
Deutsche, Guy. 2000. Syntactic Change in Akkadian. The Evolution of Sentential Complementation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deutscher, Guy. 2012. “The Grammaticalization of Quotatives.” In The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization, ed. by Bernd Heine, and Heiko Narrog, 646–655. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vries, Lourens. 1990. “Some Remarks on Direct Quotation in Kombai.” In Unity in Diversity, ed. by Harm Pinkster, and Inge Genee, 291–310. Dordrecht: Foris Publication. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. “Quotative Constructions and Translation in Papuan Languages.” The Bible Translator 43 (3): 333–342. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “Towards a Typology of Tail–Head Linkage in Papuan Languages.” Studies in Language 29 (2): 363–384. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Areal Pragmatics of New Guinea: Thematization, Distribution and Recapitulative Linkage in Papuan Narratives.” Journal of Pragmatics, 38 (6): 811–828. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas. 2007. “Insubordination and Its Uses.” In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, ed. by Irina Nikolaeva, 366–431. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Some Problems in the Typology of Quotation: A Canonical Approach.” In Canonical Morphology and Syntax, ed. by Dunstan Brown, Marina Chumakina, and Greville G. Corbett, 66–98. Oxford: Oxford Academic. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas, and Honoré Watanabe. 2016. “The Dynamics of Insubordination.” In Insubordination, ed. by Nicholas Evans, and Honoré Watanabe, 3–38. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gayler, Katharina. 2025. Larger Discourse Units in Linguistic Structure of Yali Narratives. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Cologne.
Gray, Bethany, and Douglas Biber. 2012. “Current Conceptions of Stance.” In Stance and Voice in Written Academic Genres, ed. by Ken Hyland, and Carmen Sancho Guinda, 15–33. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Güldemann, Tom. 2008. Quotative Indexes in African Languages: A Synchronic and Diachronic Survey. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guz, Wojciech. 2024. “Quotative Uses of Polish Similative Demonstratives.” Linguistics 62 (3): 541–575. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hammarström, Harald, Robert Forkel, Martin Haspelmath, and Sebastian Bank. 2025. Glottolog 5.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at [URL], Accessed on 2025-10-21.)
Healey, Phillis. 1964. “Teleéfoól Quotative Clauses.” Papers in New Guinea Linguistics 1: 27–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 1998. “Documentary and Descriptive Linguistics.” Linguistics 36 (1): 161–195. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. “Gram, Construction, and Class Formation.” In Wortarten und Grammatikalisierung, Perspektiven in System und Erwerb, ed. by Clemens Knobloch, and Burkhard Schaeder, 79–93. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. “Asymmetries in the Prosodic Phrasing of Function Words: Another Look at the Suffixing Preference.” Language 90 (4): 927–960. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2022. “Prosodic Phrasing and the Emergence of Phrase Structure.” Linguistics 60 (3): 715–743. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P., and Sonja Riesberg. To Appear. “Discourse Patterns and Emerging Grammar in Papuan Languages.” In The Oxford Guide to the Papuan languages, ed. by Nicholas Evans, and Sebastian Fedden. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P., Meytal Sandler, Jan Strunk, and Volker Unterladstetter. 2018. “On the Universality of Intonational Phrases: A Cross-Linguistic Interrater Study.” Phonology 35 (2): 207–245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kilian-Hatz, Christa. 1995. Das Baka: Grundzüge einer Grammatik aus der Grammatikalisierungsperspektive. Cologne: Institut für Afrikanistik, Universität zu Köln.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klamer, Marian. 2000. “How report verbs become quote markers and complementizers.” Lingua 110: 69–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayer, Mercer. 1969. Frog, Where are You? New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olsson, Bruno. 2021. A Grammar of Coastal Marind. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pawley, Andrew. K. 2005. “The Chequered Career of the Trans New Guinea Hypothesis: Recent Research and its Implications.” In Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of the Papuan-Speaking Peoples, ed. by Andrew K. Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson, and Robin Hide, 67–101. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pawley, Andrew K. 2009. “Greenberg’s Indo-Pacific Hypothesis: An Assessment.” In Discovering History Through Language: Papers in Honour of Malcolm Ross, ed. by Bethwyn Evans, 153–180. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reesink, Geer. 1993. ““Inner Speech” in Papuan Languages.” Languages and Linguistics in Melanesia 24: 217–225.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Quotations form a Recursive Discourse.” Linguistic Typology 23 (1): 229–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reesink, Geer, and Nicholas Evans. To Appear. “Reported Speech and Thought in Papuan Languages.” In The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages, ed. by Nicholas Evans, and Sebastian Fedden. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rice, Sally. 2018. “Reflections on Documentary Corpora.” In Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years after Himmelmann 1998, ed. by Bradley McDonnell, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, and Gary Holton, 157–172. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. [URL]
Riesberg, Sonja. To Appear a. “Reported Speech in Yali.” In Reported Speech in the World’s Languages: A Comparative Handbook, ed. by Tatiana Nikitina, Stef Spronck, Denys Teptiuk, and Anna Bugaeva. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
. To Appear b. “Verbal Complex Predicates in Yali.” In Verbal Complex Predicates: A Comparative Handbook, ed. by Walter Bisang, Alexander Francois, Andrej Malchukov, and Martine Vanhove. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
. To Appear c. “Potential Mood and Apprehensional Modality in Yali.” In Linguistic Worlds and Social Minds: What Language Documentation and Linguistic Diversity Can Tell Us About the Nature and Origin of Language, ed. by Wayan Arka, Danielle Barth, and Henrik Bergqvist.
Riesberg, Sonja, Kristian Walianggen, and Siegfried Zöllner. 2012–2016. DoBeS Documentation Summits in the Central Mountains of Papua. The Language Archive MPI Nijmegen, [URL]
Riesberg, Sonja, and Bruno Olsson. To Appear. “Coverb Constructions in Papuan Languages.” In The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages, ed. by Nicholas Evans, and Sebastian Fedden. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
. 2017. A Grammar of Nungon, a Papuan Language of Northeast New Guinea. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saxena, Anju. 1988. “On Syntactic Convergence: The Case of the Verb ‘Say’ in Tibeto-Burman.” Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics society. Linguistic Society of America: published online. 375–388. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schnell, Stefan. 2018. “Reflections on the Role of Language Documentations in Linguistic Research.” In Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years after Himmelmann 1998, ed. by Bradley McDonnell, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, and Gary Holton, 173–182. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press. [URL]
Spronck, Stef, and Daniela Casartelli. 2021. “In a Manner of Speaking: How Reported Speech May Have Shaped Grammar.” Frontiers in Communication 6: 624486. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodbury, Anthony C. 2011. “Language Documentation.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages, ed. by Peter K. Austin, and Julia Sallabank, 159–186. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue