1887
Volume 6, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2665-9336
  • E-ISSN: 2665-9344

Abstract

Abstract

This study explores the reported thought (RT) construction with the RT verb [lit. ‘heart think’] in Cantonese. First, it is argued that ‘think’ is a subject-verb compound with a dedicated RT function. Second, in written Cantonese the thought complement of can take the form of a clause, emojis, underscores and/or dots meaning ‘speechless’. Third, in conversational contexts, thought complements which would be impolite if articulated may be left implicit. Fourth, the RT construction is structurally different from the reported speech construction with ‘say’, therefore these two constructions should be treated as distinct. Finally, may have been grammaticalized from a possessive construction ‘subject’s heart thinks’ since the 1950s. This study narrows the research gap of reported thought in Cantonese, encouraging future study on reported thought in other Chinese varieties.

Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/alal.24019.pun
2026-01-29
2026-02-17
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/alal.24019.pun.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/alal.24019.pun&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
    (2004) Evidentiality. Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Amiridze, Nino
    (2023) When saying becomes thinking: A case of the Georgian autonomous quotative metki. InDaniela E. Casartelli, Silvio Cruschina, Pekka Posio & Stef Spronck (Eds.), The Grammar of Thinking: From Reported Speech to Reported Thought in the Languages of the World (pp.207–238). Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barnes, Rebecca, & Moss, Duncan
    (2007) Communicating and feeling: The social organization of “private thoughts.” Discourse Studies, 91, 123–148.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bousfield, Derek
    (2008) Impoliteness in Interaction. John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/pbns.167
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.167 [Google Scholar]
  5. Brown, Penelope, & Levinson, Stephen C.
    (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Casartelli, Daniela E., Cruschina, Silvio, Posio, Pekka, & Spronck, Stef
    (2023) Introduction. InDaniela E. Casartelli, Silvio Cruschina, Pekka Posio & Stef Spronck (Eds.), The Grammar of Thinking: From Reported Speech to Reported Thought in the Languages of the World (pp.1–11). Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Cheung, Lawrence Yam-Leung
    (2009) Dislocation Focus Construction in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 18(3), 197–232.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Cheung, Samuel, & Jiang, Shaoyu
    (2012) Early Cantonese colloquial texts: A database [Corpus]. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. https://database.shss.hkust.edu.hk/Candbase/
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Chin, Andy
    (2013) A linguistic corpus of mid-20th century Hong Kong Cantonese movies [Corpus]. The Hong Kong Institute of Education. https://hkcc.eduhk.hk/v2/search
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Clark, Herbert H., & Gerring, Richard J.
    (1990) Quotations as demonstrations. Language, 66(4), 764–805.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Couper-Kuhlen, E.
    (2007) Assessing and accounting. InElizabeth Holt & Rebecca Clift (Eds.), Reporting talk: Reported speech in interaction (pp.81–119). Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Culpeper, Jonathan
    (2005) Impoliteness and entertainment in the television quiz show: the weakest link. Journal of Politeness Research, 1(1), 35–72.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. (2011) Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Cutfield, Sarah
    (2011) Demonstratives in Dalabon, a Language of Southwestern Arnhem Land [Doctoral dissertation, Monash University].
  15. Discuss.com.hk
    Discuss.com.hk (2003–2024) https://www.discuss.com.hk
  16. Fiedler, Sophia
    (2023) Thinking out loud? Je me suis dit ‘I said to myself’ and j’étais là ‘I was there’ in French talk-in-interaction. InDaniela E. Casartelli, Silvio Cruschina, Pekka Posio & Stef Spronck (Eds.), The Grammar of Thinking: From Reported Speech to Reported Thought in the Languages of the World (pp.141–170). Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Forker, Diana
    (2013) A Grammar of Hinuq. De Gruyter Mouton.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Gān, Lùyǐng (甘露穎)
    (2021) yǐnyù yǔ yánshēn:shèjiāoméitǐzhōng biāodiǎnfúhàode yìhuà xiànxiàng jiědú「隐喻与延伸:社交媒体中标点符号的异化现象解读」 [metaphor and extension: an understanding of the deviation of punctuations in social medias]. yìshù kējì「藝術科技」 [technology of art], 34(14), 2.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Grzech, Karolina
    (2023) Reporting speech and thought in Upper Napo Kichwa. InDaniela E. Casartelli, Silvio Cruschina, Pekka Posio & Stef Spronck (Eds.), The Grammar of Thinking: From Reported Speech to Reported Thought in the Languages of the World (pp.73–106). Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Haakana, Markku
    (2007) Reported thought in complaint stories. InElizabeth Holt & Rebecca Clift (Eds.), Reporting talk: Reported speech in interaction (pp.150–178). Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Heine, Bernd, Claudi, Ulrike, & Hünnemeyer, Friederike
    (1991) Grammaticalization: a conceptual framework. University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Heine, Bernd
    (2002) On the role of context in grammaticalization. InIlse Wischer & Gabriele Diewald (Eds.), New reflections. on grammaticalization (pp.83–101). John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.49.08hei
    https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.49.08hei [Google Scholar]
  23. Hennemann, Anja
    (2023) Complementizer deletion in structures of reporting on thinking in Argentinian Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. InDaniela E. Casartelli, Silvio Cruschina, Pekka Posio & Stef Spronck (Eds.), The Grammar of Thinking: From Reported Speech to Reported Thought in the Languages of the World (pp.263–290). Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. HKGolden forum
    HKGolden forum (1999–2024) hkgolden.com
  25. Jefferson, Gail
    (2004) “At first I thought”: a normalizing device for extraordinary events. InGene H. Lerner (Ed.), InConversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation (pp.131–167). John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.125.09jef
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.125.09jef [Google Scholar]
  26. Johnson, Khia A. [Google Scholar]
  27. Jones, Graham M., & Schieffelin, Bambi B.
    (2009) Enquoting Voices, Accomplishing Talk: Uses of Be + like in Instant Messaging. Language & Communication, 29(1), 77–113.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Kataoka, Shin
    (2020) The Database of Early Cantonese Bible and Christian Literature [Corpus]. The Education University of Hong Kong. https://corpus.eduhk.hk/cantobible/
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Kim, Mary Shin
    (2014) Reported Thought as a Stance-Taking Device in Korean Conversation. Discourse Processes, 51(3), 230–263.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Kompa, Nikola A.
    (2024) Inner Speech and ‘Pure’ Thought — Do We Think in Language?. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 15(2), 645–62.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Lee, Carmen
    (2017) Multilingualism Online. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Leech, Geoffrey
    (1983) Principle of Pragmatics. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. LIHKG forum
    LIHKG forum (2016–2024) lihkg.com
  34. Lucy, John A.
    (1993) Reflexive language: Reported speech and metapragmatics. Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Luke, Kang Kwong, & Wong, May L-Y.
    (2015) The Hong Kong Cantonese corpus: Design. and uses. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 251, 312–333.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Matthews, Stephen, & Yip, Virginia
    (2011) Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar (2nd edition). Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. McGregor, William B.
    (2021) Thought Complements in Australian Languages. Language Sciences, 86(101398), 1–18.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Overall, Simon E.
    (2017) A Grammar of Aguaruna (Iiniá Chicham). De Gruyter Mouton.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Payne, Thomas
    (1997) Describing morphosyntax. Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Peräkylä, Anssi, & Ruusuvuori, Johanna
    (2012) Facial expression and interactional regulation of emotion. InMarja-Leena Sorjonen & Anssi Peräkylä (Eds.), Emotion in interaction (pp.64–91). Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Romaine, Suzanne, & Lange, Deborah
    (1991) The use of like as a marker of reported speech and thought: A case of grammaticalization in progress. American Speech, 66(3), 227–279.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Sacks, Harvey
    (1992) Lectures on Conversation. Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Semino, Elena, & Short, Mick
    (2004) Corpus stylistics: Speech, writing and thought presentation in a corpus of English writing. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Shum, Winnie, & Lee, Cynthia
    (2013) (Im)Politeness and Disagreement in Two Hong Kong Internet Discussion Forums. Journal of Pragmatics, 50(1), 52–83.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Peräkylä, Anssi, & Sorjonen, Marja-Leena
    (Eds.) (2012) Emotion in interaction. Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Spronck, Stef
    (2015) Refracting Views: How to Construct Complex Perspective in Reported Speech and Thought in Ungarinyin. Sprachtypologie Und Universalienforschung STUF, 68(2), 165–85.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Spronck, Stef, & Nikitina, Tatiana
    (2019) Reported speech forms a dedicated syntactic domain. Linguistic Typology, 23(1), 119–159.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Streeck, Jürgen
    (2002) Grammars, words, and embodied meanings: On the uses and evolution of so and like. Journal of Communication, 52(3), 581–596.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Tang, Sze-Wing
    (2015) Yueyu yufa jiangyi「粵語語法講義」 [Lectures on Cantonese grammar]. The Commercial Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. (2021) Evaluative Verbs of Saying in Cantonese. Hànyǔ yǔyánxué (dìèrjí) 「汉语语言学(第2辑)」 [Chinese linguistics (second series)]. Social Sciences Academic Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Teptiuk, Denys
    (2023) Self-quotations of speech and thought, and how to distinguish them. InDaniela E. Casartelli, Silvio Cruschina, Pekka Posio & Stef Spronck (Eds.), The Grammar of Thinking: From Reported Speech to Reported Thought in the Languages of the World (pp.141–170). Walter de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
    (2010) (Inter)subjectivity and (inter)subjectification: A reassessment. In: Davidse, Kristin, Vandelanotte, Lieven and Cuyckens, Hubert (Eds.), Subjectification, Intersubjectification and Grammaticalization (pp.29–74). De Gruyter Mouton.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Voort, Hein van der
    (2002) The Quotative Construction in Kwaza and Its (de)Grammaticalisation. InMily Crevels, Simon van de Kerke, Sérgio Meira & Hein van der Voort (Eds.), Current Studies on South American Languages31 (pp.307–28). Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS).
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Vygotsky, Lev S.
    (1987) Thinking and speech. The collected works of Lev Vygotsky. Vol.11. Plenum Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Yau, Shun-Chiu
    (1965) A Study of the Functions and of the Presentations of Cantonese Sentence Particles. [MA dissertation, The University of Hong Kong].
  56. Yeung, Ka-Wai
    (2006) On the Status of the Complementizer WAA6 in Cantonese. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics, 4(1), 1–48.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Yoon, Jiyoung
    (2015) The Grammaticalization of the Spanish Complement-taking Verb without a Complementizer. Journal of Social Sciences, 11(3), 338–351.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/alal.24019.pun
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/alal.24019.pun
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Cantonese; morphosyntax; politeness; quotation; reported thought
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error