On quotative recomplementation: Between pragmatics and morphosyntax

Abstract

In Catalan and Spanish quotative recomplementation (QRC) constructions, the second complementizer (que2) is used to set boundaries between the reproduced discourse and the clausal elements that were implicit in the original discourse, which must be reintroduced in the new communicative situation, since they are not shared by the interlocutor (e.g., Están sentados en la mesa → Ha dicho que1 los invitados #(que2) están sentados en la mesa). QRC is evidence of the existence of two types of complements of quotative verbs: quotative complements (with a de dicto interpretation) and reportative complements (with a de re interpretation; e.g., Están sentados en la mesa → Ha dicho que1 los invitados (#que2) ya están colocados). Quotative complements have the same propositional structure as the original sentence and can include some elements such as speech-act adverbs which are oriented to the original speaker , as for topics, or HTLDs. On the contrary, reportative complements may be a summary of the original discourse and they lack such elements oriented to the original speaker or the previous discourse. Besides, reportative complements allow long-distance movement from the embedded CP to the matrix CP. We conclude that quotative CP is a phase and reportative CP is not