The Syntax and Semantics of the Quotative Complement in Japanese

I will consider the quotative complement (QC) in Japanese, which is prima facie introduced by -to, a reporting suffix. In the literature, it has been widely assumed that -to is a (reporting) complementizer and that it introduces clausal complements (cf. Saito 2010). However, I will propose that there is a hidden structure in the QC in Japanese, arguing that it is an invisible verbal phrase headed by a phonologically null verb, SAY. This verb is presumably derived/grammaticalized from a lexical verb, iw- ‘say’, and, there are versions of Japanese where it can be overt. As we will see, the analysis to be proposed captures two important facts regarding the QC: (i) why -to can embed various linguistic expressions via indirect quotation, and (ii) why -to is used in both direct and indirect quotations.