Jane Grimshaw, Rutgers University

The say-schema verbs (Grimshaw in press) combine with a wide range of clauses in complex complementation structures, including quoted and non-quoted clauses in post-verbal complement position, and quoted and non-quoted clauses hosting parentheticals.

Some say-schema verbs encode the Illocutionary Force of the speech acts that they report. Others do not. Some of the complementation structures themselves encode Force, while others do not.

The patterns of verb-clause combination, or “selection” effects, result from the interplay between the Force encoded in the verb’s meaning and the Force of the clause. Variation among predicates is highly restricted, and the evidence needed to learn which complements a verb combines with is accessible in simple discourses.

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