Quotation

Quotation is fundamental to human communication. Language theorists have studied the linguistic, literary, semiotic, philosophical, functional, and cognitive nature of oral and written quotation for many decades, formally labeling it reported speech and thought. Theorists of direct (quote-marked) and indirect (non-quote-marked) quotation have concentrated most heavily on direct quotation—since quote marks add an important nonlinguistic, thus uniquely rhetorical element to language captured inside quotes—and somewhat less attention to the semantics of indirect speech.

Quotation qualifies as meta-language: language about language, one person’s repeating another’s words, whether in fictional or factual discourses. Accurate quotation of informational sources is critical in many occupations, especially journalism. A contemporary journalistic story is, in fact, virtually nothing but a series of quotations, making the citing of news sources journalism’s fundamental narrative ...