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quotative

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quotative

noun quotatives

  1. A grammatical device to mark quoted speech, such as be like in "he was like, 'who are you?'". Whereas most quotatives introduce either inner monologue or direct speech, the new quotative be like can introduce both kinds of reported speech, thus allowing the speaker to express an attitude, reaction, or thought, as well as something actually said.
  2. A form of the complementizer related to the verb say, found in many languages of West Africa and South Asia.

adjective

  1. not comparable Serving to mark quoted speech.

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adj Translations

Españolcitativo
한국어인용형 inyonghyeong

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MLA

"quotative." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/quotative. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

quotative. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/quotative

Chicago

"quotative." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/quotative.

BibTeX
@misc{quotative_2026,
  title = {quotative},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/quotative},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}