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Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 28:1 (2018) ► pp.93–112

An overview of the Japanese quotative itta and itte ita

| University of Memphis
The present study provides an overview of the quotative utterances made with itta (past form of iu ‘to say’) and itte ita (the combination of iu and the past form of the -te iru construction) in naturally occurring conversations in Japanese. The examination of approximately 13 hours of conversations shows that itta is used in 91.1% of first-person quotations (‘I said that…’). In second-person (‘you said that…’) and third-person (‘he/she said that…’) quotations, itte ita is used in 90.0%, and 77.3% of the cases, respectively. The present study argues that the high percentage of itte ita for second- and third-person quotative utterances is due to the fact that the -te iru construction, which is included in itte ita, is used as an evidential marker. The present study also analyzes the deviant cases from the dominant pattern (i.e. using itta for third-person utterances), and demonstrates how -te iru’s evidential function is utilized manipulatively in conversation.
Keywords: Japanese, pragmatics, subjectivity, evidential marker, psychological impact, itta , itte ita , -te iru
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1 itta and itte ita in Japanese
    • 1.2-te iru as a marker of speaker observation
  • 2.Remaining issues
  • 3.Present study
  • 4.Results and analysis
    • 4.1Dominant patterns for itta and itte ita
    • 4.2Deviant cases
      • 4.2.1itte ita used for first-person utterances
      • 4.2.2itta used for third-person utterances
      • 4.2.3-te iru and psychological impact
      • 4.2.4Itta for second-person utterances
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 13 February 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.00003.nis
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