The Morphosyntactic Behavior of Speech Verbs in Romance Languages. A Diachronic View

The verbs of speech – first considered a distinct category in the classifications of Latin grammars – have been very little studied over time, as scientific works focused mainly on their functions, as revealed in discursive techniques. The class of verba dicendi is usually discussed together with the verbs of will and affection, given the fact that these classes of verbs have certain common aspects in terms of their behavior towards the syntactic rules of consecutio temporum or of the use of non-predicative moods to complete a verbal regent. The analysis of the evolution of these verbs of saying and their transition into modern Romance languages allows us to detect certain morphosyntactic changes, the most important being the limitation or even the elimination of the infinitive constructs. As a defining feature of verba dicendi stands their ability to introduce direct speech.