Solega defenestration: Underspecified perspective shift in an unwritten Dravidian language

Based on original fieldwork, this paper discusses reported speech and thought constructions in Solega (Dravidian). Following McGregor (1994) we claim that reported speech can only be comprehensively characterised if it is identified as a syntactic construction in its own right, a construction we label a framing construction. In natural discourse, elements of the framing construction, particularly clauses referring to the reporting event, may be left unexpressed. We term framing constructions without a matrix clause ‘defenestrated clauses’. While defenestrated clauses in Solega leave perspective shifts underspecified, they include several distinctive strategies that allow us to reconsider the role of morpho-syntactic marking in the expression of perspective shifts.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company