in the past. Thus, there are two distinct active voices: that of the narrator and that of the reportee. Written English often employs manner-of-speaking verbs or verba dicendi in conjunction with quotation marks to demarcate the quoted content. Speakers use more subtle phonetic and prosodic cues like intonation, rhythm, and mimesis to indicate reported speech. Properties There are numerous syntactically and semantically relevant properties of verba dicendi and manner-of-speaking verbs, several of which are highlighted below: i. They are so-called Activity Verbs. They may occur in progressive and imperative forms, among other tests: (2)a. He was shouting obscenities. b. Yell to George about the new quota. c. What John did was lisp French to Mary. ii. The subject of verba dicendi is normally sentient: (3)a. My father howled for me to pick up the chair. b. *My desk howled for me to pick up the chair. However, it is possible, at least colloquially, to assign the subject role of some verba dicendi to abstracta. An expression like "When you're late, it says you don't care" could be one such example. iii. Verba dicendi may have an indirect object, which may be marked by to and which is also normally sentient: (4)a. Scream ‘Up the Queen’ (to the first person who passes) b. *She will howl 'O my stars and garters' to the essence of friendship iv. Manner-of-speaking verbs may have a direct object, which may be a noun describing the speech act itself, a desentential complement (that-clause, indirect question or infinitive), or a direct quotation: (5)a. Hoffman will probably mutter a foul oath. b. Martin shrieked that there were cockroaches in the caviar. c. Regrettably, someone mumbled, “I suspect poison.” Further, the direct object of some manner-of-speaking verbs may be deleted, resulting in a sentence that does not indicate an act of communication, but rather a description of the sound made: d. My companion shrieked. Other verba dicendi do not permit this, however. Say, ask, tell, for instance, cannot occur freely without an object: e. *Said John Speak may occur without an object. In fact, its occurrence with an object is restricted. A that-clause, for example, is ungrammatical: f. Margaret spoke (to me) g. *Margaret spoke that there were cockroaches in the caviar v. Some manner-of-speaking verbs may occur with directional adverbials, which cannot co-occur with indirect objects: (6)a. He bellowed at us (*to Sam) Other verba dicendi cannot occur