the subject in a non-inverted quotative sentence, but not in an inverted sentence. They can, however, occur to the immediate left of the subject in an inverted sentence: (16)a.”We must do this again”, the guests all declared to Tony b.”We must do this again”, declared all the guests to Tony c.*”We must do this again”, declared the guests all to Tony Inversion and negation with verba dicendi may co-occur only if the reporting clause itself is not inverted: (17)a.“Let’s eat”, said John just once b.“Let’s eat”, John didn't just say once c.*”Let’s eat”, said not John just once d.*”Let’s eat”, not said John just once Other constraints involve subject position, DP direct objects, and movement, among others. Grammaticalization Grammaticalization is the attribution of grammatical character to a previously independent, autonomous word. There is significant cross-linguistic evidence of verba dicendi grammaticalizing into functional syntactic categories. For instance, in some African and Asian languages, these verbs may grammaticalize into a complementizer. In other East African languages, they may become markers of Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM). In English, the verb say in particular has also developed the function of a comment clause: (18)a. Say there actually were vultures on his tail b. What say he does answer? c. Buy a big bottle – say about 250 mils d. If we ran out of flour or sugar, say, we would gather up a few eggs and take them to Mr. Nichols's general store e.“Say, isn’t that–” Lance started, but Buck answered before the question was even asked f.“Say, that’s our City,” bubbles Dolores g. Jump, I say, and be done with it In these examples, the verb say fulfils many roles. In the first two examples (a & b), it means ‘suppose', or 'assume.’ In the third and fourth examples (c & d) the meaning of say could be paraphrased as 'for example', or 'approximately.' Example (e) uses say as an imperative introducing a question and connotes 'tell me/us.' Say may also function as an interjection to either focus attention on the speaker or to convey some emotional state such as surprise, regret, disbelief, etc. Finally, example (f) uses say in an emphatic, often imperative way. This function dates from the (early) Middle English period Emergence of innovative forms: go, be all, be like In addition to basic verba dicendi and manner of speaking verbs, other forms are frequently used in spoken English. What sets these