話す hanasu 'talk', and 述べる noberu 'state'.Verba dicendi occur in the following construction: [_] {と -to, って -tte} Verbum dicendi.と -to has been described as a complementizer and a quotative particle. Historically, use of と -to was restricted to reporting a statement by another speaker, but it has a much wider distribution in modern Japanese. In conversational Japanese, って -tte is more frequently used, and it has been described as a quotative particle, a hearsay particle, a quotation marker, and a quotative complementizer. In the above construction, the underlined phrase headed by {と -to, って -tte} can be a word, a clause, a sentence, or an onomatopoetic expression. Like in English, verba dicendi in Japanese can introduce both direct and indirect speech as their complement. This is contrasted with verbs of thinking, which only introduce indirect speech. An exception to this is a verb of thinking 思う omou 'think', which can introduce a speech that is not uttered but takes place in one's mind as direct speech in the simple past tense; this use of 思う omou 'think' is called a "quasi-communicative act". Direct or indirect speech: ambiguity In Japanese, a complement of a verbum dicendi can be ambiguous between direct and indirect readings, meaning that the distinction can only be inferred from the discourse context. For example, in (1), [boku ga Tookyoo e iku], which is in the complement of the verb 言う iu (past tense: itta), can be interpreted as either direct speech (2)a or indirect speech (2)b.(1) 太郎は僕が東京へ行くと言った。Taroo wa [boku ga Tookyoo e ik-u] to it-taTaro TOP I(MALE) NOM Tokyo to go-PRS QUOT say-PST.(2)a. Taroi said, "Ii will go to Tokyo."(2)b. Taroi said that Ij would go to Tokyo. One reason for this direct-indirect ambiguity in Japanese is that Japanese indirect speech does not involve "backshifting of tense" observed in other languages including English. In the English translations, the direct speech in (2)a has will in the tense of the embedded clause, but in (2)b, it has been "backshifted" to would so that it matches the past tense of the matrix clause. Tense does not serve as a diagnostics of direct-indirect distinctions in Japanese. Another reason for the ambiguity is that both direct and indirect quotes are introduced by {と -to, って -tte} in Japanese. Hence, presence of an overt complementizer cannot disambiguate direct and indirect speech either. Diagnostics of direct speech in Japanese Disambiguation of direct