What does と mean all by itself here?


So, I have this sentence:

"つまりパスポートもビザもない、と"

The first part is pointing out that someone doesn't have a passport or visa
(since they threw their bag at someone earlier). But what is that 「と」 doing
there by itself?

I went back and reviewed my explanations of 「と」 as a particle, and my best
guess is that it's meant to be quotative, referring to what the other person
said about throwing their bag. This seems reasonable in conjunction with the
「つまり」, which I usually see defined/translated as "in other words," but I
really don't know. I have a bad habit of fudging things in favor of sense-
making. >.>

Can anyone tell me if my assessment is at all right, and what semantic purpose
is served by keeping _just_ the 「と」 instead of making a full statement?




> my best guess is that it's meant to be quotative

Yep.

You could follow that と with 彼女 が 言いました or the something like と いう 状態 です

> つまりパスポートもビザもない、という状態です
>
> つまりパスポートもビザもない、と彼女が言いました

So you might call it an abbreviated quotative use.

> Can anyone tell me ... what semantic purpose is served by keeping just the
> 「と」 instead of making a full statement?

Brevity. Japanese tends to favor conciseness and ambiguity over explicitness.




> my best guess is that it's meant to be quotative

Yep.

You could follow that と with 彼女 が 言いました or the something like と いう 状態 です

> つまりパスポートもビザもない、という状態です
>
> つまりパスポートもビザもない、と彼女が言いました

So you might call it an abbreviated quotative use.

> Can anyone tell me ... what semantic purpose is served by keeping just the
> 「と」 instead of making a full statement?

Brevity. Japanese tends to favor conciseness and ambiguity over explicitness.

