Re: USAGE: Speak-Say-Tell

On Wed, 8 Dec 2004 12:23:46 -0500, Geoff Horswood <geoffhorswood@...> wrote:
> I was thinking about the English words "speak", "say", "tell" (and "talk"),
> and trying to quantify the exact difference between them.
You can _speak_ intransitively, indicating you're participating in the activity,
especially in senses like "speaking at the conference".  You can also speak
in languages or manners "speak French", "speak coherently", and, transitively,
you can speak words.

You can't, normally, "say" intransitively, except in "say so", and sometimes
without "so" in the same sense: "does he like shoes?" "I don't know, he didn't
say".  Transitively you can say words, but you can also say quoted or indirect
speech: "He said the magic words, he said 'Please, sir.', and I said I would
do it".

The object of "tell" is generally not what is said, but who is being spoken to:
"I told him [that I would]."  But you can also tell tales or stories.  Generally
"tell" isn't used with quoted speech, but indirect speech.

> Specifically, I was wondering whether all the words were strictly necessary
> in a language, or whether you could postulate a language with only one word
> meaning speak, say, tell or talk, depending on context.  How realistic is
> this?
I think that most divisions of this semantic space could be plausible.

> (Kazakh has 3 words: /ajtu/ to speak or tell, /deu/ to say, and /s2jleu/ to
> talk, plus the compound /djep ajtu/.)
> What about other natlangs?
In Spanish the ordinary words seem to be "hablar" (speak) and "decir"
(say, tell).



	*Muke!
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