Expression of reason and purpose via reported discourse in Finno-Ugric

This paper investigates the causal meanings arising from reported discourse in non-standard written online communications among six Uralic languages: Erzya, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Komi, and Udmurt. Unlike previous studies focusing on non-locutionary functions of quotative markers, this study scrutinizes cases in which reported discourse preserves its locutionary function of presenting speech or thought but discursively conveys the additional meaning of reason or purpose. The results show that additional causal meanings are found across all languages of the sample in the contexts in which non-clausal quotative markers introduce reported discourse. The meaning of reason and purpose can be overtly marked by causal markers like reason and purpose conjunctions or implied in the context. On both occasions, a discourse unit presenting reason or purpose almost exclusively follows a discourse unit to which the reported justification is presented. Quotative particles among these Uralic languages show a preference for reported discourse conveying reason, except for the Permic self-quotative particles, which are attracted more to reported speech and thought conveying purpose.