Reported thought in Cantonese

Abstract This study explores the reported thought (RT) construction with the RT verb sam1nam2 [lit. ‘heart think’] in Cantonese. First, it is argued that sam1nam2 ‘think’ is a subject-verb compound with a dedicated RT function. Second, in written Cantonese the thought complement of sam1nam2 can take the form of a clause, emojis, underscores and/or dots meaning ‘speechless’. Third, in conversational contexts, thought complements which would be impolite if articulated may be left implicit. Fourth, the RT construction is structurally different from the reported speech construction with waa6 ‘say’, therefore these two constructions should be treated as distinct. Finally, sam1nam2 may have been grammaticalized from a possessive construction go3sam1nam5 ‘subject’s heart thinks’ since the 1950s. This study narrows the research gap of reported thought in Cantonese, encouraging future study on reported thought in other Chinese varieties.