Abstract. The recursive phenomenon of direct speech (quotation) comes in many different forms, and it is arguably an important and widely used ingredient of both spoken and written language. This article builds on (and provides indirect support for) the idea that quotations are to be defined pragmatically as (quasi-)linguistic demonstrations. Such a perspective sheds new light on constructions involving denomination, identification and typification -all of which are related to autonymy -and also on the possibility of quoting extralinguistic matters like sounds and even emotions. Based on these possibilities, a syntactic typology of direct speech is developed, including independent, embedded, and parenthetic quotations, with several subtypes. It is shown that quotations are grammatically opaque, and that embedded quotations are assigned a nominal categorial status upon insertion into a syntactic derivation. Thus, it is explained that a quotation can be used not only as a full argument, but also as as a nominal head -even as a part of a compound.