From quotative to discourse marker: The roles and the history of mondván ('saying') Mondván ('saying') was a common, non-obligatory element used to report main clauses in Late Old Hungarian and Early Middie Hungarian. If the main verb of the sentence was anything other than mond ('say'), this element could be inserted into the sentence in a post-verbal position with the function of integrating the following quotation into the text. Later, the main verb - expressing different kinds of speech acts, for example - could integrate a quotation without a quotative. Therefore, mondván, still present in the main clauses but losing its originai function, started to acquire new functions, though these were not unrelated to the earlier quotative function. After some changes that are typicai of the process of grammaticalization, the earlier quotative became a new discourse marker. In my research, 1 focus on the history of mondván: the change of its function and its use in contemporary Hungarian, as weil as where the element has a connective function.