In formal grammar what is said is treated as ʻnoun clause object of the verb sayʼ, meaning a down-ranked or ʻembeddedʼ clause. But functionally the verbalized clause is not downranked; it functions as the secondary clause in a ʻclause complexʼ being either (a) directly quoted [...] or (b) indirectly reported. This means that such sequences consist of two clauses.
- Halliday (1985), a pag.129