In the ASK Graded Reader ゴン狐, the following sentence appears:

> 魚売りは、おれ **を** 泥棒 **だ** と言って、。。。

I have seen that using を。。。と言う is like saying 'to call somebody something.' My
issue is that there is a だ at the end of the clause. I would _expect_ it to be
either おれが。。。だと or おれを。。。と, but the two together confuses me.

How does this make sense? Would it not be correct to say おれが泥棒だと言った?
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particles copula subordinate-clauses
〜を。。。だ inside a と言う clause
魚売りは、おれが泥棒だと言って sounds like the fishmonger is calling themself the thief,
which seems a bit unlikely, but as per the comments below, it could be
understood as intended too.

In 魚売りは、おれを泥棒だと言って, the quoted part is just 泥棒だ. If you want to say, _The
fishmonger called me a thief_ and capture "me" within the quote, then the
sentence should have been おまえが泥棒だと言って

Keep in mind that Japanese does not have indirect speech like we do in
English. Japanese only has direct speech, _the fishmonger said, "you're a
thief"_
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The speaker is saying 'The fishmonger, calling me a thief..". (It seems the
line is adapted, but the speaker seems 兵十. [Cf. the
original](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000121/files/628_14895.html).）

~~と in 泥棒だと言って is clearly 引用の「と」~~ , and requires a 終止形 ending for the
preceding verb (or words that conjugate).

[Edit] Maybe naruto is right - this is not a 引用, but still it requiring a 終止形
should be the same. I found [a seemingly relevant
article](http://www.lingua.tsukuba.ac.jp/ippan/TWPL0/TWPL03_29/9_kim.pdf).

Compare:

  * その女の子を **かわいい** と言って : saying that the girl is pretty
  * その女の子を **きれいだ** と言って : saying that the girl is beautiful
  * その女の子を **美少女だ** と言って : saying that the girl is a pretty girl

All the bold words are in 終止形.

===

A simpler (no) explanation is that the acceptable particles are determined by
the verb. If this sounds fair enough, just remember it as pattern:

  * call N1 N2 = N1 **を** N2 **と** 呼ぶ / N1{ **を,が** }N2 **だと** 言う.

Concretely:

  * {俺が泥棒だ, 俺を泥棒だ, ?俺は泥棒だ, ?俺を泥棒}と言って are all possible with (?) being less natural, but
  * 俺を泥棒と呼んで is the only option.

In short, だ in the question exists because いう (tends to) requires it.

===

FYI: ごん狐 is possibly one of the few non-fairy-tale stories that close to
everybody knows in Japan (as long as s/he learned from standard textbooks in
primary school).
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This 言う is a member of [this verb
group](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/55158/5010), so だ before と is
optional. (This reminds me of the "optional _being_ " in English, as in "to
regard me as being a thief" vs "to regard me as a thief".)

I would say this type of と is **not** quotative- _to_ because the part marked
with と is a simple noun (phrase) rather than a sentence.

俺が泥棒だと言って would tend to be taken as "saying 'I am the thief'" (i.e., the 魚売り
is calling himself a thief).
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