Sometimes I wonder if when people are learning or quoting things they say things in the name of people, would that count as them making a Neder? For example the teacher says "Yaakov said: I will give Maaser. (keep in mind that's not even the actual quote from the Pasuk). Does that mean the teacher made a Neder to give Maaser?
Sources and logic are both appreciated here...
In the far more stringent case of "blessing" Hashem's Name, we find that one of the witnesses has to repeat before the beis din the actual words used (Sanhedrin 56a) - and of course he is not punished for that (no "Life of Brian" scenario here!). So I think that's a pretty strong proof that quoting doesn't equal an actual declaration.
With nedarim and shevuos, too, there is also the consideration that they require intent to be valid - "his mouth and heart have to be in sync" (Rambam, Hil. Shevuos 2:12 and Nedarim 2:2). So when a person is quoting a formula for a neder or shevuah, he clearly isn't intending to accept it upon himself, and so it shouldn't take effect.
No sources, just an attempt at logic.
We have a strong tradition of altering divine names to avoid trouble when studying or talking (that is, outside of the situations where we really do want to use those names). This demonstrates a pattern for dealing with possibly-problematic speech. We have no such tradition for quoting people who spoke, either from Tanakh or from chazaal.
Since we could easily have developed such a tradition but we did not, I conclude that quoting somebody, absent the specific intent to make a vow, is not making a vow.
