Abstract / Description of output
There are several well-known differences between strong forms and weak forms of pronouns, with regards to their syntactic and semantic behaviour (see for instance Cardinaletti and Starke 1999) and where it concerns the discourse status of their antecedent, in particular how accessible to the hearer this must be (see for instance Ariel 1990). One striking generalisation about strong pronouns that has been made in these respects is that they must always have a [+human] antecedent. In this paper I argue for the following four points.
(i) A more precise characterisation of the relevant property of strong pronouns is that, when they stand in opposition to a weak pronoun, they must agree semantically rather than syntactically with their antecedent.
(ii) So-called 'semantic agreement' implies a lack of any syntactic agreement.
(iii) This accounts for cases where what is arguably a strong pronoun obligatorily takes an antecedent that is not [+human].
(iv) This behaviour of strong pronouns is the result of an instance of identity avoidance, such as can be found in many other cases in natural language (cf. Neeleman and Van de Koot 2005, Nevins 2012).
Evidence for these claims comes from the different behaviour of strong and weak pronouns where it concerns agreement in gender with their antecedent in modern standard Dutch.
(i) A more precise characterisation of the relevant property of strong pronouns is that, when they stand in opposition to a weak pronoun, they must agree semantically rather than syntactically with their antecedent.
(ii) So-called 'semantic agreement' implies a lack of any syntactic agreement.
(iii) This accounts for cases where what is arguably a strong pronoun obligatorily takes an antecedent that is not [+human].
(iv) This behaviour of strong pronouns is the result of an instance of identity avoidance, such as can be found in many other cases in natural language (cf. Neeleman and Van de Koot 2005, Nevins 2012).
Evidence for these claims comes from the different behaviour of strong and weak pronouns where it concerns agreement in gender with their antecedent in modern standard Dutch.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Identity Relations in Grammar |
Editors | Kuniya Nasukawa, Henk van Riemsdijk |
Place of Publication | Boston |
Publisher | De Gruyter |
Pages | 161-196 |
Number of pages | 36 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781614518983, 9781614518112 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781614518181 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Publication series
Name | Studies in Generative Grammar |
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Publisher | De Gruyter |
Volume | 119 |
ISSN (Print) | 0167-4331 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- agreement
- pronouns
- gender
- Dutch
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Peter Ackema
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences - Personal Chair of Morphosyntax
Person: Academic: Research Active