Pinning down the interaction between animacy and syntactic function in the interpretation of German and Italian personal and demonstrative pronouns
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11273028 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Markus Bader (0000-0002-9765-8970, Goethe University Frankfurt, corresponding author), Jacopo Torregrossa (0000-0001-7538-9725, Goethe University Frankfurt), Esther Rinke (0000-0001-9378-9079, Goethe University Frankfurt) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 655-673 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discourse Processes (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0163-853X • E-ISSN: 1532-6950 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0163853x.2023.2252699 |
| OpenAlex | W4387266262 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 29 |
This article investigates how animacy in interaction with the syntactic function of a referent's antecedent determines the interpretation of different types of pronouns and demonstratives in German and Italian.The results of a sentence continuation task conducted in both languages show that Italian null pronouns and German p-pronouns have a strong tendency to refer to a preceding subject, but only if its referent is animate.With inanimate subjects, both forms tend to refer to the animate referent in object position, showing that animacy enhances a referent's accessibility more than the syntactic function of its previous mention.Demonstratives in German and Italian generally tend to refer to object antecedents, a tendency that is also influenced by the animacy of the referent, especially in German.The cross-linguistic comparison reveals that the effect of animacy is overall stronger in German than in Italian, suggesting that across languages, different forms may show a different sensitivity to syntactic function and animacy
Animacy · Antecedent (behavioral psychology · Demonstrative · Function (biology · German · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Object (grammar · Personal pronoun · Pronoun · Referent · Sentence · Subject (documents · Subject pronoun · Syntax · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
Reference in Discourse
Thematic roles, focus and the representation of events
Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4
Language Typology and Language Universals
Constraints on German diese demonstratives
Variation in the use and interpretation of null subjects
Bilingual reference production
The Discourse Functions of Given Information
The interpretation of German personal pronouns and d-pronouns
How Speakers Refer
Developmental origin of the animate-inanimate distinction
The function of accessibility in a theory of grammar
Thematic Proto-Roles and Argument Selection
Gradients in Auxiliary Selection with Intransitive Verbs
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |