565 research outputs found
Introduction
No full textThis volume brings together contributions by researchers focusing on personal pronouns in Ibero-Romance languages, going beyond the well-established variable of expressed vs. non-expressed subjects. While factors such as agreement morphology, topic shift and contrast or emphasis have been argued to account for variable subject expression, several corpus studies on Ibero-Romance languages have shown that the expression of subject pronouns goes beyond these traditionally established factors and is also subject to considerable dialectal variation. One of the factors affecting choice and expression of personal pronouns or other referential devices is whether the construction is used personally or impersonally. The use and emergence of new impersonal constructions, eventually also new (im)personal pronouns, as well as the variation found in the expression of human impersonality in different Ibero-Romance language varieties is another interesting research area that has gained ground in the recent years. In addition to variable subject expression, similar methods and theoretical approaches have been applied to study the expression of objects. Finally, the reference to the addressee(s) using different address pronouns and other address forms is an important field of study that is closely connected to the variable expression of pronouns. The present book sheds light on all these aspects of reference to discourse participants. The volume contains contributions with a strong empirical background and various methods and both written and spoken corpus data from Ibero-Romance languages. The focus on discourse participants highlights the special properties of first and second person referents and the factors affecting them that are often different from the anaphoric third person. The chapters are organized into three thematic sections: (i) Variable expression of subjects and objects, (ii) Between personal and impersonal, and (iii) Reference to the addressee
On the emergence of quotative bueno in Spanish : a dialectal view
No full textThe Spanish discourse marker bueno, literally ‘good’, is a notoriously polyfunctional item that has been argued to serve several seemingly divergent functions, ranging from the expression of agreement to the expression of disagreement. It has also been observed that, as bueno frequently occurs at the beginning of reported speech, it may be grammaticalizing into a quotative marker, perhaps replacing other, more canonical markers like the verb decir ‘say’ (Borreguero Zuloaga 2017). In this paper we adopt a cross-dialectal view to the use of bueno as a discourse marker, mapping it with the expression of reported discourse (a notion subsuming both reported speech and thought) in a multi-dialect corpus of spoken Spanish. Our analysis provides quantitative and qualitative evidence for the assumption that bueno is grammaticalizing into a marker of reported discourse. We also show that reported speech and reported thought are not routinely distinguished from each other in Spanish: rather, reported thought is conceptualized as reported speech, recurring to the metaphor of thinking as speaking. Nevertheless, we find evidence for the assumption that in those dialects in which the use of bueno is particularly productive, some speakers seem to routinely associate the use of bueno with reported thought rather than speech.The Spanish discourse marker bueno, literally ‘good’, is a notoriously polyfunctional item that has been argued to serve several seemingly divergent functions, ranging from the expression of agreement to the expression of disagreement. It has also been observed that, as bueno frequently occurs at the beginning of reported speech, it may be grammaticalizing into a quotative marker, perhaps replacing other, more canonical markers like the verb decir ‘say’ (Borreguero Zuloaga 2017). In this paper we adopt a cross-dialectal view to the use of bueno as a discourse marker, mapping it with the expression of reported discourse (a notion subsuming both reported speech and thought) in a multi-dialect corpus of spoken Spanish. Our analysis provides quantitative and qualitative evidence for the assumption that bueno is grammaticalizing into a marker of reported discourse. We also show that reported speech and reported thought are not routinely distinguished from each other in Spanish: rather, reported thought is conceptualized as reported speech, recurring to the metaphor of thinking as speaking. Nevertheless, we find evidence for the assumption that in those dialects in which the use of bueno is particularly productive, some speakers seem to routinely associate the use of bueno with reported thought rather than speech.Peer reviewe
Referring to discourse participants in Ibero-Romance languages : Introduction
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Emerging inclusive impersonals
No full textIn both Brazilian and European Portuguese, a pessoa (‘the person’), uma pessoa (‘a person’), as pessoas (‘the persons’), o povo (‘the people’), o pessoal (‘the people’) and some other, more colloquial expressions such as geral ‘general’ (Ornelas de Avelar 2023 [this volume]) are currently developing new impersonal uses (see Afonso 2008, Amaral & Mihatsch 2019, Posio 2021). In this contribution we will analyse the functional changes of a pessoa and uma pessoa, with a focus on Brazilian Portuguese. Interestingly, all these expressions are originally third person noun phrases excluding reference to speakers and addressees. In impersonal contexts, however, a pessoa and uma pessoa are predominantly used in non-referential contexts where speaker and addressee may be included. We will try to shed light on the evolution of the functions of the emerging impersonal pronouns a pessoa and uma pessoa in Brazilian Portuguese, starting with a macro-diachronic analysis tracing the earliest impersonal uses on the basis of the Corpus do português (CDP, Genre/Historical) by Mark Davies and by comparing Brazilian oral colloquial data from the 20th century based on the comparative subcorpus of NURC RJ with contemporary corpus data from Rio de Janeiro (CORPORAPORT) and Minas Gerais (MOC). The corpus analysis will be complemented by acceptability judgments. The different data types will be combined in order to trace the diachronic development of the restrictions determining the impersonal uses and the differences and parallels between the two expressions. We will close by comparing our results with existing studies by Posio (2017, 2021) and Martins (2022) on parallel developments in European Portuguese
Entre lo impersonal y lo individual : Estrategias de impersonalización individualizadoras en el español y portugués europeos
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Personal uses of impersonalizing strategies: Hybrid constructions with a gente and se in rural Madeiran Portuguese Varieties
No full textThe varieties of Portuguese spoken in Madeira present a predominant use of a gente, a grammaticalized first person plural pronoun, derived from the noun phrase ‘the people’, instead of the traditional pronoun nós. They also exhibit constructions where a gente cooccurs with the impersonal clitic se. In a pioneering study, Martins (2009) provides a detailed description of what she calls “double subject impersonal constructions” and proposes that a gente restricts the generic interpretation of the clitic se. Based on spoken data from semi-directed interviews and free-speech conversations with elderly speakers of rural Madeiran Portuguese, this chapter provides a quantitative and qualitative approach to the [(a gente) + se] construction.
The goal of this study is twofold. First, a depiction of the broad referential range of this hybrid structure is presented. Its possible interpretations cover a scope similar to that of first person plural pronouns reaching from indefinite readings to deictic ones (referring to participants of the speech act). Second, a description of the syntactic features of this innovative construction will show that the element se is being reanalyzed as a dependent person marker in rural Madeiran Portuguese varieties
As pessoas, a quasi-pronominal human impersonal construction in European Portuguese?
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A cross-dialectic comparison of first person singular subject pronoun expression in Southern Arizona and Southeast Texas
No full textThis study provides a cross-dialectic comparison of first person singular subject pronoun expression in the Spanish varieties of two US-Mexico borderland communities, Southern Arizona and Southeast Texas. Using data collected from sociolinguistic interviews of 32 Spanish/English bilingual speakers, this analysis further explores the impact that trans-frontier practices have on the realization of subject pronouns in border communities and demonstrates the similarities in the variable grammar of the Spanish spoken in the US Southwest. The results show that both Arizona and Texas express first person singular pronouns at a similar rate (19.3% and 18.7%, respectively). Additionally, the linguistic factors that condition the variable (switch reference; clause type; tense, mood, and aspect; and whether or not the verb is reflexive) are very similar within each group
Hybrid constructions with a gente and se in rural Madeiran Portuguese varieties
No full textThe varieties of Portuguese spoken in Madeira present a predominant use of a gente, a grammaticalized first person plural pronoun, derived from the noun phrase ‘the people’, instead of the traditional pronoun nós. They also exhibit constructions where a gente cooccurs with the impersonal clitic se. In a pioneering study, Martins (2009) provides a detailed description of what she calls “double subject impersonal constructions” and proposes that a gente restricts the generic interpretation of the clitic se. Based on spoken data from semi-directed interviews and free-speech conversations with elderly speakers of rural Madeiran Portuguese, this chapter provides a quantitative and qualitative approach to the [(a gente) + se] construction. The goal of this study is twofold. First, a depiction of the broad referential range of this hybrid structure is presented. Its possible interpretations cover a scope similar to that of first person plural pronouns reaching from indefinite readings to deictic ones (referring to participants of the speech act). Second, a description of the syntactic features of this innovative construction will show that the element se is being reanalyzed as a dependent person marker in rural Madeiran Portuguese varieties
On pronominal uses of geral in Brazilian Portuguese
No full textThis paper analyzes the impersonal use of geral ‘general’ in Brazilian Portuguese, in the light of investigations dealing with impersonalization strategies in the generative literature. I will show that geral behaves as a φ-featureless impersonal pronoun with regard to agreement patterns and to generic/arbitrary interpretation, but as a pronoun with φ-features if we take its syntactic distribution into consideration. Despite this incongruity, I will argue that geral must be analyzed as an item that is devoid of φ-features, similarly to man in Swedish, si in Italian and on in French, according to Egerland’s (2003) proposal. The analysis provides evidence in favor of the hypothesis that the distribution of impersonal pronouns in different sentential positions is better captured in terms of case marking instead of syntactic function (Fenger 2018). I will also show that geral can be used as a first-person plural pronoun, which seems to depend on strictly pragmatic factors, as a result of the lack of φ-features
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