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Here's a new version of the definition that addresses Ian's point
about Korean:<br>
<br>
"A personal pronoun is a form that (i) denotes a speech role
(speaker/producer and/or hearer/comprehender) OR that is an
anaphoric form which does not contain a noun AND (ii) that can be
used in a complement clause coreferentially with a matrix clause
argument."<br>
<br>
By saying "anaphoric form <b>that does not contain a noun</b>", we
exclude the Korean case where 'brother' can be used coreferentially.
Maybe one should add "ordinary noun" or "a noun that can be used
indefinitely", because someone might claim, for example, that
Spanish "usted" is still a noun (e.g. because it has the noun-like
plural "usted-es").<br>
<br>
Guillaume Segerer remarked that "pronoun" implies that it is not a
noun, but my proposed definition of "personal pronoun" does not say
that a personal pronoun is "a kind of pronoun", because I don't know
how to define "pronoun" (with such traditional terms, an extensional
definition is often all we can give, e.g. "<i>pronoun</i> is a cover
term for <i>personal pronoun</i>, <i>interrogative pronoun</i>,
...")<br>
<br>
Re Mira's point about deictic uses of 3rd-person personal pronouns:
I would say that this is not definitional – if a 3rd-person form
cannot be used anaphorically, it will not be called "personal
pronoun". But of course, personal pronouns often have other uses as
well in particular languages. Comparative concepts rarely map
perfectly onto language-particular categories.<br>
<br>
Guillaume also mentions person indexes (which are often included in
personal pronoun charts), and this led me to look again at what I
said in my 2013 paper about person indexes: I distinguish between
cross-indexes, gramm-indexes, and pro-indexes, and the latter are
actually included in "pronoun" (contrasting with "free pronouns").
So I now say that "a personal pronoun is a form that..." (not "a
personal pronoun is a free form that...").<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Martin<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 06.07.21 um 20:48 schrieb Mira
Ariel:<br>
</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">But
what about (not so common, but attested) deictic references
(first-mention) to 3<sup>rd</sup> person using "personal
pronouns"?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Mira<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_MailEndCompose"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></a></p>
<div>
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1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">
Lingtyp
[<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org">mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Martin Haspelmath<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, July 6, 2021 1:48 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Lingtyp] Definition of “personal
pronoun"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">Maybe the
following will work:<br>
<br>
"A personal pronoun is a free form that (i) denotes a speech
role (speaker/producer and/or hearer/comprehender) OR that is
used as an anaphoric form AND (ii) that can be used in a
complement clause coreferentially with a matrix clause
argument."<br>
<br>
This is a disjunctive definition that brings together
locuphoric forms ('I', 'we', 'you') and 3rd-person anaphoric
(or "endophoric") forms, following the Western tradition (but
not following any kind of compelling logic).<br>
<br>
It seems that personal pronouns need to be delimited from
three types of somewhat doubtful forms:<br>
<br>
– person indexes (I do not include bound forms under "personal
pronoun" here, following my 2013 paper on person indexes:
<a href="https://zenodo.org/record/1294059"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://zenodo.org/record/1294059</a>)<br>
– demonstratives<br>
– titles like "Your Majesty"<br>
<br>
I think that if a language has a form like "that-one" or
"your-majesty" that can be used coreferentially in a
complement clause, one will regard it as a personal pronoun:<br>
<br>
(a) "My sister(i) thinks that that-one(i) has an answer."<br>
(b) "Does your-majesty(i) think that your-majesty(i) has an
answer?"<br>
<br>
In German, the polite second-person pronoun "Sie" (which has
Third-Person syntax) can be used in (b), but the demonstrative
"die" can hardly be used in (a), so it would not count as a
personal pronoun (yet). However, in Hindi-Urdu and Mongolian,
as mentioned by Ian, the demonstrative can be used in this way
(I think), so it would count as a personal pronoun.<br>
<br>
I don't think we need the general notion of "person" to define
"personal pronoun". Wikipedia's current definition is
therefore quite confusing (<a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_pronoun"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_pronoun</a>).<br>
<br>
Thanks for this interesting challenge, Ian! It seems to me
that quite a few of our traditional terms CAN be defined, but
their definitions are not obvious at all (and the textbooks
don't usually give the definitions).<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Martin<o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Am 06.07.21 um 06:53 schrieb JOO, Ian
[Student]:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Dear typologists,<br>
<br>
I’m having a hard time trying to find a definition of a
“personal pronoun”.<br>
One definition is that a personal pronoun refers to a
literal person, a human being. But then again, non-human
pronouns like English <em>it</em> are also frequently
included as a personal pronoun.<br>
Another definition seems to be that “personal” refers to
a grammatical person and not a literal person. Thus, <em>it</em> refers
to the (non-human) 3rd person, therefore it is a
personal pronoun.<br>
But then again, demonstratives, interrogative, and
indefinite pronouns also refer to the 3rd person. (This <em>is</em> a
book, who <em>is </em>that man, anything <em>is </em>possible)
Then are they also personal pronouns?<br>
What’s the clearest definition of a personal pronoun, if
any?<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
From Hong Kong, <o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ian<o:p></o:p></p>
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<pre>_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Lingtyp mailing list<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" moz-do-not-send="true">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><o:p></o:p></pre>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Martin Haspelmath<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Deutscher Platz 6<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>D-04103 Leipzig<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><a href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522</a><o:p></o:p></pre>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522">https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/42385/25522</a></pre>
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