<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">So this discussion once again shows that different researchers use the same linguistic term to mean different things. I personally see this as a hindrance to linguistic progress. If we have to spend so much time and energy and expend so many words and pages (and so much ink) to define the terms used in the paper or book to avoid misunderstanding, it tells us that something is missing or even wrong. For the linguistics science to advance more quickly and rigorously, for better communication and collaboration among linguists, and for better crosslinguistic and typological studies, I personally think that Martin's suggestion of a terminology committee in earlier communications is important and definitely worth more sufficient consideration by the linguistic community. As a committee, obviously any definition of a linguistic term requires discussion, debate, and some consensus. As a committee, it can be very inclusive and have members from different subfields and from different areas. <div><br></div><div>Back to pronouns and personal pronouns, I'm not sure about other colleagues' judgments but I feel that most publications use pronouns to mean a class of words and to refer to words (and free forms) only and I certainly welcome corrections. </div><div><br></div><div>Best regards,</div><div>Chao</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Jul 11, 2021 at 8:20 AM Daniel W. Hieber <<a href="mailto:dwhieb@hotmail.com" target="_blank">dwhieb@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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Dear Ian,</div>
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I think it would be worthwhile to also consider the definition of pronouns advanced in Andrej Kibrik's excellent
<i>Reference in discourse</i>. Some relevant quotes are below. Note that Kibrik is here using
<i>pronoun</i> to mean primarily <i>personal pronoun</i> (p. 121).</div>
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"[...] the term 'pronoun' implies only three things. First, a pronoun is a referential device, directly coding referents. Second, it is a reduced referential device, that is, it does not have lexical content. Third, pronouns are
<b>overt</b> devices, and so are opposed to zero reference." (p. 121; empahsis in the original)</div>
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Kibrik also notes that there are other types of items which sometimes share the function of personal pronouns, but should not themselves be considered personal pronouns:</div>
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Linguistic elements that can be characterized as overt reduced referential devices most typically coincide with what are traditionally known as personal pronouns. In the context of referential choice between full and reduced referential devices, most often
these are third person pronouns. English is a typical example of a language that uses third person pronouns when a reduced referential device is needed. However, in this kind of language other reduced devices may be used, such as demonstratives. Furthermore,
not all languages have dedicated third person pronouns: some languages employ overt reduced referential devices that fall out of the scope of what traditionally counts as third person pronouns. Several kinds of linguistic elements that belong to other pronoun
types or even different lexico-grammatical classes may effectively function in discourse as
<b>analogues</b> of third person pronouns. Such analogues can be thought of as marginal overt reduced referential devices.</div>
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Among these, the most salient ones are: demonstratives, classifiers, and social status nouns. All of these devices are distinct from personal pronouns, in particular because they do not contain the category of person. [...] However, in certain languages that
lack genuine third person pronouns these devices play the pronominal role. (p. 124; emphasis in the original)</div>
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Kibrik also helpfully distinguishes between <i>strong</i> vs. <i>weak</i> pronouns, where strong pronouns are prosodically and pragmatically marked, and weak pronouns are prosodically reduced and/or dependent. Weak pronouns are functionally analogous to bound
pronouns (p. 92).</div>
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Hope that's helpful!</div>
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Danny</div>
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<b>References</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Kibrik, Andrej A. 2011. <i>Reference in discourse</i>. Oxford University Press. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215805.001.0001" title="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215805.001.0001" target="_blank">10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215805.001.0001</a>.</li></ul>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif">Daniel W. Hieber, Ph.D.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif"></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif">Postdoctoral Fellow</span></div>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif">University of Alberta Language Technology Lab (ALTLab)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.danielhieber.com" style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif">danielhieber.com</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif"></span></a><br>
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<div id="m_-3467558749351932359gmail-m_-187627514796431241divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <<a href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> on behalf of JOO, Ian [Student] <<a href="mailto:ian.joo@connect.polyu.hk" target="_blank">ian.joo@connect.polyu.hk</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, July 5, 2021 11:53 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> LINGTYP <<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Lingtyp] Definition of “personal pronoun"</font>
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<div dir="auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Dear typologists,</span><br>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">I’m having a hard time trying to find a definition of a “personal pronoun”.</span><br>
<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">One definition is that a personal pronoun refers to a literal person, a human being. But then again, non-human pronouns like English </span><em style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">it</em><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> are
also frequently included as a personal pronoun.</span><br>
<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Another definition seems to be that “personal” refers to a grammatical person and not a literal person. Thus, </span><em style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">it</em><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> refers to
the (non-human) 3rd person, therefore it is a personal pronoun.</span><br>
<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">But then again, demonstratives, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns also refer to the 3rd person. (This </span><em style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">is</em><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> a book, who </span><em style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">is </em><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">that
man, anything </span><em style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">is </em><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">possible) Then are they also personal pronouns?</span><br>
<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">What’s the clearest definition of a personal pronoun, if any?</span></div>
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>From Hong Kong,
<div dir="auto">Ian</div>
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