30.4439, Diss: English; Sociolinguistics; Syntax: Kirby Conrod: ''Pronouns Raising and Emerging''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4439. Thu Nov 21 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.4439, Diss:  English; Sociolinguistics; Syntax: Kirby Conrod:  ''Pronouns Raising and Emerging''

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Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:40:11
From: Kirby Conrod [kabconrod at gmail.com]
Subject: Pronouns Raising and Emerging

 
Institution: University of Washington 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2019 

Author: Kirby Conrod

Dissertation Title: Pronouns Raising and Emerging 

Dissertation URL:  https://search-proquest-com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/docview/2307477606

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): English (eng)


Dissertation Director(s):
Alica Beckford Wassink
Barbara Citko
Edith Aldridge

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation revisits the question of the syntactic and semantic status
of pronouns, incorporating new syntactic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic data
to support an analysis of n-to-D head movement in the nominal domain. The
support for pronouns originating in n comes from predicative pronouns,
including pronominal relative clauses (1) and depronominalizations (2). 

(1) he who is without sin
(2) That person is a she. 
 

I compare predicative pronouns with variable grammatical restrictions on
singular 'they' using data from two sociolinguistic studies that I conducted.
I show that there is an effect of speaker age on production and perception of
definite, specific uses of singular 'they' (dsT) as in (3), while definite
generic (4) and epicene uses (5) are more broadly accepted. 

(3) Jayden forgot their homework.
(4) The ideal student never forgets their homework.
(5) Every student should do their homework. 
 
I take the sociolinguistic variability in singular 'they', particularly the
differences related to age, as evidence of an ongoing change in the grammar of
English towards increasing use and acceptance of the type shown in (3). The
inclusion of dsT in the grammar predicts intraspeaker sociopragmatic variation
in pronoun use, and this prediction is borne out. Through variable rankings of
pragmatic constraints I show that dsT enables speakers to include or exclude
gender features from pronominal choices in order to achieve strategic
discourse goals in various contexts. 
The n-to-D head movement analysis that I propose accounts for predicative
pronouns, as well as differences in grammaticality of dsT and its related
discourse-sensitivity, by separating pronouns into sub-classes depending on
how far head raising proceeds. For predicative pronouns, external determiners
(overt or covert) block head movement completely, and pronouns stay in n. For
epicene pronouns like (5) and definite generic antecedents like (4), the
pronoun raises from n to an intermediate functional projection (Num) but is
merged with a variable D. Finally, referential (specific) pronouns like (3)
are formed through movement from n through Num to D, where the pronoun
combines with a phase head D that is linked to a discourse referent. Because
phase edges are sensitive to discourse context, it is only when a pronoun
moves to D that it is evaluated for context-appropriateness relative to the
referent picked out by D. 
 
This system of context-appropriateness necessitates analyzing the natural
gender features of pronouns as less like noun classes and more like
honorifics, in that they signify social relationships rather than
grammar-internal categories. An honorific analysis of gendered pronouns more
robustly explains the sociopragmatic variation found in natural language use,
and is more generalizable cross-linguistically.




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LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4439	
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