Complements and modifiers: Implications for typologies of pronouns
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v9i1.5720Keywords:
pronouns, adnominal pronouns, binding, complements, modifiers, determinersAbstract
This paper argues for a distinction between two categorially distinct types of personal pronouns in natural language. It demonstrates that overt nominal content surfaces as (i) a complement or (ii) a modifier of a personal pronoun. The distinction in the way nominal content merges is reflected in two types of pronouns. Pronouns taking nominal complements are full-fledged determiners, while pronouns surfacing with nominal modifiers are pronouns proper, i.e., pronominal forms that do not exhibit the determiner syntax. Four novel diagnostics underlying the complement/modifier distinction are introduced: (i) binding, (ii) genericity requirement, (iii) availability of pro-drop, and (iv) size of the pronoun. The paper contributes to a longstanding debate on the representation of nominal content in pronouns and a close connection between pronominal forms and determiners.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Ivona Ilic
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Published by the LSA with permission of the author(s) under a CC BY 4.0 license.