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First Person Readings of MAN : On semantic and pragmatic restrictions on an impersonal pronoun

Egerland, Verner LU (2018)
Abstract
Cinque (1988) notices that Italian impersonal si can be interpreted so as to include the speaker and that such a reading is actually mandatory in certain contexts. A similar conclusion holds for impersonal man in a language such as Swedish, with the difference that, in the relevant contexts, man takes on the reading of 1st person singular, hence ‘I’ and not ‘we’. In this paper, I argue that Cinque’s observation can only be understood in a theory explaining how impersonal readings (generic and existential) are restricted, rather than in a general theory of “inclusiveness”. The first part of paper is dedicated to showing how impersonal readings are restricted by the temporal and aspectual specification of the clause. This part summarizes... (More)
Cinque (1988) notices that Italian impersonal si can be interpreted so as to include the speaker and that such a reading is actually mandatory in certain contexts. A similar conclusion holds for impersonal man in a language such as Swedish, with the difference that, in the relevant contexts, man takes on the reading of 1st person singular, hence ‘I’ and not ‘we’. In this paper, I argue that Cinque’s observation can only be understood in a theory explaining how impersonal readings (generic and existential) are restricted, rather than in a general theory of “inclusiveness”. The first part of paper is dedicated to showing how impersonal readings are restricted by the temporal and aspectual specification of the clause. This part summarizes some by now well-known facts concerning the interpretation of man. The second part of the paper discusses a further restriction on impersonal readings, stemming from focus and contrastiveness. The relevant effect is shown in cases of topicalization
of SELF-anaphora in impersonal constructions in some Germanic languages.
To my knowledge, these data have so far gone unobserved in the literature. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Impersonal pronoun, Genericity, Scandinavian, Self-anaphora
host publication
Order and structure in syntax II : Subjecthood and argument structure - Subjecthood and argument structure
editor
Sheehan, Michelle and Bailey, Laura
pages
16 pages
publisher
Language Science Press
ISBN
978-3-96110-028-6
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.1115573
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
85780701-5858-4bc5-bcf9-824424503688
date added to LUP
2018-02-01 16:39:11
date last changed
2021-03-23 22:37:05
@inbook{85780701-5858-4bc5-bcf9-824424503688,
  abstract     = {{Cinque (1988) notices that Italian impersonal si can be interpreted so as to include the speaker and that such a reading is actually mandatory in certain contexts. A similar conclusion holds for impersonal man in a language such as Swedish, with the difference that, in the relevant contexts, man takes on the reading of 1st person singular, hence ‘I’ and not ‘we’. In this paper, I argue that Cinque’s observation can only be understood in a theory explaining how impersonal readings (generic and existential) are restricted, rather than in a general theory of “inclusiveness”. The first part of paper is dedicated to showing how impersonal readings are restricted by the temporal and aspectual specification of the clause. This part summarizes some by now well-known facts concerning the interpretation of man. The second part of the paper discusses a further restriction on impersonal readings, stemming from focus and contrastiveness. The relevant effect is shown in cases of topicalization<br/>of SELF-anaphora in impersonal constructions in some Germanic languages.<br/>To my knowledge, these data have so far gone unobserved in the literature.}},
  author       = {{Egerland, Verner}},
  booktitle    = {{Order and structure in syntax II : Subjecthood and argument structure}},
  editor       = {{Sheehan, Michelle and Bailey, Laura}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-96110-028-6}},
  keywords     = {{Impersonal pronoun; Genericity; Scandinavian; Self-anaphora}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Language Science Press}},
  title        = {{First Person Readings of MAN : On semantic and pragmatic restrictions on an impersonal pronoun}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1115573}},
  doi          = {{10.5281/zenodo.1115573}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}