LINGUIST List 4.165

Mon 08 Mar 1993

Sum: Multiple Pronoun Series

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1. , summary: pronouns

Some times ago I asked wether anyone knew of a language with three
morphologically distinct series of pronouns for one and the same
(fully specified) 'item' (i.e. <3.sg.masc.ACC> for instance), the
paradigm example being Germanic languages which often have
a reduced form (clitic), a full form, and an emphasised
version of the full form, example: n/ihn/IHN , in German.
The syntax of each form has to be distinguished
from any other thus leading to the postulation of three syntactic
classes of pronouns (cf. recent work by A. Cardinaletti, and also some
work by L. Haegeman).
I also asked for reference to typological works on pronominal systems.
The replies to my query include:

1) From: John.M.Lawlerum.cc.umich.edu
 The most different kinds of pronouns I've run across is in
 Puget Salish (Lushootseed, also known by dialect names - Skagit, Snohomish,
 Nisqually, Skykomish, among others), a Salishan language spoken in
 northwestern Washington State in the U.S. The standard work is by
 Thom Hess. It's polysynthetic, so many of the series are affixal, bu t
 there are at least separate series for agent/subject, object, px,
 emphatic (these are NP's, not affixes), and several others.
 Hess, Thom.
 Dictionary of Puget Salish.
 Seattle : University of Washington Press, 1976.

2) From: Wayles Browne <JN5JCORNELLA.BITNET>
 Polish has three forms:
 Clitic _go_ which has to be in non-first position and not later than
 the position immediately following the verb: Maria go widzi "Mary sees him"
 also (not so good) Maria widzi go, but not *Go Maria widzi.
 Full form _jego_ as in Jego Maria widzi "Him, Mary sees", Maria widzi jego
 "Mary sees HIM", etc.
 Post-preposition form _niego_ as in _na niego_ "onto him".
 (** M.Starke: the same obtains in other Slavic languages as Czech & Slovak)

3) From: MOOSMkfs.univie.ac.at (Ralf Vollmann)
 * Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) 1978: Universals of Human
 Language. 4 vols. California: Stanford Univ. Press.
 -> Ingram, David 1978: Typology and Universals of Personal
 Pronouns. in: Greenberg, vol. 3, 1978: 213-248.
 -> Head, Brian F. 1978: Respect Degrees in Pronominal Reference.
 in: Greenberg, vol. 3, 1978: 151-212.

 * Seiler, Hansjakob & Gunter Brettschneider (eds.) 1985:
 Language Invariants and Mental Operations. International
 Interdisciplinary Conference held at Gummersbach/Cologne,
 Germany, September 18-23, 1983. Tbingen: Narr (= LUS 5).
 -> Froitzheim, Claudia & Yoshiko Ono 1985: A Bibliographical
 Guide to UNITYP Publications. in: Seiler 1985: 63-67.

 * Wiesemann, Ursula (ed.) 1986: Pronominal Systems. Tbingen:
 Narr (= Continuum. 5).

4) From: Brian D Joseph <bjosephmagnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
 let me mention a paper I gave on pro-drop in Modern Greek,
 arguing that Greek has strong nominative pronouns, weak nominative
 pronouns in two (and only two) constructions, and zero-pronouns (i.e.
 pro-drop) as well, making for a 3-way distinction.

5) From: Laurie Reid <reiduhunix.BITNET>
 Most Philippine and Formosan Austronesian languages have at least
 three sets, some have four or five. For an example of the latter, see
 my An Ivatan Syntax, Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication #2, Univ.
 of Hawaii Press, 1966, p.88. You might take a look also at my
 Reconstruction of the Pronominal Systems of Proto-Cordilleran, in
 Southeast Asian Lingusitic Studies Vol 3, Pacific Linguistics Series C
 #45, pp. 271-272. The Tagalog data however is probably the best
 known, see Schacter and Otanes Reference Grammar of Tagalog.

6) From: CORNELLARIZVMS.BITNET
 I think Welsh is
 such a language (Middle Welsh for sure, I don't know about the
 modern language). It has a clitic series, an independent series
 and an emphatic series, used, I think, for focus or contrast.
 Tom Cornell (cornellccit.arizona.edu)

7) From: Rachel Lagunoff <IHW1009MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
 One book that has some typological treatment of pronouns
 is Corbett's "Gender" (CUP 1991).