On the use of uno in Colombian Spanish: the role of transitivity

Our goal is to explore the intersection of two bodies of literature, namely, the one on impersonal constructions with an emphasis on uno ‘one’, and the one on the effect of transitivity and the focus of attention on the distribution of overt vs. null pronouns, where it has been shown that overt pronominal subjects are disfavored in transitive contexts as opposed to intransitive contexts. Through a variationist analysis of the expression of uno in Barranquilla, Colombia, in the PRESSEA-BARRANQUILLA corpus, we extend this line of inquiry to this impersonal pronoun and study in detail for the first time the effect of the various components of transitivity on the distribution of overt pronouns. Specifically, various transitivity parameters put forward by Hopper and Thompson are shown to correctly predict the distribution of uno, namely, number of participants and kinesis whereas sentence polarity, aspect and individuation of the object yield mixed results meriting future research.

A corpus-based study of the human impersonal pronoun ('n) mens in Afrikaans

This article compares the grammaticalizing human impersonal pronoun ('n) mens in Afrikaans to fully grammaticalized men and non-grammaticalized een mens in Dutch. It is shown that 'n mens and een mens can still be used lexically, unlike mens and men, and that ('n) mens and een mens are restricted to non-referential indefinite, universal-internal uses while men exhibits the whole range of (non-) referential indefinite ones. Despite the latter’s presence in the earliest Afrikaans data, it is argued not to have influenced the development of ('n) mens. This pronoun and Dutch een mens are also found to have syntactic functions other than subjecthood, unlike men. The contrast is attributed to their different degrees of grammaticalization. Lastly, the Afrikaans ‘man’-pronoun is shown to differ from its Dutch counterparts in relying on the second person singular for suppletion, though forms of ('n) mens are found to occasionally occur instead.

Charting the speaker-relatedness of impersonal pronouns

Impersonal pronouns have been claimed to express generic reference that possesses a special connection to the speaker in unembedded contexts. Drawing on cross-linguistic data and new experimental findings, the authors propose a novel typology to capture the range of speaker-related interpretations associated with impersonal pronouns, and put forward a contextualist semantics that explicates the proposed typology. Contrastive evidence from English, French, and Thai will testify that the uses of comparable impersonal forms in these languages allow two dimensions of variation, pertaining to speaker/non-speaker reference and generalization/non-generalization. These variations are further construed as two dimensions of contextual development—at the levels of content and force—of an unspecified, merely generic meaning of the impersonal pronoun.

Passivization Transformation in the New Gun Bible Translation: The Translation of “It was allowed” in Rev 13.5, 7, 14

In the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, various kinds of passive forms are used in sentence constructions. Some have both the patients and the agents clearly specified; others have only patients. Frequently, the agent is implied, ambiguous, or even unknown. The Gun language (a language of Benin) does not have forms for passive construction; only active forms are used. In Rev 13.5, 7, 14 the unspecified agent has been identified in the 2003 Gun New Testament as the “dragon.” This paper argues that the identification of the agent should be revisited before the publication of the whole Bible. It discusses various ways passive constructions can be dealt with in translation. Contrary to the choice of identified agent in the 2003 Gun New Testament, this article supports an alternative position, one which was adopted in the 1923 Gun Bible: that is, to use an ambiguous agent in the form of the impersonal pronoun ye, translated as “one,” “someone,” “it,” “they,” and so forth.

A pragmatic analysis of german impersonally used first person singular ‘ICH’

The German first and second person singular pronouns ich and du allow for a referential use and an impersonal use. In their impersonal use, both pronouns behave like the impersonal pronoun man (Engl. one) in generic sentences. I argue that the aspect of impersonally used singular personal pronouns that distinguishes them (i) from each other, (ii) from impersonal pronouns, and (iii) from “ordinary” generic sentences is their pragmatic effects. The semantic contribution of the three pronouns and their containing utterances is discussed before a comparative analysis of the pragmatic effects of impersonally used ich and du and impersonal man is given. The analyses are illustrated with naturally occurring data from a self-compiled data collection. Turning to a more practical topic in the second part of the paper, I discuss a methodological issue regarding corpus-based analyses of low-frequency phenomena, such as impersonally used ich in the second part of this paper by reporting a small-scale corpus study.

On the use of translation corpora in contrastive linguistics

This article argues for a type of corpus-based contrastive research that is item-specific, predictive and hypothesis-driven. It reports on a programmatic study of the ways in which impersonalization is expressed in English and German. Impersonalization is taken to be epitomized by human impersonal pronouns like German man (e.g. Man lebt nur einmal ‘You/one only live(s) once’). English does not have a specialized impersonal pronoun like Germ. man and uses a variety of strategies instead. The question arises what determines the choice of a given impersonalization strategy in English. Drawing on relevant theoretical work and using data from a translation corpus (Europarl), variables potentially affecting the distribution of impersonalization strategies in English are identified, and their influence on the choice of a strategy is determined. By testing hypotheses derived from theoretical work and using multivariate quantitative methods of analysis, the study is intended to illustrate how bridges can be built between fine-grained semantic analyses, on the one hand, and more coarse-grained, but empirically valid, corpus research, on the other.

Thai Impersonal Pronouns and Language Power

Impersonal subjects are subjects unspecified for their reference. While previous analyses identified man 'it' and kháw as non-referential subject in Thai co-occurring with impersonal verbs (Indrambarya 1996, 2011, Phimsawat 2011), there exists the use of third person pronoun th ân ‘they’ as an impersonal pronoun. This paper aims at investigating how the three impersonal subjects in Thai exhibit the distance between speakers and reflect the language power inherited in different language registers.

Death and contact-induced rebirth of impersonal pronouns. A case study

Abruzzese, a southern Italian variety spoken in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, makes use of an impersonal pronoun, nomə, which is the continuation of Latin hŏmo (D'Alessandro & Alexiadou 2006). Nomə is used both as an arbitrary 3rd person pronoun and as a generic pronoun. Its use was quite widespread in the Abruzzo and Molise regions until about 50 years ago; however, as a result of heavy contact with Italian, it has recently been almost completely abandoned, and appears to be used only by the older generation of speakers. Its function has also been reshaped, in that it mostly serves as a marker of plurality on verbs. The loss of impersonal pronouns is a common trend in the European area, as witnessed by the typological study conducted by Giacalone Ramat & Sansò (2007). This typological trend, particularly combined with the significant decay of the dialects in favor of a generalized use of regional Italian, means that the creation of new impersonal pronouns is wholly unexpected. However, it appears that a new impersonal pronoun, annə, is in fact emerging in Abruzzese, and is almost entirely replacing nomə in most areas of Eastern Abruzzo. The development of this impersonal pronoun is following a rather unusual path, seeming to be the result of the re-adaptation of an auxiliary borrowed from Italian. This paper examines the diachronic development of both pronouns, showing that they follow opposite paths. While nomə is grammaticalizing into a plural marker, annə is degrammaticalizing into an arbitrary pronoun.

Not so impersonal

This paper combines quantitative and qualitative analyses in a corpus-based study of how and for what purposes politicians, in the context of the Spanish Parliament, use the impersonal pronoun uno ‘one’. I begin by contrasting how uno is used in parliamentary debate versus non-political language. After reviewing traditional definitions of the semantic range and general behavior of this pronoun, I argue that a more accurate account that the one provided by standard grammars is needed for us to better understand how the peculiar characteristics of a parliament affect intentionality in the use of impersonal pronouns. In particular, it is argued that uno is utilized by politicians to serve principally two purposes: 1) avoidance of bluntness - a means of preserving professional etiquette, and 2) avoidance of self- praise - demonstrative of humility. Both purposes serve the larger objective of preserving professional face.