Project "Animacy features and the flexibility of pronouns"

About

Animacy features and the flexibility of pronouns is a subproject of the SFB Language between redundancy and the deficiency (Austrian Science Fund SFB 10.55776/F1003).

We investigate the animancy features (and animacy restrictions) of different types of pronouns mostly in the context of prepositional phrases. The main questions addressed in this subproject are (i) whether certain types of pronouns are specified in terms of animacy (e.g., strong pronouns as +human) and (ii) how redundancy and deficiency allow such pronouns to be used in a way that deviates from their animacy features (e.g., strong pronouns for inanimate referents).

Activities

• Publications

Heidinger, Steffen, 2024. Types of zero complements in French and Spanish prepositional phrases: New evidence from acceptability judgment experiments. In: Isogloss. 10,1. 1-29. doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.371

• Presentations

Heidinger, Steffen. 2024. Types of zero complements in French and Spanish prepositional phrases:New evidence from acceptability judgment experiments. SLE 2024, Helsinki. 24.08.2024.

Da Cunha, Yanis; Heidinger, Steffen; Schwarzenberger, Alina. 2024. Competition and animacy restrictions: French and Spanish PPs as a case. Workshop: Pronouns in PPs. Graz / Online. 05.12.2024.

Da Cunha, Yanis; Heidinger, Steffen. 2025. Redundanz, Defizienz und Wettbewerb: Belebtheit und Pronomen im Französischen und Spanischen. Oberseminar Romanistik. Universität Regensburg. 13.01.2025.

Da Cunha, Yanis. 2025. Competition effects on animacy restrictions in French and Spanish PPs. LingLunch. Université Paris Cité. 20.02.2025.

Heidinger, Steffen. 2025. Aceptabilidad y frecuencia: El caso de las preposiciones huérfanas. Deutscher Hispanistiktag. Hamburg. 12.03.2025.

• Events

Online-workshop Pronouns in PPs: Orphan Prepositions and Pronoun Types