The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan

Rocafiguera Montanyà, Núria de; Bel, Aurora

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/glossa.16989

The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan

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de Rocafiguera N, Bel A. The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan. Glossa. 2025;10(1):1-37. DOI: 10.16995/glossa.16989

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to disentangle the role of syntactic and pragmatic factors on pronominal subject anaphora resolution in a null subject language, Catalan. Through the manipulation of information structure, we assess how and to what extent the syntactic function (subject vs.object), the information status (focus vs.topic), and the sequential or hierarchic position of the antecedents (first vs.second position) in the main clause guide the interpretation of ambiguous null and overt subject pronouns in the subordinate clause. The results of a two-alternative forced-choice task reveal a different sensitivity of null and overt pronouns to syntactic and pragmatic cues, in line with multifactorial and form-specific approaches, and no overriding factor is identified. Null pronouns appear highly sensitive to both the syntactic function and the information status of their antecedent, preferring both subjects and topics and not showing a specialization when these syntactic and pragmatic features are misaligned. The interpretation of overt pronouns, on the other hand, is mainly guided by the syntactic function and hierarchical position of the antecedent, preferring coreference with objects and second-mentioned, hierarchically lower positions. Different from null pronouns, overt pronouns appear less sensitive to the information status of their antecedent-showing that they can be interpreted as pragmatically 'inert'.