@article{e28de50a8c9840c4919f069c26e2639a,
title = "Nominal speech act structure: Evidence from the structural deficiency of impersonal pronouns",
abstract = "In this paper, we propose that there is a speech-Act structure in the nominal spine, just as there is in the clausal spine. Its function is to encode what we do when we utter a nominal: That is, we name, describe, or track individuals. Thus, speech-Act structure establishes a link between the discourse referent and the speech-Act situation. The evidence we discuss comes from nominals that lack this speech-Act structure, namely impersonal pronouns. We argue that impersonal pronouns have in common that they lack nominal speech-Act structure but are not otherwise a natural class: They vary in syntactic structure. Thus, we propose a novel formal typology of impersonal pronouns.",
keywords = "impersonal pronouns, nominal speech acts",
author = "Elizabeth Ritter and Martina Wiltschko",
note = "Funding Information: Dans cet article, nous proposons qu{\textquoteright}il existe une structure d{\textquoteright}actes de parole dans l{\textquoteright}{\'e}pine nomi-nale, tout comme dans l{\textquoteright}{\'e}pine clausale, dont la fonction est de coder ce que nous faisons lorsque nous pronon{\c c}ons un nominal : nous nommons, d{\'e}crivons ou gardons une trace d{\textquoteright}un individu. Ainsi, la structure de l{\textquoteright}acte de parole {\'e}tablit un lien entre le r{\'e}f{\'e}rent dans le discours et la situation de l{\textquoteright}acte de parole. Les preuves dont nous discutons proviennent de nominaux d{\'e}pourvus de cette structure d{\textquoteright}actes de parole, {\`a} savoir les pronoms impersonnels. Nous sou-tenons que les pronoms impersonnels ont en commun l{\textquoteright}absence de la structure nominale This work was supported by SSHRC grant No. 435-2018-1011. We would like to thank the participants and organizers of the University of Manitoba Workshop on Person and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2019.",
year = "2019",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1017/cnj.2019.10",
language = "English",
volume = "64",
pages = "709--729",
journal = "Canadian Journal of Linguistics",
issn = "0008-4131",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
number = "4",
}