Mazeland1996
| Mazeland1996 | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Mazeland1996 |
| Author(s) | Harrie Mazeland |
| Title | Pragmatic aspects of the use of pronouns in wh-questions |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Pronouns, Wh-questions, Questions |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 1996 |
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| Journal | Belgian Journal of Linguistics |
| Volume | 10 |
| Number | |
| Pages | 185–206 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1075/bjl.10.12maz |
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Abstract
This paper focuses on the ways Dutch speakers use pronouns in order to refer to the topic entity of wh-questions. It appears that, when they have the choice between a third-person pronoun or a demonstrative pronoun, they prefer the latter; however, in the answers given to wh-questions, the same discourse entity is normally referred to by means of a third-person pronoun. This phenomenon is usually accounted for by the recency principle, which predicts that a speaker accomplishes topical continuity by using a third-person pronoun. However, even when a discourse entity was already thematic over a long stretch of talk, speakers normally refer to it by means of a demontrative pronoun if it is the topic of a wh-question. Therefore, it is argued that the sequential function of the utterance as a whole may govern the selection of the coding devices through which reference is made to discourse entitites. This hypothesis would explain why the topic entity of a reported wh-question is usually referred to by means of a third-person pronoun.
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