Pronouns, metonymy, and identity
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Eve Sweetser
Eve Sweetser Ph.D. 1984, Linguistics, University of California at Berkeley. Professor of Linguistics, UC-Berkeley. Particular research interests: Cognitive approaches to syntax and semantics, metaphor and semantic change, grammaticalization, the semantics of grammatical constructions, conditional constructions, Celtic languages, Middle Welsh, Celtic and Indo-European metrics and poetics, iconicity and metaphor in gesture accompanying speech, viewpoint and perspective in multimodal communication and in literary texts. Author of
From etymology to pragmatics: metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990; with Barbara Dancygier,Figurative Language . Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Abstract
Although formal linguists have focused on the deictic and (co)referential functions of pronouns, social categorization and identity are deeply involved in pronominal usage. I argue here that even the understanding of pronoun reference requires us to go beyond extensional (co)-reference. The extensive literature on linguistic categorization has focused on nouns more than on verbs, as has work on metonymy – but not on pronouns. Here I present two case studies, one of third-person pronouns and one of first-plural pronouns. In one I argue that cognitive science findings on categorization make it impossible for a masculine noun/pronoun usage to be truly “generic” in gender reference. The other examines the ways in which identity and group structure shape the possibilities for plural pronoun reference, in particular with respect to first-person plural (we) uses. To understand the principles of reference for these pronouns, we need to apply theoretical frameworks developed for lexical meaning: frames, category structure, prototypes, categorial metonymy and frame metonymy.
About the author
Eve Sweetser Ph.D. 1984, Linguistics, University of California at Berkeley. Professor of Linguistics, UC-Berkeley. Particular research interests: Cognitive approaches to syntax and semantics, metaphor and semantic change, grammaticalization, the semantics of grammatical constructions, conditional constructions, Celtic languages, Middle Welsh, Celtic and Indo-European metrics and poetics, iconicity and metaphor in gesture accompanying speech, viewpoint and perspective in multimodal communication and in literary texts. Author of From etymology to pragmatics: metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990; with Barbara Dancygier, Figurative Language. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Acknowledgments
This paper is dedicated to the memory of my kind, brilliant colleague Per Aage Brandt. He was an artist in his semiotics as well as in his music; I cannot think of anyone more wonderful to have late-night intellectual discussions with, and I only regret our not having had more of them. He deeply understood frames and mental spaces and categories, so I hope this exercise is a suitable tribute to him. I also want to thank my doctoral-study mentors, George Lakoff, Paul Kay, and the late Charles Fillmore – I would never have started out on this track without them. And to Barbara Dancygier, thanks for our thinking together on generic masculines; to Ben Papadopoulos, thanks for a thoughtful last-minute manuscript reading.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editor’s Introduction
- Article
- Memorial speech delivered by Line Brandt, Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, France, 18 November, 2021
- Obituary
- From the blue waters of the Baltic and Kattegat to the Red Sands of Burgundy. Per Aage Brandt (April 26, 1944 – November 10, 2021)
- Articles
- The semiotic scoubidou – a short intellectual biography of Per Aage Brandt
- Pronouns, metonymy, and identity
- Who’s talking? Cognitive semiotics in the (new media) wild
- Tom Thomson’s Islands, Canoe Lake, 1916: a rock as the head of a bear
- The morphogenesis of religion and religious self-organization (with a focus on polytheism and Christianism)
- Germand Gladensvend and the monster
- The Band’s The Weight – a semio-cognitive narratological adventure
- Enunciation – some psychosemiotic reflections
- Rhythm in verse
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editor’s Introduction
- Article
- Memorial speech delivered by Line Brandt, Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, France, 18 November, 2021
- Obituary
- From the blue waters of the Baltic and Kattegat to the Red Sands of Burgundy. Per Aage Brandt (April 26, 1944 – November 10, 2021)
- Articles
- The semiotic scoubidou – a short intellectual biography of Per Aage Brandt
- Pronouns, metonymy, and identity
- Who’s talking? Cognitive semiotics in the (new media) wild
- Tom Thomson’s Islands, Canoe Lake, 1916: a rock as the head of a bear
- The morphogenesis of religion and religious self-organization (with a focus on polytheism and Christianism)
- Germand Gladensvend and the monster
- The Band’s The Weight – a semio-cognitive narratological adventure
- Enunciation – some psychosemiotic reflections
- Rhythm in verse
