Pronouns in Catalan: Games of partial information and the use of linguistic resources

• Published in: Journal of pragmatics Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 781 - 799
• Main Authors: Mayol, Laia, Clark, Robin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.03.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Anaphora; Catalan; Descriptive studies and applied theories; Game Theory; Linguistics; Null-subject languages; Pronouns; Semantics and pragmatics; Semantics Discourse Relationship; Sentence Structure; Anaphora; Catalan; Null-subject languages; Game theory; Null subject; Personal pronoun; Pragmatics
• ISSN: 0378-2166; 1879-1387
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.07.004

This paper investigates the variation between null and overt subject pronouns in Catalan, a null-subject language. We account for this variation in game-theoretical terms: that is, we analyze the distribution of both overt and null pronouns as a result of the strategic interaction between participants in a communicative exchange. First, we examine the Position of Antecedent Hypothesis (PAH), as put forward by Carminati (2002). This hypothesis proposes that null and overt pronouns have different biases: null pronouns prefer antecedents in subject positions, while overt pronouns prefer antecedents in non-subject positions. Carminati (2002) tested the PAH for Italian in a variety of intrasentential contexts. In this paper, we show experimentally that the PAH also holds for Catalan even in across-sentence contexts. In the second place, we also show how the PAH can be naturally redefined as a game of partial information, in which speaker and hearer are trying to communicate. This redefinition does not just translate the PAH into a different notation, but it extends the PAH into a model that makes more accurate predictions, since it can account also for the cases in which the biases predicted by the PAH are not obeyed.