Constraints on the Distribution of English Pronoun Case Forms in Coordinates

Heidi Quinn

Abstract

This abstract summarises findings from a detailed written survey of English pronoun case (cf. Quinn 2002). The results of the empirical study indicate that the distribution of English pronoun case forms in coordinates is difficult to account for in a purely case-based approach, but is nevertheless tightly constrained. Although the pronoun case patterns found in coordinates may vary considerably from speaker to speaker, the individual speaker patterns attested in the survey suggest that the distribution of pronoun case forms in coordinates is primarily influenced by the factors given in (1)-(3).

I argue that the trends outlined in (1)-(3) are best modelled in a constraint-weighting approach where the cumulative weight of constraint violations determines the probability of occurrence of a particular variant (cf. Guy 1997, Mohanan 1998, Jäger and Rosenbach 2003). In order to account for the pronoun case patterns observed in the survey, we need to posit one or more case constraints that allow us to distinguish between subjects and objects, as well as between objects of verbs and objects of prepositions. I propose that these case constraints compete with two Relative Positional Coding constraints (4)-(5) and a set of Invariant Strong Form constraints (6).

All constraints are violable and have some weight for all speakers. The total number of violation points incurred by a candidate is determined by the combined weight of all the constraints it violates. Variation between speakers is captured by assigning different weightings to the different constraints. Variation within the speech of an individual occurs where the demands of different constraints clash, and two or more candidates incur a similar number of violation points.

* I would like to thank Peter Peterson for offering me the opportunity to participate in the workshop on coordination, and Joan Bresnan for drawing my attention to Gerhard Jäger and Anette Rosenbach's work on cumulativity effects in constraint evaluation.

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