FOR 5317:  Practices for referring to persons: usage-based approaches to personal, indefinite and demonstrative pronouns

• Subject Area: Humanities
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 457855466

The aim of this Research Unit is to close gaps in research regarding the use of personal, indefinite and demonstrative pronouns in German which are used to refer to present or absent persons. It is a clear desideratum to investigate practices of pronominal forms of reference including the systematic division of communicative work between different pronouns in the grammatical network as well as reconstructing the historical emergence of these usage patterns. The following questions will be addressed: Which routines and formulaic patterns can be described diachronically and synchronically and how can these routinizations be explained? How is the use of pronouns connected to the modality and materiality of language? What are action-based properties of pronouns, in what ways can pronouns be seen as solutions to communicative problems and how do they contribute to the construal of situations? Which properties such as genericity and specificity, definiteness and indefiniteness, exclusivity and inclusivity and agentivity and non-agentivity are relevant in the process of referring to persons? The Research Unit Group comprises nine projects spread over nine university locations. The research program combines perspectives of interactional and historical linguistics within the framework of usage-based theory: (1) S. Günthner/W. Imo: Practices of referring to persons: Uses of pronouns in oncological medical interactions (Münster/Hamburg). (2) A. Dammel: Changing referential practice: The German pronoun man from a diachronic perspective (Münster). (3) J. Lanwer: Pronouns as a constructional network: usage-based analysis of practices of referring to persons in spoken interactions (Münster). (4) W. Imo: Person-referring pronouns in dramatic works: interactional and dramaturgical functions as well as historical change from the Baroque and Enlightenment periods to Sturm and Drang and the Classical period (Hamburg). (5) I. Mostovaia: Pronouns as a constructional network: usage-based analysis of practices of referring to persons in written interactions (Hamburg). (6) E. Ziegler: Who is we? The use of the personal pronoun wir to constitute communities in the context of migration and integration (Duisburg-Essen). (7) M. Gillmann: Reference and vagueness of personal pronouns referring to speakers and addressees in German language history (Duisburg-Essen). (8) K. Pitsch: Multimodality of referring to persons. Pronominal person reference in emergency trainings of medical staff and firefighters (Duisburg-Essen). (9) M. Krug: Pronominal person-reference in letters to the editor in the GDR: communicative functions of personal, indefinite and possessive pronouns in the context of indexing social groups in an authoritarian system (Duisburg-Essen). Two to four subprojects are located at each project site. At all locations, the combination of the subprojects combines a synchronic with a diachronic perspective.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Changing referential practice: The German pronoun 'man' from a diachronic perspective (Applicant Dammel, Antje )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Imo, Wolfgang )
• Multimodality of referring to persons. Pronominal person reference in emergency trainings of medical staff and firefighters (Applicant Pitsch, Karola )
• Person-referring pronouns in dramatic works: interactional and dramaturgical functions as well as historical change from the Baroque and Enlightenment periods to Sturm and Drang and the Classical period (Applicant Imo, Wolfgang )
• Practices of referring to persons: Uses of pronouns in oncological medical interactions (Applicants Günthner, Susanne ;  Imo, Wolfgang )
• Pronominal person-reference in letters to the editor in the GDR: Communicative functions of personal, indefinite, and possessive pronouns in the context of indexing social groups in an authoritarian system (Applicant Krug, Maximilian )
• Pronouns as a constructional network: usage-based analysis of practices of referring to persons in spoken interactions (Applicant Lanwer, Jens Philipp )
• Pronouns as a constructional network: usage-based analysis of practices of referring to persons in written interactions (Applicant Mostovaia, Irina )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Imo