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Article In: Journal of Uralic Linguistics: Online-First Articles

From pronouns to discourse markers

Pragmaticization of -hAn and se in Finnish from typological and Finnic perspectives

ORCiD logo with link | University of Helsinki, Finland | Seoul National University, South Korea
ORCiD logo with link | Seoul National University, South Korea
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Abstract
This study examines the use of two Finnish pronouns — the 3rd person form hän ‘s/he’ and the demonstrative-derived forms se/ne ‘that/those’ — in clause-second position. The data come from internet language use, particularly blog discussions. A functional-typological analysis considers interactional factors between interlocutors, showing that in this non-canonical morphosyntactic context, the two pronouns have become pragmaticized as markers of stance, epistemic authority, and evidentiality. In terms of stance, the clause-second marker -hAn, a bound morpheme from the pronominal form hän, typically signals misalignment with a preceding statement, whereas se tends to maintain alignment. Regarding epistemic authority and speech acts, the speaker-oriented -hAn creates epistemic asymmetry transformed into confirmation-seeking, warning, reminder, and mirative expressions, while se occurs when the speaker discovers noteworthy information or when expectations are exceeded. From an evidential perspective, -hAn presumes knowledge recoverable from the interlocutors’ common ground, whereas se indicates situationally observed knowledge. This functional contrast is likely inherited from their original semantics in the pronominal use: endophoric hän vs. exophoric se. The discussion also addresses the differing degrees of morphosyntactic integration of the two markers with their host constituents, which is greater for hAn. From a comparative perspective, examples from other Finnic languages illustrate parallel processes of pragmaticization observed for the Finnish pronouns.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Finnic demonstrative and personal pronouns
    • 2.1Classification of demonstrative pronouns
    • 2.2Relations between demonstrative and personal pronouns
    • 2.3Functional extension in a non-canonical syntactic context
  • 3.Functional description of the Finnish discourse markers
    • 3.1Stance and intersubjectivity
    • 3.2Epistemic authority and speech acts
    • 3.3Evidentiality and knowledge acquisition
    • 3.4Summary
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Degrees of morphosyntactic integration
    • 4.2Parallels in Finnic and Saami languages
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Sources
  • References
References (81)
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