Arbitrary Readings of 3pl Pronominals

Abstract

In the generative literature antecedentless readings of 3pl pronouns have been referred to as arbitrary. The present article argues that antecedentless readings are not a unitary phenomenon and proposes to distinguish 5 types of antecedentless readings for 3pl pronouns. I propose that the antecedentless readings depend on a deficient form of 3pl agreement that allows a non-anaphoric reading and only contributes the feature [+human]. I further propose that the different readings rely on two possible translations of 3pl pronouns combined with different mechanisms of content identification.