A unified account of the multiple applications of German D-pronoun

Abstract

Abstract The paper discusses the broad and seemingly diverse uses of the German D-pronoun. It is argued that the pronoun carries the invariant semantic feature [+distance] and that all its various uses are derived from this feature. That is, the D-pronoun expresses varying forms of distance between the referent of the pronoun and another discourse variable that functions as the perspectival center. The diverse uses of the D-pronoun arise from the specific ways in which the feature [+distance] is adapted to the relevant domain of application. Overall, the analysis considers seriously Jakobson’s proposal that the grammatical architecture of language is built on invariant semantic features.