Why register might be more important than modality for the choice of demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns have been shown to direct the attention to an entity that is currently not the most prominent entity in discourse. German poses an interesting puzzle because two of its demonstrative pronouns have very similar interpretive preferences. Patil et al. (2023) suggest that the der-demonstrative (DPro) considers the perspectival anchor as the most prominent entity, while the dieser-demonstrative (DemPro) is insensitive to the perspective holder, rendering distinct interpretive biases, whereas Patil et al. (2020) showed that DemPro prefers the formal language register, and further suggested that DPros avoid the written modality. Here we test a long-held explanation for the availability of two demonstrative pronouns, namely that the DPro is preferably used in the spoken modality, while the DemPro favours the written modality. In two sets of experiments, we directly compare the acceptability of the two demonstratives between spoken and written modalities. The experiments showed mixed results. While Experiment 1 registered no effect of modality, Experiment 2 revealed higher ratings for the DPro in the spoken over the written modality. We argue that the findings can be reconciled by considering register differences in the two studies, where items from Experiment 1 point to a more formal register than the items in Experiment 2. Overall, we suggest that register might be a stronger licensor for the choice of demonstrative pronouns than modality.

Why register might be more important than modality for the choice of demonstrative pronouns

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