P09 – Animacy Features and the Flexibility of Pronouns

Project description

This subproject investigates the mapping between morphosyntactic and semantic features of French and Spanish personal pronouns from the perspective of redundancy and deficiency. Because pronouns have minimal descriptive content, they are highly flexible expressions whose animacy features may vary. French strong pronouns, for example, generally refer to humans but can denote inanimate objects under certain conditions (Heidinger, 2019). Building on the assumption that strong and weak pronouns differ in their animacy specifications, the project examines how R and D manipulate these features to license non-canonical reference.

More broadly, it investigates how redundancy and deficiency allow core grammar to respond to cognitive pressures and the demands of anaphora resolution through flexible pronoun choice. The animacy properties of French and Spanish pronouns, particularly within prepositional phrases, reveal both the scope and limits of this flexibility. Since both languages distinguish strong and weak pronouns but differ in the availability of weak forms in prepositional phrases, they provide an ideal comparative testbed.

Team

Steffen Heidinger

Principal Investigator
University of Graz

Steffen Heidinger completed his doctorate on French anticausatives and his habilitation on the information structure of Spanish depictives. His current research examines animacy in French and Spanish pronouns, particularly how redundancy and deficiency permit non-canonical reference. Read more

Academic website

Yanis da Cunha

Postdoc Researcher
University of Graz

Yanis da Cunha conducted his doctoral research at Université Paris Cité on gender effects in grammatical-function assignment. His research examines syntactic alternations and the interaction of gender, animacy, and reference in French and Spanish pronouns. Read more

Academic website

Cluster membership

Semantics and Discourse Effects

Output

Publications

2026

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2026). Animacy restrictions without animacy features: The case of strong pronouns in French and Spanish. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.23551

@article{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2026_animacy_restrictions,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Animacy restrictions without animacy features: The case of strong pronouns in French and Spanish},
year={2026},
volume={11},
DOI={https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.23551},
number={1},
journal={Glossa: a journal of general linguistics} }

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2026). Competition effects on animacy restrictions: French and Spanish PPs as a case. Romanische Forschungen.

@article{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2026_competition_effects,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Competition effects on animacy restrictions: French and Spanish PPs as a case},
year={2026},
journal={Romanische Forschungen} }

Heidinger, S., & Troberg, M. (2026). Spatial expressions with implicit (and overt) arguments: A comparative study of French and Spanish. In P. Herbeck & N. Pomino (Eds.), Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (Vol. 291, pp. 334–367). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.291.12hei

@inbook{Heidinger_Troberg_2026_spatial_expressions,
author={Heidinger, S. and Troberg, M.},
title={Spatial expressions with implicit (and overt) arguments: A comparative study of French and Spanish},
year={2026},
month={Feb},
place={Amsterdam},
volume={291},
ISBN={978-90-272-3389-9},
url={https://benjamins.com/catalog/la.291.12hei},
DOI={10.1075/la.291.12hei},
booktitle={Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today},
publisher={John Benjamins Publishing Company},
editor={Herbeck, P. and Pomino, N.},
pages={334–367} }

2025

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2025). A competition puzzle: Strong, null and demonstrative pronouns in French PPs. Proceedings of the Conference Referential Expressions in Discourse (RED) 2025.

@inproceedings{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2025_competition_puzzle,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={A competition puzzle: Strong, null and demonstrative pronouns in French PPs},
year={2025},
place={University of Graz},
booktitle={Proceedings of the conference Referential Expressions in Discourse (RED) 2025} }

2024

Heidinger, S. (2024). Types of zero complements in French and Spanish prepositional phrases: New evidence from acceptability judgment experiments. Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, 10(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/isogloss.371

@article{Heidinger_2024_types_of,
author={Heidinger, S.},
title={Types of zero complements in French and Spanish prepositional phrases: New evidence from acceptability judgment experiments},
year={2024},
month={May},
volume={10},
ISSN={2385-4138},
DOI={10.5565/rev/isogloss.371},
number={1},
journal={Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics},
pages={1–29} }

Talks

2026

Da Cunha, Y. (2026). Gender prominence across text genres: a corpus study on English, French and Spanish. 4th International Conference Prominence in Language 2026 (ICPL IV), Köln.

@misc{Da_Cunha_2026_gender_prominence,
author={Da Cunha, Y.},
title={Gender prominence across text genres: a corpus study on English, French and Spanish},
year={2026},
eventtitle={4th International Conference Prominence in Language 2026 (ICPL IV)},
venue={Köln} }

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2026). Argument drop and competition effects: Experimental and corpus studies on French and Spanish PPs [Invited talk]. Linguistisches Kolloquium der Romanistik, University of Köln.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2026_argument_drop,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Argument drop and competition effects: Experimental and corpus studies on French and Spanish PPs},
year={2026},
eventtitle={Linguistisches Kolloquium der Romanistik},
venue={University of Köln} }

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2026). Quel pronom gagne la compétition? Le cas des pronoms forts, nuls et démonstratifs dans les syntagmes prépositionnels. [Invited talk]. Séminaire du laboratoire CLLE, Toulouse.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2026_quel_pronom,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Quel pronom gagne la compétition? Le cas des pronoms forts, nuls et démonstratifs dans les syntagmes prépositionnels.},
year={2026},
eventtitle={Séminaire du laboratoire CLLE},
venue={Toulouse} }

Heidinger, S., & Da Cunha, Y. (2026). Restrictions d’animéité et effets de compétition dans le système pronominal du français [Invited talk]. Séminaire “Les proformes et leurs antécédents,” Fribourg.

@misc{Heidinger_Da_Cunha_2026_restrictions_danimeite,
author={Heidinger, S. and Da Cunha, Y.},
title={Restrictions d’animéité et effets de compétition dans le système pronominal du français},
year={2026},
eventtitle={Séminaire “Les proformes et leurs antécédents”},
venue={Fribourg} }

Heidinger, S., & Da Cunha, Y. (2026). Definiteness restrictions on null complements in Spanish and French PPs. In Workshop “Ellipsis and the Architecture of Language: When and Why Can an Element Be Elided?”. LIV Simposio de la Sociedad Española de Lingüística, Madrid.

@misc{Heidinger_Da_Cunha_2026_definiteness_restrictions,
author={Heidinger, S. and Da Cunha, Y.},
title={Definiteness restrictions on null complements in Spanish and French PPs},
year={2026},
eventtitle={LIV Simposio de la Sociedad Española de Lingüística},
venue={Madrid},
journal={Workshop “Ellipsis and the Architecture of Language: When and Why Can an Element Be Elided?”} }

Heidinger, S., Da Cunha, Y., & Martínez-García, C. (2026). Definiteness and specificity restrictions on implicit arguments across domains and languages. Silent Arguments: pro-drop and argument ellipsis in theory, acquisition and diachrony, Konstanz.

@misc{Heidinger_Da_Cunha_Martinez-Garcia_2026_definiteness_and,
author={Heidinger, S. and Da Cunha, Y. and Martínez-García, C.},
title={Definiteness and specificity restrictions on implicit arguments across domains and languages},
year={2026},
eventtitle={Silent Arguments: pro-drop and argument ellipsis in theory, acquisition and diachrony},
venue={Konstanz} }

Heidinger, S., Da Cunha, Y., & Martínez-García, C. (2026). Definiteness and specificity restrictions on implicit arguments across domains and languages. SinFonIJA 19, Graz.

Heidinger, S., Da Cunha, Y., & Martínez-García, C. (2026). Definiteness and specificity restrictions on implicit arguments across domains and languages. Workshop: Syntax and Semantics of Implicit Arguments, Graz.

@misc{Heidinger_Da_Cunha_Martinez-Garcia_2026_definiteness_and,
author={Heidinger, S. and Da Cunha, Y. and Martínez-García, C.},
title={Definiteness and specificity restrictions on implicit arguments across domains and languages},
year={2026},
eventtitle={Workshop: Syntax and Semantics of Implicit Arguments},
venue={Graz} }

2025

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2025). Animacy restrictions on French strong pronouns: A spanning approach in DM. Salzburg Redefi Days, Salzburg.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2025_animacy_restrictions,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Animacy restrictions on French strong pronouns: A spanning approach in DM},
year={2025},
month={July},
eventtitle={Salzburg Redefi Days},
venue={Salzburg} }

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2025). Asymmetries in pronoun strength and competition effects in binding. SFB Clitic Cluster Workshop, Vienna.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2025_asymmetries_in,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Asymmetries in pronoun strength and competition effects in binding},
year={2025},
month={Apr},
eventtitle={SFB Clitic Cluster Workshop},
venue={Vienna} }

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2025). Competition effects on animacy restrictions in French and Spanish PPs [Invited talk]. Linglunch, Université Paris Cité.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2025_competition_effects,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Competition effects on animacy restrictions in French and Spanish PPs},
year={2025},
month={Feb},
eventtitle={Linglunch},
venue={Université Paris Cité} }

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2025). Competition-driven animacy mismatches in anaphoric relations [Poster]. Mismatches in anaphoric relations (RED 25), Graz.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2025_competitiondriven_animacy,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={Competition-driven animacy mismatches in anaphoric relations},
year={2025},
month={May},
eventtitle={Mismatches in anaphoric relations (RED 25)},
venue={Graz} }

Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2025). How to stay flexible in DM: Animacy & French pronouns. SFB Retreat, Semmering.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2025_how_to,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={How to stay flexible in DM: Animacy & French pronouns},
year={2025},
month={June},
eventtitle={SFB Retreat},
venue={Semmering} }

Heidinger, S. (2025). Aceptabilidad y frecuencia: El caso de las preposiciones huérfanas. Deutscher Hispanistiktag, Hamburg.

@misc{Heidinger_2025_aceptabilidad_y,
author={Heidinger, S.},
title={Aceptabilidad y frecuencia: El caso de las preposiciones huérfanas},
year={2025},
eventtitle={Deutscher Hispanistiktag},
venue={Hamburg} }

Heidinger, S., & Da Cunha, Y. (2025). Animacy restrictions without animacy features: Strong pronouns in French. Going Romance, Venice.

@misc{Heidinger_Da_Cunha_2025_animacy_restrictions,
author={Heidinger, S. and Da Cunha, Y.},
title={Animacy restrictions without animacy features: Strong pronouns in French},
year={2025},
eventtitle={Going Romance},
venue={Venice} }

Heidinger, S., & Da Cunha, Y. (2025). Argument drop and competition effects: An experimental study on French and Spanish PPs.. 58th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Bordeaux.

@misc{Heidinger_Da_Cunha_2025_argument_drop,
author={Heidinger, S. and Da Cunha, Y.},
title={Argument drop and competition effects: An experimental study on French and Spanish PPs.},
year={2025},
month={Aug},
eventtitle={58th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea},
venue={Bordeaux} }

Heidinger, S., & Da Cunha, Y. (2025). Redundanz, Defizienz und Wettbewerb: Belebtheit und Pronomen im Französischen und Spanisch [Invited talk]. Oberseminar, Institut für Romanistik, Universität Regensburg, En ligne.

@misc{Heidinger_Da_Cunha_2025_redundanz_defizienz,
author={Heidinger, S. and Da Cunha, Y.},
title={Redundanz, Defizienz und Wettbewerb: Belebtheit und Pronomen im Französischen und Spanisch},
year={2025},
month={Jan},
eventtitle={Oberseminar, Institut für Romanistik, Universität Regensburg},
venue={En ligne} }

Schwarzenberger, A., Da Cunha, Y., & Heidinger, S. (2025). French Strong Pronouns, Animacy and Competition: Corpus Data on Three Competition Triggers [Poster]. Salzburg Redefi Days, Salzburg.

@misc{Schwarzenberger_Da_Cunha_Heidinger_2025_french_strong,
author={Schwarzenberger, A. and Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S.},
title={French Strong Pronouns, Animacy and Competition: Corpus Data on Three Competition Triggers},
year={2025},
month={July},
eventtitle={Salzburg Redefi Days},
venue={Salzburg} }

2024

Da Cunha, Y., Heidinger, S., & Schwarzenberger, A. (2024). Competition and animacy restrictions: French and Spanish PPs as a case.

@misc{Da_Cunha_Heidinger_Schwarzenberger_2024_competition_and,
author={Da Cunha, Y. and Heidinger, S. and Schwarzenberger, A.},
title={Competition and animacy restrictions: French and Spanish PPs as a case},
year={2024},
venue={En ligne} }

Da Cunha, Y., Heidinger, S., & Schwarzenberger, A. (2024). Competition and animacy restrictions: French and Spanish PPs as a case. Workshop: Pronouns in PPs, Graz (online).

Heidinger, S. (2024). Types of zero complements in French and Spanish prepositional phrases: New evidence from acceptability judgment experiments. SLE: Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Helsinki.

@misc{Heidinger_2024_types_of,
author={Heidinger, S.},
title={Types of zero complements in French and Spanish prepositional phrases: New evidence from acceptability judgment experiments},
year={2024},
eventtitle={SLE: Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea},
venue={Helsinki} }