This paper is a first step towards a corpus-based description of the semantics of Russian pronouns in intensional contexts. Having justified the use of corpus in (formal) semantic research, I delineate a particular issue within the topic: whether a given pronoun is interpreted de se or de re in counteridentity contexts. A counteridentity context is a clause within the scope of a counterfactual (clause or adverbial) that affects the identity of a real individual, e. g. if I were you, were I you, etc. If a pronoun such as I, my or the Russian reflexive possessive svoj is used in such a context, two options are theoretically possible: either it picks out the speaker's real self (de re), or it refers to the identity assumed by the speaker in the contrary-to-fact situations introduced by the counterfactual (de se). Using data from the GICR corpus (approx. 20 billion tokens), I show that for the Russian first-person singular pronoun ja and its corresponding possessive moj, de se reference is possible but de re interpretation is more frequent. The opposite holds for the reflexive sebja, whereas svoj is interpreted de se with no exception. Special attention is paid to situations where more than one referential strategy is possible. The paper concludes with a couple of observations relevant for the future formal accounts of de se reference.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationКомпьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии
Pages721-734
Number of pages14
Volume2018-May
Edition17
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2018
Event2018 International Conference on Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies, Dialogue 2018 - Moscow, Russian Federation
Duration: 30 May 20182 Jun 2018

Publication series

NameKomp'juternaja Lingvistika i Intellektual'nye Tehnologii
PublisherРоссийский государственный гуманитарный университет
ISSN (Print)2221-7932

Conference

Conference2018 International Conference on Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies, Dialogue 2018
Country/TerritoryRussian Federation
CityMoscow
Period30/05/182/06/18

    Research areas

  • Anaphora, Counteridentity, De re, De se, Russian, Web corpus

    Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Computer Science Applications

ID: 35932819