Abstract

In this paper we take a close look at the behaviour of German demonstrative pronouns in the complement clauses of propositional attitude verbs. Building on and partially revising Hinterwimmer and Bosch The impact of pronominal form on interpretation, Studies in generative grammar. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York, 2016), we show that DPros are anti-logophoric pronouns whose behaviour is similar to that of epithets Empirical issues in syntax and semantics 10, 2014). In particular, we argue that while Hinterwimmer and Bosch The impact of pronominal form on interpretation, Studies in generative grammar. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York, 2016) were right in assuming that DPros are prohibited from being bound by or co-referring with the currently most prominent perspective holder, they were wrong in assuming that the subjects of propositional attitude verbs are necessarily the most prominent perspective holders with respect to the DPros contained in their complement clauses. Evidence for this comes from two sources: First, in cases where a sentence with a propositional attitude verb is the complement of another propositional attitude verb in the matrix clause, a DPro contained in the complement clause of the lower propositional attitude verb can be bound by the subject of that verb, but not by the subject of the higher one. Secondly, if the speaker makes her own perspective particularly prominent by using an evaluative expression in referring to the subject of a propositional attitude verb α, a DPro contained in the complement clause of α can at least for some speakers be interpreted as bound by the subject of α. We therefore now propose a pragmatic strategy that determines the most prominent perspective holder not only for the novel data discussed in this paper, but also for the data discussed in Hinterwimmer and Bosch The impact of pronominal form on interpretation, Studies in generative grammar. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York, 2016). Finally, we argue that the allergy of DPros against perspective holders is related to their status as demonstrative items which as such require an external reference point.