Pragmatics of impersonal pronouns in Turkish

Abstract

Impersonal pronouns are pronouns without specific, identifiable real-world referents. It is established in the literature that they are used to convey generalizable claims while expressing a certain degree of subjectivity at the same time. Relatively few works, however, study how the use of impersonal pronouns relates to the flow of the discourse and the identity of the speakers. This thesis aims to investigate how Turkish utilizes its six impersonal pronouns interactionally, which are sen/siz ‘you’, onlar ‘they’, biz ‘we’, insan ‘human’, adam ‘man’. In order to achieve this goal, 11 hours of recorded data is analyzed in terms of stance-taking, positioning and narrative analysis. The first finding is that impersonal pronouns, with the exception of impersonal-biz, are used to take predictable affective stances—the pronouns sen and insan are used to take positive stances; adam and onlar negative. Secondly, impersonal pronouns are found to position the speakers in numerous ways including being more knowledgeable, morally superior, and disadvantaged. Because of their stance-taking and positioning properties, Turkish impersonal pronouns are frequently encountered in the orientation and evaluation parts of the narratives. Additionally, if there is an antagonist-protagonist dichotomy in the narrative, speakers utilize Turkish impersonal pronouns in order to position themselves on the side of the protagonist and away from the antagonist. Consequently, in this research, it is shown for Turkish that impersonal pronouns not only put forward generalizable claims but also deliver what the speakers like and dislike and where they position themselves in terms of knowledge and morality.