Alternative pronominal items: Noncanonical pronouns in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Afrikaans

This chapter focuses on the pronominal systems of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Afrikaans, which contain many alternative forms (e.g., kin terms, career titles) conditioned by sociopragmatic factors. We first document a new class of pronominal items – non-canonical pronouns – in Chinese and Vietnamese, and demonstrate how this class syntactically resembles default, textbook pronouns, while pragmatically exhibiting significant idiosyncratic effects reflecting speakers’ personalities or unique styles. We then present data from Afrikaans to demonstrate that non-canonical pronouns are not an areal phenomenon, nor are they restricted to particular registers. We conclude with a syntactic analysis of non-canonical pronouns comparing them to the well-known category of ‘imposters’.