Inclusive Readings of the Spanish Pronoun 'no' (‘One’): Grammatical and Pragmatic Properties

Abstract

The use of pronoun uno (‘one’) in Spanish has been analyzed as an evidential strategy because its use gives clues about the source of information expressed by the proposition. What has not been so thoroughly investigated from a grammatical point of view is the question of what factors allow the pronoun uno, which is a grammatical third person, to refer to the speaker, that is, a first person. This work focuses on investigating this conflict and has three main objectives: our first goal is to study the contexts that differentiate the arbitrary and concealing use of uno. Our second goal is to articulate a proposal that explains the inclusion of the speaker in both uses. We hypothesize that in the arbitrary use the speaker's inclusion derives from a pragmatic inference, while in the concealing use uno is behaving as a definite pronoun. We will investigate why the speaker chooses to use uno instead of yo (‘I’) to refer to himself/herself and how grammar and pragmatics interact to convey subjectivity. Finally, we will explain the inclusive uses of uno from the notions of evidentiality and intersubjectivity. The pronoun uno oscillates between personal experience, general knowledge and shared information.

Keywords

• pronoun uno; person; evidentiality; genericity; intersubjectivity; speaker concealment