Amount Awarded: $24,474
How do pronouns vary across languages? How do they not vary? This project brings together four linguists with expertise in languages of different families and regions as the beginning of a long-term collaboration focused on these questions. We propose to hold two workshops in 2018-2019, one each in Berkeley and in Oslo, focusing on different aspects of pronominal typology in under-studied languages. Our first workshop focuses specifically on first person pronouns and logophors, which have recently been shown to feature a substantial amount of semantic variation across languages. Our second workshop expands outward from the first, focusing more generally on variation and universals in pronoun behaviors crosslinguistically. The ultimate goal of the long-term collaboration that this project will inaugurate is to produce a predictive typology for pronominal elements across all of the world's languages -- that is, a testable hypothesis of what exactly the limits are on pronouns and pronominal systems. The proposed exchange, which is currently in its initial phase, will substantially contribute to new synergies between the academic community at the University of Oslo and the academic community at Berkeley.