Projection as a determinant of pronominal reference: a study of zero and personal pronouns in Haruki Murakami's 1Q84.

It is commonly assumed that the subject of a sentence is the preferred antecedent for a subsequent pronominal or zero anaphor. However, in some contexts the antecedent is instead the object, which may lead to misinterpretation. This paper aims to identify factors that influence the interpretation of referring expressions other than subjecthood, as well as the conditions under which these factors operate. In Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, the interpretation of referential forms appears to be influenced by projection, that is, the adoption of a character's point of view. Projection is often signalled by linguistic cues such as a verb of perception in the preceding sentence, expressions of uncertainty or intentionality, a verb in the present tense, and the use of the durative aspect in the sentence itself. Even when the character being projected is not the subject of the preceding sentence, or the referent of a pronominal or zero anaphor is not the character onto whom the narrator projects, referent identification seems to be governed primarily by the point of view of a projected character who holds the status of a main character. The English translations indicate that while certain factors make ambiguous forms more likely to refer to the subject of the previous sentence, point of view also plays a role in referent identification in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]