Variation in Ẹdo Personal Pronouns: A Case of Grammaticalization?

Previous studies contend that the Ẹdo language possesses thirty personal pronouns, using structural case as a primary distinguishing feature. However, because case is not morphologically marked in Ẹdo and many pronouns occur freely across different structural case positions, this paper re-examines the language’s pronominal system to account for its plethora of personal pronouns. Drawing on primary data from naturalistic observations and key informant interviews, alongside content analysis of textual and audiovisual media, the study analyses personal pronouns through the framework of thematic roles. The analysis demonstrates that theta roles - rather than structural case - determine pronominal selection in Ẹdo. Consequently, the study proposes that the grammaticalization of theta roles accounts for the language's multiplicity of personal pronouns. These findings contribute to syntactic and semantic variation studies by demonstrating how theta roles function as a key parameter for differentiating pronominal variants.