Supplementary material for the article "Pronoun preferences unmasked. An Experimental Study on the Interpretation of logophors and pronouns in Ewe, Igbo and Yoruba"

This data set includes the supplementary material for the article "Pronoun preferences unmasked. An Experimental Study on the Interpretation of logophors and pronouns in Ewe, Igbo and Yoruba". All content is documented in the README.md file.

Abstract: This study investigates the interpretation of logophoric and ordinary pronouns in three West African languages: Ewe, Igbo, and Yoruba. While logophoric pronouns are typically assumed to obligatorily refer to the attitude holder in indirect speech, the referential properties of ordinary pronouns in these languages remain controversial. A total of 109 adult speakers completed an acceptability judgment task evaluating pronoun use in co-reference and disjoint reference contexts across two attitude predicates say and think.
The results reveal that in Ewe and Yoruba, logophoric pronouns are strongly preferred in co-reference contexts, while ordinary pronouns are dispreferred in the same environments and instead favored in disjoint contexts. An analysis of this pattern is offered based on Maximize Presupposition: logophoric pronouns encode a presupposition requiring reference to the attitude holder, thereby blocking ordinary pronouns when this presupposition is satisfied. In contrast, Igbo speakers accept both pronoun types in co-reference contexts, indicating weaker or absent blocking effects.
We propose that this variation arises from morpho-syntactic factors, specifically the degree of formal distinctness between competing pronouns. When forms are insufficiently distinct, as in Igbo, presuppositional competition is reduced. Additional effects of education level and limited dialectal variation further modulate acceptability patterns. Overall, the findings provide the first quantitative experimental evidence on pronoun interpretation  in logophoric languages and highlight the interaction between presupposition, competition, and morphological form in shaping referential readings.