Case, deficient pronouns and the arbitrary pronoun men in Frisian

ABSTRACT The Frisian arbitrary pronoun men is analysed here as a deficient pronoun, since it does not allow expansion of its projection by means of premodification, coordination or relativisation. Furthermore, men occurs adjacent to the tensed verb in main clauses and to the complementiser in embedded clauses. To explain these data, we suggest that men is case licensed in Phonetic Form under adjacency by means of a head–head relation, being deficient as a maximal projection. The relation between case and deficiency is further reflected in the defective (or suppletive) morphological case paradigm of men. Evidence is presented that the paradigm of men in written Frisian originated in the 16th and 17th centuries by suppletion of forms of the indefinite pronoun ien/jin ‘one’. Out of these arose the reflexive object form of the arbitrary pronoun men: jin, and as its reflexive jin thus truly became part of men’s paradigm.