In this paper I will take the special properties of the Modern West Frisian impersonal pronoun men 'one' (obligatory inclusiveness, 1st person singular reading, strength) and the typology of impersonal pronouns in Frisian as the starting point for a discussion of the referential status of impersonal pronouns in general. I will claim that impersonal pronouns are the pronominal counterpart of generic DPs and, like these, definite, but non-specific. Further, it will be argued that the most important typological distinction with impersonal pronouns, viz. that between inclusive and exclusive, is a consequence of their non-specificity. With respect to Modern West Frisian men I will contend that this element, in addition to being a genuine (weak) impersonal pronoun, can be a (strong) quasi-personal pronoun. I will provide some further evidence for this subclass of impersonal pronouns and show how its existence is predicted by my general theory of impersonal pronouns.

Our study presents the initial results of an analysis of North Frisian intonation, based on a spontaneous interview corpus of Fering, the dialect of the island of Föhr off the west coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The corpus was recorded more than 50 years ago during fieldwork for language documentation and conservation purposes. We selected a small part of this corpusinterviews of 10 elderly speakers -and conducted multiparametric F 0 and duration measurements, focusing on nuclear rising-falling pitch accent patterns. We found strong evidence for a phonological pitch-accent distinction that relies on the difference between a pointed and a plateau-shaped F 0 peak. We suggest that the two pitch accents be represented as L+H* and H*+L, and we discuss our findings with regard to possible communicative functions, implications for intonational typology, and the trade-off between F 0 range and F 0 peak extension in conveying pitch height.

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