Examples

Take it or leave it. I love you. She turned and stared at them. That reminds me of something. Who says so?

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase (including a noun phrase consisting of a single noun) with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. A pro-form is a type of Function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as another word phrase clause or sentence whose meaning is recoverable In grammatical theory, a noun phrase (abbreviated NP) is a Phrase whose head is a Noun or a Pronoun, optionally accompanied A determiner is a Noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase including quantity rather than its attributes as expressed English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The replaced phrase is the antecedent of the pronoun. In Grammar, an antecedent is generally the Noun or Noun phrase to which an anaphor refers in a Coreference. A pronoun used for the item questioned in a question is called an interrogative pronoun, such as who.

For example, consider the sentence "John gave the coat to Alice. " All three nouns in the sentence can be replaced by pronouns: "He gave it to her. " If the coat, John, and Alice have been previously mentioned, the listener can deduce what the pronouns he, it and her refer to and therefore understand the meaning of the sentence. However, if the sentence, "He gave it to her," is the first presentation of the idea, none of the pronouns have antecedents, also called unprecursed pronouns, and each pronoun is therefore considered ambiguous.

Contents 1 Types of pronouns 2 Pronouns and determiners 3 Pronouns in English 4 Pronouns in other languages 5 See also 6 References

Types of pronouns

Common types of pronouns found in the world's languages are as follows.

• Personal pronouns stand in place of the names of people or things:
  • Subjective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the subject of the sentence or clause. Personal pronouns are Pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common Nouns. In Linguistics, a subjective pronoun is a Personal pronoun that is used as the subject of a sentence According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the English example: I like to eat chips but she doesn't.
    • Second person formal and informal pronouns (T-V distinction). In Sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a Language has second-person Pronouns that distinguish varying levels of For example, vous and tu in French. There is no distinction in modern English, though Elizabethan English marked the distinction with "thou" (singular informal) and "you" (plural or singular formal).
    • Inclusive and exclusive "we" pronouns indicate whether or not the audience is included. In Linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person Pronouns and Verbal morphology, There is no distinction in English.
    • Intensive pronouns re-emphasize a noun or pronoun that has already been mentioned. In English An intensive pronoun is a pronoun used to add emphasis to a statement for example "I did it myself. English uses the same forms as for the reflexive pronouns; for example: I did it myself (contrast reflexive use I did it to myself).
  • Objective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the object of the sentence or clause. An objective pronoun in Grammar functions as the target of a Verb, as distinguished from a Subjective pronoun, which is the initiator of a verb English example: John likes me but not her.
    • Direct and indirect object pronouns. An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. English uses the same forms for both; for example: Mary loves him (direct object); Mary sent him a letter (indirect object).
    • Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself. English example: John cut himself.
    • Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship. The reciprocal pronouns in English are one another and each other. English example: They don't like each other.
  • Prepositional pronouns come after a preposition. A prepositional pronoun is a special form of a Personal pronoun that is used as the object of a preposition. In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. No distinct forms exist in English; for example: Mary looked at him.
  • Disjunctive pronouns are used in isolation, or in certain other special grammatical contexts. A disjunctive pronoun is a stressed form of a Personal pronoun reserved for use in isolation or in certain syntactic contexts No distinct forms exist in English; for example: Who does this belong to? Me.
  • Dummy pronouns are used when grammatical rules require a noun (or pronoun), but none is semantically required. A dummy pronoun (formally expletive pronoun or pleonastic pronoun) is a type of Pronoun used in non- Pro-drop languages such as English English example: It is raining.
  • Weak pronouns. A weak pronoun is a Pronoun phonetically more independent than Clitic pronouns but less independent than ordinary pronouns
• Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession or ownership. A possessive pronoun is a Part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something Possession, in the context of Linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents the Referent of one of which (the possessor) possesses
  • In strict sense, the personal pronouns are only those that act syntactically as nouns. Personal pronouns are Pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common Nouns. English example: Those clothes are mine.
  • Often, though, the term "possessive pronoun" is also applied to the so-called possessive adjectives (or possessive determiners). What are traditionally and popularly called possessive adjectives &mdash in linguistic analyses possessive pronouns, possessive determiners or genitive pronouns For example, in English: I lost my wallet. They are not strictly speaking pronouns because they do not substitute for a noun or noun phrase, and as such some grammarians classify these terms in a separate lexical category called determiners (they have a syntactic role close to that of adjectives, always qualifying a noun). A determiner is a Noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase including quantity rather than its attributes as expressed In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the
• Demonstrative pronouns distinguish the particular objects or people that are referred to from other possible candidates. Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others English example: I'll take these.
• Indefinite pronouns refer to general categories of people or things. An indefinite pronoun is a Pronoun that refers to one or more unspecified beings objects or places English example: Anyone can do that.
  • Distributive pronouns are used to refer to members of a group separately, rather than collectively. A distributive pronoun considers members of a group separately rather than collectively English example: To each his own.
  • Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things. English example: Nobody thinks that.
• Relative pronouns refer back to people or things previously mentioned. A relative pronoun is a Pronoun that marks a Relative clause within a larger sentence. English example: People who smoke should quit now.
  • Indefinite relative pronouns have some of the properties of both relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns. They have a sense of "referring back", but the person or thing to which they refer has not previously been explicitly named. English example: I know what I like.
• Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. English example: Who did that?

Pronouns and determiners

Pronouns and determiners are closely related, and some linguists think pronouns are actually determiners without a noun phrase. A determiner is a Noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase including quantity rather than its attributes as expressed ^[1] The following chart shows their relationships.

	Pronoun	Determiner
Personal (1st/2nd)	we	we Americans
Personal (3rd) / Definite	he	the American
Possessive	ours	our land
Demonstrative	this	this American
Indefinite	some	some Americans
Interrogative	who	which American

Pronouns in English

Main article: English personal pronouns

English has the following personal pronouns:

• first-person singular (I)
• first-person plural (we) - inclusive (you and I) and exclusive (someone else and I but not you)

• second-person singular or plural (you) - many English speakers amplify the pronoun with following words such as "you all", "you guys", "you both", etc. The personal pronouns of English can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case. to disambiguate singular/plural
• second-person singular (archaic) (thou) - other forms: thee (object), thine (possessive), thy (actually, a determiner)
• second-person plural (archaic) (ye) - used as a subjective pronoun (subject) only: "If ye love me, keep my commandments. "

• third-person singular masculine (he) - used both for humans and male animals
• third-person singular feminine (she) - used for humans and female animals
• third-person singular human (they) - used widely in informal educated speech, e. g. "If a customer requires help, they should contact . . . " (stylistically in formal writing, "they" would be replaced with he or she here)
• third-person singular generic human (one) - in formal usage, e. g. "If one is kind to others, they often reciprocate. " - informally, English speakers would use you here
• third-person singular neuter (it) - used for objects and animals whose sex is unknown and as a dummy subject, e. g. "It is raining. "
• third-person plural (they)

Unlike English nouns, which are undeclined for case except for possession (woman/woman's), English pronouns have a number of forms or "cases" depending on their grammatical role in a sentence:

• a subjective case form (I/we/etc. ), used when a pronoun is the subject of a finite verb
• an objective case form (me/us/etc. ), used when it is the object of verb or of a preposition
• a possessive case form (mine/ours/etc. ), used when it is the possessor of another noun — one that's used as a determiner, and one that's used as a pronoun or a predicate adjective
• a reflexive form (myself/ourselves/etc. Possession, in the context of Linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents the Referent of one of which (the possessor) possesses A determiner is a Noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase including quantity rather than its attributes as expressed ), which replaces the objective-case form in referring to the same entity as the subject.

Pronouns in other languages

• Bulgarian pronouns
• Chinese pronouns
• Dutch grammar: pronouns
• Esperanto grammar: pronouns
• French pronouns
• German pronouns
• Ido pronouns
• Interlingua pronouns
• Irish morphology: pronouns
• Italian grammar: pronouns
• Japanese Pronouns
• Novial: pronouns
• Portuguese personal pronouns
• Spanish grammar: pronouns
• Vietnamese pronouns

See also

• Anaphora (linguistics)
• Cataphora
• Gender issues: Gender-specific pronoun, Gender-neutral pronoun, Generic antecedents
• Deixis
• Pro-form
• Pronoun game

References

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