Pronoun

For other uses, seePronoun (disambiguation).

Inlinguisticsandgrammar,apronoun(glossedPRO) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for anounornoun phrase.

Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of theparts of speech,but some modern theorists would not consider them to form a single class, in view of the variety of functions they perform cross-linguistically. An example of a pronoun is "you", which can be either singular or plural. Sub-types includepersonalandpossessive pronouns,reflexiveandreciprocalpronouns,demonstrative pronouns,relativeandinterrogative pronouns,andindefinite pronouns.

The use of pronouns often involvesanaphora,where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on anantecedent.For example, in the sentenceThat poor man looks as if he needs a new coat,the meaning of the pronounheis dependent on its antecedent,that poor man.

Theadjectiveform of the word "pronoun" is "pronominal".A pronominal is also a word or phrase that acts as a pronoun. For example, inThat's not the one I wanted,the phrasethe one(containing theprop-wordone) is a pronominal.

Theory

Pronoun versus pro-form

Pronoun is a category of words. Apro-formis a type offunction wordor expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) anotherword,phrase,clauseorsentencewhere themeaningis recoverable from the context.In English, pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns.^{[p. 239]}

Pronouns versus Pro-forms

	Example	Pronoun	Pro-form
1	Itis a good idea.	✓	✓
2	I know the peoplewhowork there.	✓	✓
3	Whoworks there?	✓
4	Itis raining.	✓
5	I asked her to help, and shedid soright away.		✓
6	JJ and Petra helped, butthe othersdidn't.		✓

Examples [1 & 2] are pronouns and pro-forms. In [1], the pronounit"stands in" for whatever was mentioned and is a good idea. In [2], therelative pronounwhostands in for "the people".

Examples [3 & 4] are pronouns but not pro-forms. In [3], theinterrogative pronounwhodoes not stand in for anything. Similarly, in [4],itis adummy pronoun,one that does not stand in for anything. No other word can function there with the same meaning; we do not say "the sky is raining" or "the weather is raining".

A prop-word is a word with little or no semantic content used where grammar dictates a certain sentence member, e.g., to provide a "support" on which to hang a modifier. The word most commonly considered as a prop-word in English isone(with the plural formones). The prop-wordonetakes the place of a countable noun in a noun phrase (or determiner phrase), normally in a context where it is clear which noun it is replacing. For example, in a context in which hats are being talked about,the red onemeans "the red hat", andthe ones we boughtmeans "the hats we bought". The prop-word thus functions somewhat similarly to a pronoun, except that a pronoun usually takes the place of a whole noun (determiner) phrase (for example, "the red hat" may be replaced by the pronoun "it".)

Finally, in [5 & 6], there are pro-forms that are not pronouns. In [5],did sois averb phrasethat stands in for "helped", inflected fromto helpstated earlier in the sentence. Similarly, in [6],othersis acommon noun,not a pronoun, butthe othersprobably stands in for the names of other people involved (e.g.,Sho, Alana, and Ali), allproper nouns.

Grammar

Pronouns (antōnymía) are listed as one ofeight parts of speechinThe Art of Grammar,a treatise on Greek grammar attributed toDionysius Thraxand dating from the 2nd century BC. The pronoun is described there as "a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person." Pronouns continued to be regarded as a part of speech inLatingrammar (the Latin term beingpronomen,from which the English name – throughMiddle French– ultimately derives), and thus in the European tradition generally.

Because of the many different syntactic roles that they play, pronouns are less likely to be a singleword classin more modern approaches to grammar.

Linguistics

Examples of "our" as a determiner or a noun

Linguists in particular have trouble classifying pronouns in a single category, and some do not agree that pronouns substitute nouns or noun categories.Certain types of pronouns are often identical or similar in form todeterminerswith related meaning; some English examples are given in the table.

	Pronoun	Determiner
Possessive	ours	ourfreedom
Demonstrative	this	thisgentleman
Indefinite	some	somefrogs
Negative	none	noinformation
Interrogative	which	whichoption

This observation has led some linguists, such asPaul Postal,to regard pronouns as determiners that have had their following noun or noun phrase deleted.(Such patterning can even be claimed for certain personal pronouns; for example,weandyoumight be analyzed as determiners in phrases likewe Britsandyou tennis players.) Other linguists have taken a similar view, uniting pronouns and determiners into a single class, sometimes called "determiner-pronoun", or regarding determiners as a subclass of pronouns or vice versa. The distinction may be considered to be one ofsubcategorizationorvalency,rather like the distinction betweentransitive and intransitiveverbs – determiners take a noun phrasecomplementlike transitive verbs do, while pronouns do not.This is consistent with thedeterminer phraseviewpoint, whereby a determiner, rather than the noun that follows it, is taken to be theheadof the phrase. Cross-linguistically, it seems as though pronouns share 3 distinct categories: point of view, person, and number. The breadth of each subcategory however tends to differ among languages.

Binding theory and antecedents

The use of pronouns often involvesanaphora,where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on another referential element. Thereferentof the pronoun is often the same as that of a preceding (or sometimes following) noun phrase, called theantecedentof the pronoun. The grammatical behavior of certain types of pronouns, and in particular their possible relationship with their antecedents, has been the focus of studies inbinding,notably in the Chomskyangovernment and binding theory.In this binding context, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns in English (such ashimselfandeach other) are referred to asanaphors(in a specialized restricted sense) rather than as pronominal elements. Under binding theory, specific principles apply to different sets of pronouns.

Example reflexive structure. Since "himself" is immediately dominated by "John", Principle A is satisfied.

In English, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns must adhere toPrinciple A:an anaphor (reflexive or reciprocal, such as "each other" ) must be bound in its governing category (roughly, the clause). Therefore, in syntactic structure it must be lower in structure (it must have anantecedent) and have a direct relationship with its referent. This is called aC-commandrelationship. For instance, we see thatJohn cut himselfis grammatical, butHimself cut Johnis not, despite having identical arguments, sincehimself,the reflexive, must be lower in structure to John, its referent. Additionally, we see examples likeJohn said that Mary cut himselfare not grammatical because there is an intermediary noun,Mary,that disallows the two referents from having a direct relationship.

Example pronoun structure. Since "him" is immediately dominated by "John", Principle B is violated.

On the other hand, personal pronouns (such ashimorthem) must adhere toPrinciple B:a pronoun must be free (i.e., not bound) within its governing category (roughly, the clause). This means that although the pronouns can have a referent, they cannot have a direct relationship with the referent where the referent selects the pronoun. For instance,John said Mary cut himis grammatical because the two co-referents,Johnandhimare separated structurally byMary.This is why a sentence likeJohn cut himwherehimrefers toJohnis ungrammatical.

Binding cross-linguistically

The type of binding that applies to subsets of pronouns varies cross-linguistically. For instance, in German linguistics, pronouns can be split into two distinct categories — personal pronouns and d-pronouns. Although personal pronouns act identically to English personal pronouns (i.e. follow Principle B), d-pronouns follow yet another principle, Principle C, and function similarly to nouns in that they cannot have a direct relationship to an antecedent.

Antecedents

The following sentences give examples of particular types of pronouns used with antecedents:

• Third-person personal pronouns:
  • That poor manlooks as ifheneeds a new coat.(the noun phrasethat poor manis the antecedent ofhe)
  • Juliaarrived yesterday. I metherat the station.(Juliais the antecedent ofher)
  • Whentheysaw us,the lionsbegan roaring(the lionsis the antecedent ofthey;as it comes after the pronoun it may be called apostcedent)
• Other personal pronouns in some circumstances:
  • Terry and Iwere hoping no one would findus.(Terry and Iis the antecedent ofus)
  • You and Alicecan come ifyoulike.(you and Aliceis the antecedent of the second – plural –you)
• Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns:
  • Jackhurthimself.(Jackis the antecedent ofhimself)
  • Wewere teasingeach other.(weis the antecedent ofeach other)
• Relative pronouns:
  • The woman wholooked at you is my sister.(the womanis the antecedent ofwho)

Some other types, such asindefinite pronouns,are usually used without antecedents. Relative pronouns are used without antecedents infree relative clauses.Even third-person personal pronouns are sometimes used without antecedents ( "unprecursed" ) – this applies to special uses such asdummy pronounsandgenericthey,as well as cases where the referent is implied by the context.

English pronouns

English pronouns have often traditionally been classified as different from nouns, but at least one modern grammar defines them as a subclass of nouns.

English personal pronouns have a number of different syntactic contexts (Subject, Object, Possessive, Reflexive) and many features:

• person (1st, 2nd, 3rd);
• number (singular, plural);
• gender (masculine, feminine, neuter or inanimate, epicene)

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English

Person	Number & gender		Subject	Object	Dependent possessive (determiner)	Independent possessive	Reflexive
First	Singular		I	me	my	mine	myself
	Plural		we	us	our	ours	ourselves
Second	Singular		you		your	yours	yourself
	Plural						yourselves
Third		Masculine	he	him	his		himself
		Feminine	she	her		hers	herself
		Neuter/Inanimate	it		its		itself
		Epicene	they	them	their	theirs	themself
		Plural					themselves

English also has other pronoun types, including demonstrative, relative, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns:

Demonstrative	Relative	Indefinite	Interrogative
this	who / whom / whose	one / one's / oneself	who / whom / whose
these	what	something / anything / nothing (things)	what
that	which	someone / anyone / no one (people)	which
those	that	somebody / anybody / nobody (people)
former / latter

Personal and possessive

Personal

Main articles:Personal pronounandEnglish personal pronouns

English personal pronouns

Person	Number	Case
		Subject	Object
First	Singular	I	me
	Plural	we	us
Second	Singular	you
	Plural
Third	Singular	he	him
		she	her
		it
		they	them
	Plural/Epicene	they	them

Personal pronouns may be classified byperson,number,genderandcase.English has three persons (first, second and third) and two numbers (singular and plural); in the third person singular there are also distinct pronoun forms for male, female and neuter gender.Principal forms are shown in the adjacent table.

English personal pronouns have two cases,subjectandobject.Subject pronounsare used insubjectposition (Ilike to eat chips, butshedoes not).Object pronounsare used for theobjectof a verb orpreposition(John likesmebut nother).

Other distinct forms found in some languages include:

• Second person informal and formal pronouns(the T–V distinction), liketuandvousin French. Formal second person pronouns can also signify plurality in many languages. There is no such distinction in standard modern English, though Elizabethan English marked the distinction withthou(singular informal) andyou(plural or singular formal). Some dialects of English have developedinformal plural second person pronouns,for instance,y'all(Southern American English) andyou guys(American English).
• Inclusive and exclusive first person plural pronouns,which indicate whether or not the audience is included, that is, whetherwemeans "you and I" or "they and I". There is no such distinction in English.
• Intensive (emphatic) pronouns,which re-emphasize a noun or pronoun that has already been mentioned. English uses the same forms as the reflexive pronouns; for example:I did itmyself(contrast reflexive use,I did it to myself).
• Direct and indirect object pronouns, such asleandluiinFrench.English uses the same form for both; for example:Mary loveshim(direct object);Mary senthima letter(indirect object).
• Prepositional pronouns,used after apreposition.English uses ordinary object pronouns here:Mary looked athim.
• Disjunctive pronouns,used in isolation or in certain other special grammatical contexts, likemoiin French. No distinct forms exist in English; for example:Who does this belong to?Me.
• Strong and weak formsof certain pronouns, found in some languages such as Polish.
• Pronoun avoidance,where personal pronouns are substituted by titles or kinship terms (particularly common in South-East Asia).

Possessive

Main articles:PossessiveandPossessive determiner

Possessive pronouns are used to indicatepossession(in a broad sense). Some occur as independent noun phrases:mine,yours,hers,ours,theirs.An example is:Those clothes aremine.Others act as a determiner and must accompany a noun:my,your,her,our,your,their,as in:I lostmywallet.(Hisanditscan fall into either category, althoughitsis nearly always found in the second.) Those of the second type have traditionally also been described as possessiveadjectives,and in more modern terminology aspossessive determiners.The term "possessive pronoun" is sometimes restricted to the first type. Both types replacepossessivenoun phrases. As an example,Theircrusade to capture our attentioncould replaceThe advertisers'crusade to capture our attention.

Reflexive and reciprocal

Main articles:Reflexive pronounandReciprocal pronoun

Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself, for example,John cuthimself.In English they all end in-selfor-selvesand must refer to a noun phrase elsewhere in the same clause.

Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship (each other,one another). They must refer to a noun phrase in the same clause.An example in English is:They do not likeeach other.In some languages, the same forms can be used as both reflexive and reciprocal pronouns.

Demonstrative

Main article:Demonstrative pronoun

Demonstrative pronouns (in English,this,thatand their pluralsthese,those) often distinguish their targets by pointing or some other indication of position; for example,I'll takethese.They may also beanaphoric,depending on an earlier expression for context, for example,A kid actor would try to be all sweet, and who needsthat?

Indefinite

Main article:Indefinite pronoun

Indefinite pronouns, the largest group of pronouns, refer to one or more unspecified persons or things. One group in English includes compounds ofsome-,any-,every-andno-with-thing,-oneand-body,for example:Anyonecan do that.Another group, includingmany,more,both,andmost,can appear alone or followed byof.In addition,

• Distributive pronounsare used to refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. (Toeachhis own.)
• Negative pronounsindicate the non-existence of people or things. (Nobodythinks that.)
• Impersonal pronounsnormally refer to a person but are not specific as to first, second or third person in the way that the personal pronouns are. (Onedoes not cleanone'sown windows.)

Relative and interrogative

Relative

Main article:Relative pronoun

Relative pronouns in English includewho,whom,whose,what,whichandthat.They rely on an antecedent, and refer back to people or things previously mentioned:Peoplewhosmoke should quit now.They are used inrelative clauses.Relative pronouns can also be used ascomplementizers.

Interrogative

Main article:Interrogative word

Relative pronouns can be used in an interrogative setting as interrogative pronouns. Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. In reference to a person, one may usewho(subject),whom(object) orwhose(possessive); for example,Whodid that?In colloquial speech,whomis generally replaced bywho.English non-personal interrogative pronouns (whichandwhat) have only one form.

In English and many other languages (e.g.FrenchandCzech), the sets of relative and interrogative pronouns are nearly identical. Compare English:Whois that?(interrogative) andI know the womanwhocame(relative). In some other languages, interrogative pronouns and indefinite pronouns are frequently identical; for example,Standard ChineseThập mashénmemeans "what?" as well as "something" or "anything".

Archaic forms

Archaic personal pronouns

Person	Number	Case
		Subject	Object
Second	Singular	thou	thee
	Plural	ye	you

Though the personal pronouns described above are the current English pronouns,Early Modern English(as used by Shakespeare, for example) use a slightly different set of personal pronouns, shown in the table. The difference is entirely in the second person. Though one would rarely find these older forms used in recent literature, they are nevertheless considered part of Modern English.

Kinship

In English,kin termslike "mother", "uncle", "cousin" are a distinct word class from pronouns; however manyAustralian Aboriginal languageshave more elaborated systems of encoding kinship in language including special kin forms of pronouns. InMurrinh-patha,for example, when selecting a nonsingular exclusive pronoun to refer to a group, the speaker will assess whether or not the members of the group belong to a common class of gender or kinship. If all of the members of the referent group are male, the MASCULINE form will be selected; if at least one is female, the FEMININE is selected, but if all the members are in a sibling-like kinship relation, a third SIBLING form is selected.InArabana-Wangkangurru,the speaker will use entirely different sets of pronouns depending on whether the speaker and the referent are or are not in a commonmoiety.See the following example:

Pulalakiya

3DU.KIN

panti-rda.

fight-PRES

Pulalakiya panti-rda.

3DU.KIN fight-PRES

They two [who are in the classificatory relationship of father and son] are fighting. (The people involved were a man and his wife's sister's son.)

SeeAustralian Aboriginal kinshipfor more details.

Special uses

Some special uses of personal pronouns include:

• Genericyou,where second person pronouns are used in an indefinite sense:Youcan't buy good old-fashioned bulbs these days.
• Genericthey:In Chinatheydrive on the right.
• Gender non-specificuses, where a pronoun refers to a non-specific person or a person whose gender is not specified: English usage and acceptance varies (and has varied) regardinggenericheandsingularthey,among others.
  • A closely related usage is thesingulartheyto refer to a person whose gender is specified asnon-binary,genderqueer, or other, which has gained popularity in LGBTQ+ culture in particular.
• Vernacular usage of "bro" as a gender-neutral, but often masculine pronoun.
• Preferred gender pronounselected to reflect gender identity
• Dummy pronouns(expletive pronouns), used to satisfy a grammatical requirement for a noun or pronoun, but contributing nothing to its meaning:Itis raining.
• Royal we,used to refer to a single person who is amonarch:Weare not amused.
• Nosism:The use of the pronounweto refer to oneself.
• Resumptive pronouns,"intrusive" personal pronouns found (for example) in some relative clauses where a gap (trace) might be expected:This is the girl that I don't know whatshesaid.

See also

Related topics

• Anaphora (linguistics)
• Cataphora
• Clusivity
• Gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns
• Generic antecedents
• Deixis
• Inalienable possession
• Indefinite pronoun
• Logophoric pronoun
• Neopronouns
• Phi features
• Pro-form
• Pronoun game
• Reciprocal pronoun
• Reflexive pronoun

In English

• Old English pronouns

In other languages

• Bulgarian pronouns
• Cantonese pronouns
• Chinese pronouns
• Dutch grammar: Pronouns and determiners
• Esperanto grammar: Pronouns
• French pronouns
• German pronouns
• Ido pronouns
• Interlingua pronouns
• Irish morphology: Pronouns
• Italian grammar: Pronouns
• Japanese pronouns
• Korean pronouns
• Macedonian pronouns
• Novial: Pronouns
• Portuguese personal pronouns
• Proto-Indo-European pronouns
• Slovene pronouns
• Spanish grammar: Pronouns
• Vietnamese pronouns

Further reading

• Wales, Katie (1995).Personal pronouns in present-day English(Digital print. ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521471022.
• Simon, Horst J. (2002).Pronouns - Grammar and Representation.Linguistics Today.ISBN9789027227737.
• Bhat, Darbhe N.S. (2007).Pronouns.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0199230242.

External links

• English pronouns exercises,by Jennifer Frost
• "Pronoun".New International Encyclopedia.1905.