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PRONOUNS

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

Pronouns form a word class of items

which are said to be capable of

„standing instead of nouns“

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

In a discourse, recurring NPs need

not always be repeated entirely but

may be replaced by expressions

which are capable of substituting

them.

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

The pronoun can be used either as a

determiner or as a noun-phrase

equivalent (NP-pronoun)



This book is interesting



This is an interesting book.

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

Pronouns can be divided into:

1.Those used as both NP-pronouns and

determiner-pronouns

2.Those used as NP-pronouns only
3.Those used as determiner- pronouns

only

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

Syntactically, pronouns will function

as the elements they stand for.

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

Pronouns differ from nouns in that the

class in which we group them is a

closed class, or rather several closed

classes in various ways interconnected.

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

Pronouns constitute a system which is

different from that of nouns.

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

Pronouns may distinguish

person, gender, number, case

and definiteness.

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

Pronouns contain a number of

subclasses, more or less

connected with one another

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

Taking into account the traditional

subclasses of pronouns, they may be

divided into:

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

central/primary: personal,

possessive, reflexive, emphatic



reciprocal



wh-pronouns:relative,interrogative,



demonstrative



indefinite: universal, assertive, non-

assertive, negative, quantifying

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

CENTRAL PRONOUNS:



Form the following subsystem

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Sg.

Pl.

1st I me

my/mine

mine

myself

2nd

you

you

your

yours yourself

3rd

he

him

his

his

himself

she

her

her

hers

herself

it

it

its

(its)

itself

1st

we

us

our

ours

ourselves

2nd

you

you

your

yours yourselves

3rd

they

them their

theirs themselves

Possessive

Determiner pronoun

Personal

Nominative Accusative

Reflexive

/Emphatic

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

- function only as NP-pronouns; they can not

be used as determiners.



- are typically definite, with specific, personal

(1st and 2nd person sg),non-personal (3rd

person sg), or personal/non-personal (3rd

person pl) reference.



1st and 2nd person pronouns are used

deictically – they are not used instead of

other noun phrase. (they are a sort of

linguistic pointers)

Personal pronouns

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

3rd person nouns are used referentially –

they may stand for NPs in the preceding

or following linguistic context (also deictic

use is possible: What is it?)



Personal pronouns maintain a three-fold

distinction when referring to the

speaker/writer (1st person), addressee

(2nd), person and others (3rd person).

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

Some problematic cases include:



a/ 1st person plural “we” which may

sometimes include the addressee (inclusive

“we”) Shall we do it right away? ) or exclude

him/her (exclusive “we” (We´re going home.

What about you?), or may include a single

person, for example when used for

ceremonial purposes as pluralis

majestaticus (the royal we), or as pluralis

modestiae/editorial we (in academic writing

and journalism.

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

We may even mean You (How are we

feeling today?) in doctor/patient

interaction.

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

b/ 2nd person pronoun “you” may

also be used with different referents.

As it is not clear whether it refers to a

single addressee or more addressees,

sometimes appositional explicitness

markers are used (you all/ y´all, you

two, yous/youse =plural non-

standard)

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

c/ 3rd person singular “it” performs a

number of referential and non-

referential functions: referentially it

refers mostly anaphorically (i.e.

standing for something previously

mentioned) to uncount concrete,

abstract and collective nouns or entire

complexes of sentences.

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

Non referentially it functions as and

empty “it “ in subject (It's raining) or

object (Beat it!), as anticipatory

(introductory) subject (It would be

nice to see you again.) or object (He

found it difficult to speak).

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

An important difference between

personal pronouns in English and

Slovak is that in Slovak they are

used in the subject only when they

are stressed. The unstressed subject

pronoun is left out.



She came yesterday. Prišla včera.

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

The pronoun it is often used as a filler

pronoun whose only function is to

occupy the slot of the subject which in

English can not be left empty.

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

This is the case when a pro-nominal

subject can be supplied, for example

in:



It is raining.



It is late.



It is a long way to the village.



EMPTY IT

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

Or in some cases when the subject is

the infinitive, the –ing form, or a

clause, and is introduced later in the

clause, for example:

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

It is funny to see you here.



It is funny seeing you here.



It is funny that I see you here.



Anticipatory it

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

It is also made use of in the cleft

sentences – sentences in which

one of the elements is pointed out

(rhematized)



Jane is wrong.



It is Jane who is wrong.

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

d/ Personal pronouns exhibit case

distinction of nominative/accusative

case (which is not found in nouns or

other pronouns – except who-

whom) )

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

Notable cases include:

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

after the verb be (in the position of

Subject complement) predominantly

accusative forms are used nowdays

(Who´s there? It´s me. not It is I.( this

would be used in formal English

according to one of the traditional

prescriptive rules.



He is more punctual than me. )

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

In other persons, too we can use

accusative forms, but the traditional

nominative case forms are used

alongside with them and are still

preferable in formal English.



It is we/us.



Who will do it? They/them.

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

After some conjunctions, such as as, but,

and than (before an elliptical verb), or after

except, accusative case is preferred in

conversation (He is taller than me.)



This, however, may lead to ambiguities (He

loves you better than me. ) – which may be

resolved by the use of proform He loves you

better than I do , rather than nominative case

He loves you better than I.

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

Formal styles admit nominative case.

(They have accomplished more than

we.)



Generally, there is a tendency for the

accusative forms to spread over to

the traditional “territory” of the

nominative case as the distinction

between the two cases is becoming

weakened. (Am E)

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

Possessive pronouns:



There are two sets of possessive

pronouns:

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

a/ the former function as possessive

determiners and are complementary

to other types of central determiners.

They are related to genitive NPs:



This is Mary´s book. This is her book.

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

b/the latter function as NP

replacements (i.e. proper pronominal

function)



This book is mine. This book is hers.

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

Possessive pronouns are typically definite,

personal and bear mostly anaphoric (i.e.

standing for something previously

mentioned) reference.



Many Slovaks might have laughed at the

recent public discussion in Britain over

whether Prime Minister Tony Blair should

take paternity leave to spend time with his

new-born son.

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

Cataphoric reference is rare, used

esp. in written mode, e.g. Ours is a

happy class.

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

As English NPs obligatory contain

determiners, possessive

determiners are used quite

frequently, esp. in expressing

possession by/belonging to subject (I

like my job. = svoj), or when referring

to the parts of human body or

personal belongings (I raised my

hand, I can´t find my book)

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

Note that possessive pronouns are not used

in English if the possessed thing (usually a

part of a body) belongs to a possessor who is

the object of the clause (or the subject of a

passive sentence)



She kicked him in the leg.



*She kicked him in his leg.*



He got kicked in the leg.



*He got kicked in his leg.*

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

The meaning of possession can be

strengthened by using the word own –

after the possessive pronoun:



Wouldn´t you like to have a castle of

your own?

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

Reflexive/Emphatic, emphasizing

pronouns:

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

Also there is an identical paradigm for

English reflexive and emphasizing

pronouns (they consist of singular and

plural forms of possessive (1st and 2nd

person) and personal pronouns (3rd

person) + sef/selves ), syntactically they

behave differently

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

Reflexive pronouns show that the

person or thing they refer to is the

same as the subject of the clause. They

are used anaphorically, thus having a

definite meaning.

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

They replace the appropriate NP

obligatorily; it is not possible to

repeat the NP in the object or

elsewhere in the same clause if it has

the same referent.



Thus the sentence

John shaved John.

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

could only mean that there were two

persons with the same name.

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

If the same person (thing, etc. ) is

expressed both in the subject and in

another element of the clause (often

the object), the latter can only be

expressed pronominally (with the

pronoun)

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

As objects, reflexive pronouns stand in

co-referential relation to the subject

(She saw herself in the mirror), in

case a personal pronoun is used, the

referents are different (She saw her in

the mirror).

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

Reflexive pronouns are obligatorily

used after some verbs:



Avail oneself on, pride oneself on,

content oneself with

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

In English the reflexive pronoun in

the object is frequently omitted if the

situation makes it clear that the activity

is performed by the subject ( especially

after words wash, dress, shave).



In the morning I washed and

shaved.

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

However, the sentence:



She dressed herself

may imply that the action was done

with special effort and some difficulties

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

The reflexive pronoun can not be omitted after a

preposition, when used after a verb that must be

followed by an object, when conjoined with another

NP,or in some set phrases, for example:



She looked at herself.



I saw myself in the picture.



She washed herself and her sister.



Help yourself to some cake.



Behave yourself!



We could not make ourselves understood.

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

The reflexive pronoun is obligatory in

English when it carries new

information.



She poisoned herself, not her lover.

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

Emphasizing pronouns,



in contrast, function as appositions to the

immediately antecedent NP-



(I talked to the President himself)



i.e it will be used immediately after the element it

belongs to.



The only exception is when it qualifies the subject. In

this case there can be two positions:



After the subject NP or at the end of the clause.

The president himself signed the document.

The president signed the document himself.

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

Reciprocal pronouns



The English reciprocal pronouns are each

other and one another



The two may be used indiscriminately.



Sometimes the “warmth” of more

personalized reference of each other is

contrasted with the higher “objectivity” of

one another, hence its use in official

language

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

Relative pronouns



Relative pronouns function as

subordinators. They are used to connect the

subordinate clause in the function of

postmodifier to the head of NP by showing

that the word used in the head and the

relative pronoun have the same referent. The

relative pronoun is always anaphoric.



This is the picture that he bought.

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

Not all words with a connecting

function are pronouns (they may be

conjunctions or conjuncts). Relative

pronouns are pronouns because they

also function as noun phrases in the

clause they introduce.

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

The relative pronouns include:



a/ who/whose, whom, which



b/ that



c/zero subordinator