Pronoun's characteristics, classification and specific pronouns

Characteristics of pronouns

As their name implies, pronouns replace nouns or rather whole noun phrases. The main difference between them and nouns is that pronouns are a closed system which does not really change over time and new words cannot be added, unlike nouns' open system. In addition, pronouns reflect case-contrast (I/me, she/her), person distinction (1st, 2dn...) and gender (feminine, masculine, neuter).

CASE:  Nouns have only two cases, however, six pronouns have an objective case.

            Subjective – I,  he,  she, we, they, who

            Objective – me, him, her, us, them, who(m)

            Genitive –   my, his, her, our, their, whose                                       = possessive pronouns

PERSON: 1^st – I, we = the speaker.  2^nd – you, the person addressed     3rd – it, she, he, they - the rest

GENDER: masculine - he/him/himself/his

                  feminine - she/her/herself/hers

                  neuter -  it/itself/its

NUMBER: singular and plural – I, we, yourself – yourselves, this – these

Classification

Pronouns can be divided into 2 classes:

1. Specific pronouns (I, his, they, my)

      Central can express person and gender contrast.

o   personal

o   reflexive

o   reciprocal

o   possessive

      relative

      interrogative

      demonstrative

2. Indefinite pronouns are without a specific reference (all, someone, none).

      universal

      partitive

      quantifying

Personal pronouns

They can be used in subjective and objective case. There have also archaic forms of these pronouns (nominative thou, objective thee, possessive thy), rarely used in modern English except in poetry. They are, however, still used in quotations from the  Bible. "I" is always written with capital letter and formal royal proclamations use "Royal we."

Thou shalt not kill. I love thee. Love thy neighbour.

Reflexive pronouns

They are formed by adding –self/selves to the possessive pronouns my, your, our and to the objective case of the personal pronouns him, her, it, them. They have two distinct uses:

Non-emphatic = the person denoted by the subject and the person denoted by the object are identical (She saw herself in the mirror. You are yourself again. I want a little time to myself.)

Emphatic = they are used for emphasis, they have heavy stress and unlike reflexive pronouns in non-emphatic use they have greater positional mobility (I wouldn’t kiss her myself. I myself wouldn’t kiss her. Myself, I wouldn’t kiss her.)

Reflexive pronouns occur with obligatory reflexive verbs which always require reflexive object (absent oneself from, pride oneself on).

Reciprocal pronouns

= each other generally implies two (The two help each other all the time.)

= one another implies more than two (He put all the books beside one another.)

They have also genitive case (They share each other´s notes.)

Possessive pronouns

They are divided into attributive pronouns (my, your, her, their…) that function as determiners and the nominal pronouns (mine, yours, hers, theirs…) which do not precede nouns (a friend of mine, no fault of yours, yours sincerely).

Relative pronouns

= who, whom, whose, which, that and what. They have the same forms for singular, plural, masculine or feminine but they distinct between personal and non-personal, restrictive and non-restrictive.

WHO, WHOM, WHOSE are used for people (The man who spoke was my brother. He is a man whom I can trust. She is a woman whose word has effect.)

WHICH is used for things and animals (The window which was broken yesterday) but if the animal is named or we feel something to it, who can be used.

With collective nouns denoting people which is used if it is meant as singular (The London team, which plays really good, starts its new season.) and who(m) if it´s regarded as plural (The team, who have won the match, are coming.)

THAT is used for persons or things in restrictive (defining) relative clauses and no commas are used. (They live in a house that was built in 1600.)

WHAT is used when the antecedent is not expressed (Tell me what you want to know.)

WHICHEVER, WHATEVER, WHOEVER are compound relative pronouns (You can have whatever you want. She can date whoever

Interrogative pronouns

= who, whom, whose, which, that when used in forming questions and they always precede the verb.

Who is used only for people. It has nominative (who), objective (whom, formal) and genitive (whose) case. (Who broke that window? Who(m) did you see? Whose are these gloves?)

What and which is generally used for things, activities, when asking for person´s profession. (What is his name? What are you doing? Which do you prefer, tea of coffee?)

The compound interrogatives are used for emphasis. (Whoever would have thought it? Whichever can it be?)

Demonstrative pronouns

They have contrast in number and both determinating and nominal function. They are very often followed by – to be + predicative noun. (This is a pen.)

THIS/THESE is used for what is close in space or time (I like these pictures).

THAT/THOSE is used for what is farther off (I like those earrings.)

Compare these maps with those on the blackboard.

SAME and SUCH (AS) are also demonstrative pronouns (He´s not the same person I knew. Such is life! I like winter sports such as skiing.)