Languages & Linguistics
Pronoun
A pronoun is a word that can function as a substitute for a noun or noun phrase. It is used to avoid repetition and make sentences less cumbersome. Pronouns can refer to people, places, things, ideas, or entire sentences, and they play a crucial role in language by allowing for more efficient and varied expression.
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eBook - PDFLexical Anaphors and Pronouns in Selected South Asian Languages:
A Principled Typology
- Barbara C. Lust, Kashi Wali, James W. Gair, K. V. Subbarao, Barbara C. Lust, Kashi Wali, James W. Gair, K. V. Subbarao(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
A. Formal/morphological foundations A-l. General sketch of the pronominal forms A-l presents an overall summary of the lexical forms in the language that serve a pronominal function of any sort (using the term pronominal in a general sense here; see Glossary). Focus on third-person singular Pronouns. In this section we are interested in studying these forms. In later sections we will study their function. 862 Outline A—1.1. Personal Pronouns Provide the forms that are commonly labeled as Pronouns, for example, in tradi-tional grammars. We are interested here in the nonreflexive Pronouns. What categories (person, number, gender, or case) apply to the personal pro-nouns? Provide a sample grammatical paradigm (abbreviated if necessary) of the relevant forms, exemplifying nominative, possessive, accusative (oblique), or da-tive cases in third-person singular. Note whether there is a relationship or distinction between third-person per-sonal Pronouns and demonstrative (or deictic) Pronouns and/or adjectives. For example, in Hindi/Urdu, the demonstrative adjectives and the third-person pro-nouns are essentially identical, whereas in Dravidian languages, the Pronouns are commonly composed of a demonstrative element plus a pronominal element, and the demonstrative adjectives are distinct (i.e., Tamil inta 'this (adj)' versus itu 'this (pron)'. State which categories, such as proximal, distal, etc., as well as number and gender, are represented morphologically. A-1.2. Reflexive Pronouns Provide the forms that are commonly labeled as reflexive Pronouns, for example, in traditional grammars. (Use the term reflexives instead of reflexive pro-nouns as much as possible.) What categories (person, number, gender, and case) apply to the reflexive? Provide a grammatical paradigm (abbreviated if necessary) for the relevant forms (3sg at least).
eBook - PDF- Paul Portner, Klaus Heusinger, Claudia Maienborn, Paul Portner, Klaus Heusinger, Claudia Maienborn(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
Daniel Büring 1 Pronouns 1 Pronoun types and basic interpretation 1 2 The meaning of definite Pronouns 6 3 Pronoun binding 16 4 Pronominal content 22 5 Binding theory 27 6 References 30 Abstract: We introduce the main types of Pronouns in natural language — indefinites, definites, demonstratives, and reciprocals — and summarize current analyses of their semantics. For definite Pronouns, we discuss question of whether Pronouns are akin to variables or descriptions, in particular so-called Pronouns of laziness, paycheck Pronouns and E-type Pronouns. Pronoun binding is analyzed in detail, including the questions of if and when semantic binding becomes obligatory. For all these issues, different formal implemen-tations, including an explicit semantics for plural Pronouns, are provided and discussed. The article closes with a short overview of semantic approaches to Binding Theory. 1 Pronoun types and basic interpretation The class of Pronouns in English includes expressions like he, she, it, us, they, her, herself, ourselves, each other, here, there, now, someone, somewhere, this, that and these . It is a closed class of mostly one-word expressions in the cate-gory DP or PP (perhaps among others), whose semantic content is limited to basic features such as number, gender and person. Most, if not all, languages have expressions of this type, but no definition of the term will be attempted here, and examples will mostly be drawn from English. We can cross-classify Pronouns according to their ontological status — e.g. personal ( you, she, this, someone ), temporal ( now, then, sometimes ), or locative ( here, there, somewhere ); in each group we can distinguish definite Pronouns ( you, she, this, now, then, here, there etc.) from indefinite ones ( someone, somewhere etc.); definites can be demonstrative ( this, that ) or non-demonstrative, the latter in turn deictic (or https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110589443-001 Daniel Büring, Vienna, Austria
- Ruth Crymes(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
A number of morphophonemic alternations underlie this regularity. Hill's justification for the abstractness of his analysis is that it reveals the similarity in the base forms of the Pronouns and of the h- th- wh-words and distinguishes the former from the latter by the Pronoun suffixes. The two series are thus related but not identical. His analysis assigns who and the personal Pronouns to the class of pro-nouns and the other h- th- wh-words to the class of pronominals. Like Hill, James Sledd admits only the personal Pronouns and interrogative and relative who to the class of Pronouns, excluding on morphological grounds other words traditionally classified as Pronouns. 12 1.13. Classification by Function 1.131. As a Replacer The traditional definition of a Pronoun as a word that takes the place of a noun has been criticized both for its semantic and for its formal inaccuracy. The semantic inaccuracy, as Charles C. Fries has pointed out, is such as would allow a phrase like the two boys to be called a Pronoun because it can, for example, occur in the place of John and James. 13 The formal inaccuracy would allow a Pronoun like he to stand for the noun boy in the boy, with consequent *the he. With few exceptions, the so-called Pronouns replace nominal constructions, not nouns, as has been pointed out by Zellig S. Harris, 14 Robert L. Allen, 15 and W. V. Quine. 16 As replacers of nominal 11 Accolades { } are here used to enclose morphemes. 12 James Sledd, A Short Introduction to English Grammar (Chicago, Scott, Foresman and Company, 1959), pp. 77-79. 13 Charles C. Fries, The Structure of English (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), p. 68. 14 Zellig S. Harris, Structural Linguistics (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1951, impres-sion of 1961), p. 291. (Formerly entitled Methods in Structural Linguistics). 16 Robert L. Allen, The Classification of English Substitute Words, General Linguistics, V (1961), 10.
eBook - PDF- Eleanor Dozier, Zulma Iguina(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
A Personal Pronouns B Se C Demonstrative and Possessive Pronouns D Interrogatives E Exclamatives F Indefinites and Negatives G Relative Pronouns Pronouns CHAPTER 3 Copyright 201 7 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 50 Chapter 3 ■ Pronouns A PERSONAL PronounS Personal Pronouns are differentiated by their grammatical function: subject, object (direct, indirect, prepositional), and by their stress: stressed or unstressed. They may refer to first person ( yo, me, mí; nosotros/as, nos ), second person ( tú, te, ti; usted, le; ustedes, les; vosotros/as, os ), or third person ( él/ella/ellos/ellas, lo/la/le/se/ sí, los/las/les/se/sí ). 1 Grammatical Functions of Personal Pronouns a. Subject The subject carries out the action of the verb. The verb of a sentence may suffice in and of itself to express everything that we need to say about the subject, with no additional complements: María llegó. María arrived. Pepa salió. Pepa went out. Nosotros pagamos. We paid. Ella ya jugó. She already played. b. Direct object complement A direct object complement specifies who or what receives the action of the verb directly. It may be a person, an animal, or a thing: [subj. 1 : yo; d.o.: las noticias / las ]: Oí las noticias. I heard the news. Las oí. I heard them. [subj.: nosotros; d.o.: la película / la ]: Vimos la película. We saw the movie. La vimos. We saw it. [subj.: yo; d.o.: tu hermana / la ]: Vi a 2 tu hermana. I saw your sister. La vi. I saw her. 1 The subject Pronoun in Spanish is used mostly for emphasis or clarification.
eBook - PDF- Claire Bowern(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
They mark focus and topic status, for example, but are seldom used in reference tracking. Bowern (2008a) provides some earlier discussion, and these func-tions are described below. 286 Pronouns and Demonstratives 1. Personal Pronouns The evidence for Pronouns as a word class distinct from nouns is not par-ticularly strong. They do not show case marking paradigms distinct from nouns, for example. Their behavior in discourse shows properties of both nouns and Pronouns, since most reference tracking is done with agreement or null anaphora rather than overt Pronouns. They can take modifiers, just as nouns do (see § 7.1.6). Like Pronouns in other languages, however, they get their reference from the discourse context. Third person Pronouns are also quite extensively used as determiners and modifiers of nouns. Person Pronouns also have inherent number specification, whereas nouns in Bardi do not. The free Pronouns are also inherently referential, unlike nouns, and unlike agreement markers. Therefore while I treat personal Pronouns as a dis-tinct class here, one should remember that there are no morphological (and few syntactic) differences between nouns and Pronouns. 1.1. Number distinctions in personal Pronouns The Nyulnyulan languages (including Bardi) and many other non-Pama-Nyungan languages of the Kimberley region are described as having a four-person minimal/augment system, an analysis due to McGregor (1989a). Mc-Gregor (1989a) and Rumsey (1996) noticed several unusual facts about the pronominal systems of languages like Nyulnyul and Gooniyandi. These lan-guages have (in familiar terminology) a first person dual inclusive Pronoun, but no first person dual exclusive. The first person dual exclusive is marked by the first person plural. In many of the relevant languages there is no second or third person dual. Secondly, the first person dual inclusive seems to pattern more with the ‘singular’ Pronouns than with non-singular ones.
eBook - PDF- Manuel Widmer(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
The chapter is structured in the following manner: In Section 5.2, I give an over-view of the different types of Pronouns. In Section 5.3, I discuss the different types of demonstratives that are attested in my data. Note that I follow Diessel (1999: 74) in including demonstrative adverbs of location, manner, quantity and quality in my description of demonstrative expressions. 5.2 Pronouns 5.2.1 Personal Pronouns Personal Pronouns are a closed lexical class of words that can substitute for nouns or noun phrases that refer to human beings or, more generally, entities that are con-ceptualized as human-like, i.e., supernatural beings such as gods, demons, and talking animals. Personal Pronouns additionally indicate the speech act role of the substituted referent, i.e., speaker (first person), addressee (second person), or non-participant (third person). All personal Pronouns can be marked for plural reference with the plural clitic =ɕi . Dual forms are formed periphrastically by postposing the numeral nispi ‘two (human)’ after a Pronoun. However, the expression of duality is not obligatory, and it is perfectly possible to use a plural form to refer to a group of two persons. 246 Pronouns and demonstratives The first person singular Pronoun is gi . In the first person plural, there is a dis-tinction between an inclusive form er a ŋ and an exclusive form hiŋ . The inclusive form comprises the speaker and the addressee and may include further non-speech act participants as well. The exclusive form refers to the speaker and non-speech act participants, but explicitly excludes the addressee. When standing in the absolu-tive case, er a ŋ and hiŋ can be optionally marked with the plural clitic =ɕi , while they obligatorily have to take the plural marker =tsʰi (instead of =dzi ) when being marked for ergative case. The genitive forms of er a ŋ and hiŋ have the irregular shape erĩː and hĩː. Table 48 gives an overview of first person Pronoun forms.
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