Transcript pronouns - Nechodimnaprednasky.sk

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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 nounphrase 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 determinerpronouns 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
whpronouns:relative,interrogative,
demonstrative
indefinite: universal, assertive,
non-assertive, negative,
quantifying
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CENTRAL PRONOUNS:
Form the following subsystem
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Personal
Possessive
Reflexive
Nominative Accusative Determiner pronoun /Emphatic
Sg.
Pl.
1st
2nd
3rd
I
you
he
she
it
me
you
him
her
it
my/mine
your
his
her
its
mine
yours
his
hers
(its)
myself
yourself
himself
herself
itself
1st
2nd
3rd
we
you
they
us
you
them
our
your
their
ours
yours
theirs
ourselves
yourselves
themselves
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Personal pronouns
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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),nonpersonal (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)
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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 nonstandard)
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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 pronominal 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.
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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 whowhom) )
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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
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