Pronoun

From Citizendium
Revision as of 17:00, 7 October 2024 by Suggestion Bot (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

In modern English, pronouns can function as substitutes for both proper and common nouns. For example, me, you, he, they, this, myself and themselves are all pronouns. Within functional linguistics, however, pronouns are described as a separate set of words, since pronouns in English have additional functions beyond those of ordinary nouns; for instance the pronoun who has an objective case, whom, whereas ordinary nouns in English no longer take this case. In this way, pronouns should not be seen as simple substitutes for full nouns, as these examples show:

1. There's Fred!
2. *There's him!

'*' indicates that what follows is unacceptable in the exemplifying language. In the two examples above, no pronoun can occupy the position filled by Fred.


Personal pronouns

Possessive pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns

Reflexive pronouns

See Also