Classification of pronouns.

Pronouns fall under the following groups:

(1) personalpronouns: /, he, she, it, we, you, they.

(2) possessivepronouns: my, his, her, its, our, your, their;

mine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs.

(3) reflexivepronouns: myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves,

yourself (yourselves), themselves.

(4) reciprocalpronouns: each other, one another.

(5) demonstrativepronouns: this (these), that (those), such,

(the) same.

(6) interrogativepronouns: who, whose, what, which.
(!) relativepronouns: who, whose, which, that, as.

(8) conjunctivepronouns: who, whose, which, what.

(9) definingpronouns: each, every, everybody, everyone, every-

thing, all, either, both, other, another.

(10) indefinitepronouns: some, any, somebody, anybody, some-

thing, anything, someone, anyone, one.

(11) negativepronouns: no, none, neither, nobody, no one, nothing.

There is no uniformity of morphological and syntactical char­acteristics in the groups of pronouns. Some pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, gender, case,and number.The categories of person and gender (in the third person singular) exist only in personal and possessive pronouns.

Pronouns as well as nouns have two cases but whereas some pronouns (e. g., personal pronouns and the relative and interroga­tive who) have the nominative and objective cases, others (e. g. indefinite pronouns such as somebody, reciprocal pronouns such as one another, negative pronouns such as nobody) have the common and genitive cases.

The category of number is found in demonstrative pronouns (this and that) and the defining pronoun other.

Many pronouns are characterized by double syntactical use (they may be used as subject, predicative, object, and at the same time as attribute). Here belong demonstrative pronouns, possessive pro­nouns, etc.

Personal pronouns.

1. The personal pronouns are: /, he, she, it, we, you, they. The personal pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, case, number and (in the third person singular) gender.

The personal pronouns have two cases:the nominativecase and the objective case.

The nominative case; /, he, she, it, we, you, they.¹

The objective case: me, him, her, it, us, you, them.²

The objective case of the pronouns /, he., she, we is expressed by suppletive forms.

In colloquial speech me, not / is commonly used as a predica­tive: Who is there? — It is me.

The personal pronouns have two numbers,singular (I, he, she, it) and pluial (we, they).

The second-person pronoun you is both singular and plural.

The pronouns of the third person he, she, it distinguish gender. Male beings (man, father, uncle, boy, etc.) are referred to as. he; female beings (woman, mother, aunt, girl, etc.) are referred to as she; inanimate things (house, tree, cap, etc.) are referred to as it?

Her husbandasked a few questions and sat down to read the

evening paper. He was a silent man... (Dreiser)

And then he turned and saw the girl... Shewas a pale, ethe- !

real creature, with wide, spiritual eyes and a wealth of golden j

hair. (London)

He did not know what to do with his cap,and was stuffing itij

into his coat pocket... (London)

As some nouns denote animate beings of either sex, masculine [ or feminine (friend, teacher, servant, cousin, etc.), personal pro- j nouns are often used to specify them:

"Tell your servant that hemust not use such words to Hend- f rike, Mr. Allan," Stella said to me. (Haggard)

2. Personal pronouns may have different functions in the sen­tence, those of subject, object, predicative:

I was not free to resume the interrupted chain of my reflections

till bed-time... (Ch. Bronte) (subject)

He arranged to meet herat the 96th Street station... (Wilson)

(OBJECT)

"Who's there?" "It's me." "Who's me?" "George Jackson, sir."

(Twain) (PREDICATIVE)

But I think that was himI spoke to. (Cronin) (predicative)

¹ The archaic pronoun of the second person singular is thou.

² The objective case of thou is thee.

³ In literary style the general principle is to associate with the pronoun he
words indicating strong forces, violent passions, violent actions, big heavenly,
bodies {wind, fear, love, anger, despair, sun); and to associate with the pro-/
noun she gentler forces, gentler feelings, smaller heavenly bodies (hope, mercy, f
justice, modesty, moon).

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 2013