Chapter IV. The Pronoun

§ 1. Definition

Pronouns are deictic words which point to objects, their properties and relations, their local or temporal reference, or placement without naming them. They constitute a limited class of words (that is a closed system) with numerous subclasses. They are generally differentiated into noun-pronouns (substituting nouns) and adjective-pronouns (substituting adjectives).

§ 2. Morphological composition and categorical characteristics

Pronouns may be of different structure: simple, compound, and composite.

Simple pronouns comprise only one morpheme - the stem:

I, you, he, we, etc.; this, that, some, who, all, one, etc.

Compound pronouns comprise more than one stem:

myself, themselves, somebody, everybody, anything, nothing, etc.

Composite pronouns have the form of a phrase:

each other, one another.

Patterns of morphological change in pronouns vary greatly not only from subclass to subclass, but also within certain subclasses. Some pronouns have the category of number (I - we, this – these), while others have not; some have the category of case expressed in a similar way to that of nouns (somebody – somebody’s), some have a pattern of their own (he - him), and others have no case distinctions at all. Some pronouns have person and gender distinctions, such as personal pronouns, while others have none.

The pronouns also have specials forms to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects. This category is to be found again in personal pronouns (he/she - it), possessive pronouns (himself/herself - itself), conjunctive pronouns (who - what), relative pronouns (who - which), and interrogative pronouns (who - what).

§ 3. Subclasses of Pronouns and their functions

Semantically all pronouns fall into the following subclasses:

I. Personal pronouns are noun-pronouns, indicating persons (I, you, he, we, and they) or non-persons (it, they) from the point of view of their relations to the speaker. Thus I (me) indicates the speaker himself, we (us) indicates the speaker together with some other person or persons, you indicates the person or persons addressed, while he, she, they (him, her, them) indicate persons (or things) which are neither the speaker nor the persons addressed to by the speaker.

Personal pronouns have the category of person, number, case (nominative and objective), and gender, the latter is to be found in the 3rd person only: masculine and feminine is he - him, she - her; neuter case-forms it - it coincide.

The nominative case form is generally used as subject of the sentence, or predicative in the compound nominal predicate in sentences like: It was I who did it. However, in colloquial style the form of the objective case is preferable, especially in sentences of the type. (E.g. It is me.)

Both the nominative and the objective case forms are used after the conjunctions as and than in comparative constructions:

She is as stout as I now; Last year he looked much older than I;

She is as old as me; He was a better friend to you than me.

The nominative case-form (as well as the objective) is used in elliptical sentences (E.g. “Who is there? – I”. “Who did it? – Me”).

The objective case form is used mainly as an object (with or without a preposition), occasionally as an attribute in prepositional phrases (E.g. Give me your hand; Were you speaking about me?; The better half of me protested).

The fact that semantically personal pronouns indicate persons or things restricts their functioning as adverbial modifiers. However, they may occur in this function in a prepositional phrase: (E.g. He stood close to me; Keep behind me).

The pronoun you implies a person, sometimes an animal, or an inanimate object, when the latter is personified (E.g. Glad to see you here, Mary; Oh, Cat, you are as clever as a man ...).

Its singular and plural forms, as well as the objective case forms, coincide (E.g. Are you in, John?; Where are you going, children?) The plural and the singular forms are differentiated only through their co-referents (denoted by John, children), as both agree with the verb in the plural.

Historically, the form you is the plural form, the singular form being thou (the objective case thee). It is no longer used nowadays except in poetry and other literary texts, where it produces a particular stylistic effect. (E.g. “So”, said the messenger, “Then thou are the spokesman.”)

The pronouns he (him), she (her) usually refer to persons, he - to male, she - to female. However some other phenomena are often referred to as he or she in poetry and fiction. Those referred to as he are: sun, wind, fear, love; those referred to as she are: earth, moon, ship, boat, car, hope, justice, modesty and some others. Also countries, especially native countries, are referred to as she: England, France, Italy, the USA, etc. (E.g. I was born in Ireland. She is the best country for me).

The pronoun they (them) is the plural form of the pronouns he, she and the personal it. Its syntactic functions are similar to those of the forms in the singular. It may be used as subject (They had no time) and as predicative (It's they who will answer first). The objective case form can also be used in these cases (That’s them). The same form is to be found in comparative constructions, as objects and adverbial modifiers:

- Do you know them, boy? (object)

- Try to catch up with them. (prepositional object)

- In front of them there were seven candles. (adverbial modifier)

In addition to their usual function when they have personal meaning the pronouns we, you, they may be used as indefinite-personal, indicating people in general or a limited group of people. The difference between them is in their reference: we refers to a group of people including the speaker, you includes only the listener(s), and they excludes both the speaker and the listeners.

(E.g. As we know, geographic limits between dialects are not easy to establish.

You never saw such a commotion up and down the house, in all your life, as when my Uncle Podger undertook to do a job. When you are tired they give you some pills, and in a minute you are your own self again. They say you were in the park with her? What do they teach you there?)

The nominative case forms are used as subject or predicative; when used as predicatives both nominative and objective case forms are possible (E.g. At last he lost his way; It was he; It is him. It keeps true also for comparative constructions: She did it better than he (him)).

The pronoun it can perform functions varying so greatly that three statuses of this word should be differentiated. They are the personal pronoun it, the impersonal pronoun it, and the demonstrative pronoun it.