6)The Pronoun

1. The semantic classification of the pronouns

Pronouns have every right to the reputation of a part of speech difficult to classify, since they include words very different lexically, syntactically and grammatically. Thus, if the syntactic principle is chosen as the basis of classification, then pronouns are divided into nominal and adjectival. If, however, these pronouns are further divided into groups, then some of them may be referred both to nominal as well as adjectival ones (this, that, each, other, some, any, all etc.). As a result, scholars prefer the semantic classification of pronouns, which suggests (with slight variations from author to author) the following division:

1) personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they);

2) possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, its, our, their);

3) demonstrative pronouns (this, that, such, (the) same);

4) reflexive (also called emphatic) pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves);

5) interrogative pronouns (who, whose, what, which);

6) relative pronouns (who, whose, which, that);

7) indefinite pronouns (some, any, somebody, anybody, someone, anyone, one);

8) negative pronouns (no, nobody, no one, nothing);

9) defining pronouns (all, each, every, everybody, everyone, everything);

10) reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another).

Considerable discreteness of this classification can hardly be to its advantage. Another flaw of the classification lies in that pronouns of different classes share grammatical and semantic features. For instance, personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns are marked with the category of person. Indefinite, negative and generalizing pronouns, in their turn, convey the meaning of quantity. To eliminate these unfortunate drawbacks, some grammarians suggest dividing pronouns into four groups: 1) personal, 2) demonstrative, 3) interrogative, and 4) quantitative. We will stick to the more complicated classification in order to give a detailed analysis of the pronominal groups.

2. The deictic and anaphoric function of the pronoun

Deictic pronoun is a pronoun whose reference must be fixed through the context of the utterance.

anaphoric pronoun s (pronouns that refer back to textual antecedents

3. Syntactic peculiarities of the pronouns

Syntactic functions of pronouns are diverse. The personal pronouns, several interrogative pronouns, the possessive pronouns in the absolute form, derivatives of some, any, no and every perform functions peculiar to the noun, whereas the possessive pronouns, some indefinite pronouns take syntactic positions typical of the adjective. The demonstrative pronouns, several interrogative pronouns, the indefinite pronouns some and any, the defining pronouns each and other may carry out both nounal and adjectival functions.

4. Grammatical categories of the pronouns

Morphologically, pronouns represent quite a diverse group. Thus, the category of case is a property of the personal pronouns, in which one may observe the distinct opposition “nominative case – objective case”. The indefinite-personal pronoun one and derivatives with the components -body and -one are also marked for the case category, since they demonstrate the opposition of the common and the possessive cases.

The category of number marks the demonstrative pronouns, the indefinite-personal pronoun one and the defining pronoun other as well as the reflexive pronoun yourself.