Lecture 4.

Typological Features

of the Pronoun

in English and Ukrainian

Contents:

•1. Typological characteristics of the English and Ukrainian pronoun as a part of speech.

•2. Lexico-grammatical classes of English and Ukrainian pronouns: allomorphic and isomorphic features.

•3. Stem structure of English and Ukrainian pronouns.

•4. Isomorphism and allomorphism in the expression of grammatical categories by English and Ukrainian pronouns.

Pronoun is a part of speech which serves to denote substances, qualities, quantities, circumstances

etc. not by naming or describing them, but by indicating them.

English and Ukrainian pronouns correlate with:

•(1) nouns, cf. he/він, she/вона, something/щось, somebody/хтось;

•(2) adjectives, cf. his/його, that/цей;

•(3) numerals, cf. some/кілька, much/багато, few/мало;

•(4) adverbs, cf. here/тут, there/там.

Personal

Connective

(conjunctive Interrogative

& relative)

•Personal pronouns in both languages

distinguish person, gender and number:

I/я, you/ти – ви, he/він, she/вона, it/воно, we/ми, they/вони.

•English personal pronouns have objective case forms: me, you, him, her, it, us, them.

Of peculiar nature is the English pronoun it which can be used:

•(1) anaphorically (The book is on the table. Yes, it is on the table);

•(2) as an anticipatory element (It is necessary that…);

•(3) as an impersonal element (It is cold);

•(4) as a demonstrative element (It was he who said that);

•(5) as a formal element (to foot it, to catch it).

Isormorphism:

•the use of the pronoun we/ми instead of I/я (We hold the view that …/Ми вважаємо, що…).

Allormorphisms:

•The pronouns we, you, they may form indefinite personal sentences (We must not allow children do what they like/Не треба дозволяти дітям робити, що їм заманеться; You don’t say so/Не може бути; They say/Кажуть).

•The Ukrainian pronoun воно is often used to express sympathy, compassion, on the one hand, or contempt, on the other hand (Воно й

училось, нівроку йому. Що воно тямить). Besides, similar to the English it, воно has impersonal meaning (Воно ніби так і треба).

Possessive pronouns