Pronoun

1. Semantic characteristics of pronouns

2. Morphological characteristics of pronouns

3. Syntactic characteristics of pronouns

4. The category of case

5. New approach to pronouns

1. Semantic characteristics of pronouns

The meaning of the pronoun as a separate part of speech is difficult to define. In fact, some pronouns share essential peculiarities of nouns (she), while others have much in common with adjectives (her). Like nouns and adjectives, pronouns denote things and properties of things, but they do not name them as nouns and adjectives do. The pronoun is a part of speech which points to things and their properties without naming them. Pronouns, according to Vinogradov and Smirnitsky, have a very general relative meaning which varies depending on the situation. For instance, the personal pronoun 'I' may indicate a woman, a man, a child and even an animal or a thing in fairy tales. Taken in isolation, the pronoun is practically devoid of any meaning whatsoever.

Noun and adjectives are quite different in this respect. Thus, the indication of an object by means of the noun 'table' does not depend on the speaker or situation. The estimation of properties is, certainly, more subjective, but still nobody will call a square table round or an ugly man - handsome.

Jespersen thinks that if we took the relative character of meaning as the basis for singling out pronouns into a separate part of speech, we should refer such words as 'today, yesterday, tomorrow, right, left, father, mother, John' to pronouns, too, because they also change their meaning in accordance with the situation.

There is a grain of truth in it, since, for example, no concrete day exists which is always called 'yesterday'. Nevertheless, according to Smirnitsky, we are not justified in including the words 'yesterday, today, tomorrow' and the like into the class of pronouns, for they indicate time in the way substantives do. Thus, using the word 'yesterday' we mean a definite period of time, a day, not a second, a minute, an hour, a week or a year. Such generalization is to be found only in pronouns proper.

2. Morphological characteristics of pronouns

Structure

Pronouns fall under simple (we) and compound (ourselves). Derivative pronouns do not occur in the English language. Many linguists recognize the existence of phrase pronouns (each other, one another).

If, however, we accept the view that it is only words that are classified into parts of speech, we shall have to exclude the combinations 'each other' and 'one another' from the class of pronouns and study them in syntax.

It is impossible to speak of a pronominal system of inflections since pronouns constitute a heterogeneous (разнородный) group.

The category of gender

The pronouns lack the grammatical category of gender. Personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns express sex distinction lexically,

E.g. he – she, his – her (hers), himself – herself,

He told me all about it.

She felt sorry for a poor woman behind the door.

She didn’t move her hand.

He put out his hand to take hers.

The category of number

The grammatical category of number is found in reflexive pronouns, in the demonstrative pronouns ‘this, that’ and in the defining pronoun ‘other’, ‘myself – ourselves’, ‘yourself – ourselves’, ‘himself, herself’, ‘itself – themselves’, ‘this – these’, ‘that – those’, ‘other – others’,

E.g. And then I dressed myself and came away to find you.

Well, I hope you’ll both enjoy yourselves.

What would he do with himself?

When she washed herself, the cat washed itself.

They blamed themselves for this unlucky marriage.

I look awful in this blue dress.

I loved that movie.

Those nights were long.

You are not fair to the others.

The category of case

The defining pronouns ‘everybody, everyone, other’, the negative pronouns ‘nobody, no one’ and the indefinite pronouns and the indefinite pronouns ‘somebody, someone, anybody, anyone, one’ have the Common and the Genitive case just like nouns.

E.g. … you know almost everybody.

Nobody was spending any money.

Everybody’s business is nobody’s business.

Anybody can see it.

It’s anybody’s right.

Only one with a constitution of iron could have hold himself down, as Martin did.

I know exactly what it feels like to be held down on one’s back.

Personal pronouns, the interrogative and relative ‘who’ draw a distinction between the Nominative and the Objective Cases.

Personal pronouns: Interrogative/Relative pronouns

I – me you – you who – whom

he – him they – their

she – her

it – it

we – us

There is a tendency in Modern English to use of the Nominative case of personal pronounce only in the function of the subject that is followed immediately by the predicate-verb,

E.g. You don’t understand.

The Objective case is used everywhere else,

E.g. We’re mad, you and me…

You are the only person who has ever seen Ran. – Me?

They’d tell me themselves. – Not them.

It wasn’t me.

Obviously no one can do it but him.

Jack was three or four years older than me.

You are as conventional as them all.

In the interrogative pronoun ‘who’ the Objective case form ‘whom’ tends to be replaced by the Nominative case form ‘who’, especially if the question ends with a preposition,

E.g. Who could she trust?

Who can he take after?

In the relative pronoun ‘who’ the expansion of the Nominative case also takes place,

E.g. You know who I mean, don’t you?

… that is my older sister who you didn’t meet.

However, the tendency to oust the Objective case form is not so strong with the relative ‘who’ as with the interrogative ‘who’ evidently because the relative ‘who’ is not followed immediately by the verb,

e.g. I asked whom Mark had married.

Then there was Kirsten Lindstrom, whom you probably met.

When the relative ‘who’ is followed immediately by the verb, it is used in the Nominative case,

E.g. His father was here, and so everything was all right. His father whom he loved and who was happy and strong, and his only promise of safety.