Language Structures — Part 3: Building Blocks / 4


 |  | 
 3.4  —  PRONOUNS

[Pronoun — From Latin pro-nomen: at the place of (pro) a noun (nomen).]

Just imagine that pronouns don't exist yet and that a certain Edward tells a friend about his recent encounter with a common acquaintance — Adelaide.

Edward  — Yesterday afternoon Edward met Adelaide before the church.
Friend  — Gosh, Adelaide!
Edward
 		  — Adelaide was carrying a heavy case, so Edward offered to help Adelaide carry Adelaide's suitcase.

Quite unwieldy! No doubt, that is the reason why pronouns were agreed upon a long time ago. The foregoing exchange can thus be cut to (pronouns highlighted in red):

Edward  — Yesterday afternoon I met Adelaide before the church.
Friend  — Gosh, Adelaide!
Edward  — She was carrying a heavy case, so I offered to help her carry her* suitcase.
    *  Remark: this second "her" is no pronoun; it does not replace the noun "Adelaide", but it shows whose suitcase we are talking about. Thus, it is one of the possessive determiners seen in #3.3a2.

As the short dialogue makes clear, a pronoun is a word representing the noun + determiner + adjective(s) bundle.

If I show to my cousin a pile of rock music CD-ROMs and ask:

  • Where should I put it?
my cousin understands that:
  • it = a pile of rock music CD-ROMs
and tells me where she wants me to put it(1).

    3.4a  —  Locator pronouns (also called Demonstrative pronouns)

Pronoun subdivisions shadow the scheme seen for Determiners: possessives, locators (or demonstratives), numerals (or quantifiers) … .

In the sentence:

  • That house is for sale
the word that is a (locator) determiner for the noun "house". If someone points a finger at the same house saying:
  • I like that!
the word that is a locator pronoun. One more example:
  • You were right. I did not like the first song, but the other was fine.
Other represents the alternative song, it is a pronoun.

    3.4b  —  Possessive pronouns

Unlike the examples so far, possessives differentiate in a visible way their determiner role from pronoun role (pronoun forms which differ from determiner forms show in red):

Determiners Pronouns
my mine
This is my brother Here is Ron's bed, and here is mine
your yours
Where is your car? Whose car is this? Is it yours?
her / his /its hers / his /its
She took her hat off
His teacher is old
Beautiful car: its owner must be rich!		 I drank my coffee hot; she let hers cool off
I kept my opinion and he kept his
This is the radio's plug. What about the TV? Where is its?
our ours
Thanks, we already had our meal Their house is larger than ours
your yours
What about your holidays? Here is my mail. Where is yours?
their theirs
Their grandfather is Scottish Our clothes look cheap compared to theirs

    3.4c  —  Personal pronouns

These pronouns represent an object, animal or person - like the Adelaide of the opening conversation.

Colour green highlights those cases where pronouns change shape when they perform as subject in a clause.

As object or complement As subject
Me I
They saw me
Come with me!		 I hate cold weather!
you you
I saw you
He arrived before you		 You look happy!
him / it / her he/ it /she
We know him
Don't play with it!
This present is for her		 He speaks Chinese
It all happened so fast!
She was heard crying
us we
They greeted us
He doesn't care about us		 We saw them first
you you
Concerning you all, ask your own mothers You are just a bunch of spoiled kids!
them they
I hate lying to them
He caught them lying		 They never stop complaining

Usage may depart from strict compliance with the above forms.

    In order to emphasize acceptation of the offer "Who would like some tea?" both the following replies are correct:
    • "Me!"
    • "I would!"

Personal pronoun it - in addition to representing objects and low-level animal - may also point to vague subject entities, as in:

  1. It rained all day yesterday
  2. It is hot!
  3. It is believed that his aunts left him a lot of money.
  4. It all darkened around him, then he fainted.
Nouns being represented are not easily defined: clauses 1) and 2) suggest something like "weather (is rainy)", "the climate (is hot)", clause 3) "people (believe ...)", "those (who know him well believe ...)", clause 4) "the environment", "the world around".

Whenever "it" replaces a noun which is loosely identifiable, the clause is said to be set in "impersonal construction".

3.4c2 — Emphatic self, Reflexive construction

Personal pronouns may also append -self (-selves for plurals) to the forms given above.

    More precisely, we have:
    me » myself, you » yourself (yourselves if a plural noun is being represented), her » herself, him » himself, it » itself, us » ourselves, them » themselves.
- Self or - selves varieties may also be added to the clause for emphasis. Examples:
  • She herself agrees to that.
  • I have seen it myself!
In the so called reflexive(2) construction,  — self or  — selves are not added for emphasis. They signal instead that the action is self-enclosed, it does not affect entities outside the subject.

Examples:

  • He hurt himself.
  • They washed themselves in a pond nearby.
  • Don't exhaust yourself by working so hard.

    Verbs which are reflexive in one language are not necessarily so in other languages.

    "To enjoy onself" is "se réjouir" in French, "sich erfreuen" in German, "divertir-si" in Italian and "solazar-se" in Spanish. They are all reflexive.

    But "to walk" is reflexive in French only ("se promener"). German "spazieren", Italian "passeggiare", Spanish "pasear" are - like English - non-reflexive verbs.

    3.4d  —  Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns link clauses inside a wider sentence (to be introduced in Part IV):

  • The umbrella that you took is Mary's.

We earlier met that as a locator (determiner and pronoun), but here it does not locate the umbrella in space (that as opposed to this). It rather links the umbrella which somebody took to its owner (Mary). Here, that establishes a relationship, it is a relative pronoun — not a locator.

Another relative pronouns is which.

  • The tall building which stands by the station is going to be knocked down.
The relation is now established between a particular building and the plan to demolish something.

When dealing with humans and larger animals, which may be replaced by who.

    Note that who is the subject form: it turns into whose when in complements of belonging, and whom in all other capacities (an object or any complement other that the belonging one). Examples:
    • Jennifer is the one who lost her wallet. [Who = subject of clause "Somebody lost wallet"]
    • Johanna — whose car I drove the other day — is a co-worker at my office. [Whose = a Belonging Complement, it represents "of Johanna" in linking two clauses: "I drove a car", "Johanna (who owns that car) is a co-worker"]
    • Who is the guy whom we met at the Three Jockeys café? [First occurrence: Who = subject of clause "Who is that guy?"; second occurrence: Whom = Object of clause "We met a guy at the Three Jockeys café"](3)

    By establishing relations, relational pronouns connect different clauses.

      "The umbrella you took is Mary's" blends two clauses:
      1. You took un umbrella
      2. The umbrella belongs to Mary.

    (Be aware: these examples contain more than one clause. They are complex sentences, to be analysed in Part 4.)

    3.4e  —  Pronoun one

Are there also qualifying pronouns — that is, stand-alone terms representing both nouns and adjectives associated with them?

If there are, the following dialogue could be heard.

Arnold  — Which kind of dishes are we going to buy: the white ones or the green ones?
His wife  — Let us buy the whites.

"The whites" would represent both the noun dishes and the adjective white.

Be warned that such forms are not usual, except for a few adjectives (e.g., "payables" and "receivables" refer to noun "invoices" in the jargon of accountants; or "fundamentals" - for "fundamental issues, beliefs ..."). Whenever repetition of the pattern ADJECTIVE+NOUN is to be avoided, the standard way adds "one" to the adjective: Let us buy the white ones.

Other determiner subdivisions seen in #3.3a have a pronoun counterpart. Consider quantifiers for example:

  • Did you go to the stadium yesterday? Were there any Arsenal fans?
  • Yes, they did. Actually, a great many were there.
A great many is a pronoun replacing noun "fans".

Or consider the indefinite notion which was discussed when dealing with article determiners. Their pronoun counterpart is found in clauses of the kind:

  • Did you find the gadgets you were looking for?
  • I found some, but I need more.
where some clearly stands for some gadgets and is therefore an indefinite pronoun.

 |  | 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOOTNOTES
(1)  —  More precisely, "it" represents "a pile" (article determiner + noun).
"A pile of rock music CD-ROMs" can be re-worded as "a rock music CD-ROM pile". From this perspective, "rock music CD-ROM" is an adjective joined to "a pile".  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2)  —  The expression reflexive hints to light being reflected on a mirror. Most verbs convey action from subjects to objects or to complements. With reflexive verbs (to encourage oneself, to dress oneself ...) the action being performed by the subject affects the subject itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3)  —  Although this rule is not widely heeded, an effort should be made to adhere to it when writing. It does not look good to find in a formal paper: "The people who we saw yesterday were …".