Pronoun

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated pro) is a word or a group of words that one may
substitute for a noun or noun phrase.

Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists
would not consider them to form a single class, in view of the variety of functions they perform cross-
linguistically. An example of a pronoun is "you", which can be either singular or plural. Sub-types include
personal and possessive pronouns, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative
and interrogative pronouns, and indefinite pronouns.[1]: 1–34 [2]

The use of pronouns often involves anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on an
antecedent. For example, in the sentence That poor man looks as if he needs a new coat, the meaning of
the pronoun he is dependent on its antecedent, that poor man.

The name of the adjective that belongs with a "pronoun" is called a "pronominal".[A] A pronominal is also
a word or phrase that acts as a pronoun. For example, in That's not the one I wanted, the phrase the one
(containing the prop-word one) is a pronominal.[3]
Theory

Pronoun versus pro-form

Pronoun is a category of words. A pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for
(expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is
recoverable from the context.[4] In English, pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are
pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns.[5][p. 239]

Pronouns versus Pro-forms

Example Pronoun Pro-form

1 It is a good idea. ✓ ✓

2 I know the people who work there. ✓ ✓

3 Who works there? ✓

4 It is raining. ✓

5 I asked her to help, and she did so right away. ✓

6 JJ and Petra helped, but the others didn't. ✓

Examples [1 & 2] are pronouns and pro-forms. In [1], the pronoun it "stands in" for whatever was
mentioned and is a good idea. In [2], the relative pronoun who stands in for "the people".

Examples [3 & 4] are pronouns but not pro-forms. In [3], the interrogative pronoun who does not stand in
for anything. Similarly, in [4], it is a dummy pronoun, one that does not stand in for anything. No other
word can function there with the same meaning; we do not say "the sky is raining" or "the weather is
raining".

Finally, in [5 & 6], there are pro-forms that are not pronouns. In [5], did so is a verb phrase that stands in
for "helped", inflected from to help stated earlier in the sentence. Similarly, in [6], others is a common
noun, not a pronoun, but the others probably stands in for the names of other people involved (e.g., Sho,
Alana, and Ali), all proper nouns.
Grammar
Pronouns (antōnymía) are listed as one of eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar, a treatise on
Greek grammar attributed to Dionysius Thrax and dating from the 2nd century BC. The pronoun is
described there as "a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person." Pronouns
continued to be regarded as a part of speech in Latin grammar (the Latin term being pronomen, from
which the English name – through Middle French – ultimately derives), and thus in the European
tradition generally.

Because of the many different syntactic roles that they play, pronouns are less likely to be a single word
class in more modern approaches to grammar.[6]

Linguistics

Examples of "our" as a
determiner or a noun.

Linguists in particular have trouble classifying pronouns in a single category, and some do not agree
that pronouns substitute nouns or noun categories.[1] Certain types of pronouns are often identical or
similar in form to determiners with related meaning; some English examples are given in the table.

Pronoun Determiner

Possessive ours our freedom

Demonstrative this this gentleman

Indefinite some some frogs

Negative none no information

Interrogative which which option

This observation has led some linguists, such as Paul Postal, to regard pronouns as determiners that
have had their following noun or noun phrase deleted.[7] (Such patterning can even be claimed for
certain personal pronouns; for example, we and you might be analyzed as determiners in phrases like
we Brits and you tennis players.) Other linguists have taken a similar view, uniting pronouns and
determiners into a single class, sometimes called "determiner-pronoun", or regarding determiners as a
subclass of pronouns or vice versa. The distinction may be considered to be one of subcategorization
or valency, rather like the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs – determiners take a noun
phrase complement like transitive verbs do, while pronouns do not.[8] This is consistent with the
determiner phrase viewpoint, whereby a determiner, rather than the noun that follows it, is taken to be
the head of the phrase. Cross-linguistically, it seems as though pronouns share 3 distinct categories:
point of view, person, and number. The breadth of each subcategory however tends to differ among
languages.[9]

Binding theory and antecedents

The use of pronouns often involves anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on
another referential element. The referent of the pronoun is often the same as that of a preceding (or
sometimes following) noun phrase, called the antecedent of the pronoun. The grammatical behavior of
certain types of pronouns, and in particular their possible relationship with their antecedents, has been
the focus of studies in binding, notably in the Chomskyan government and binding theory. In this
binding context, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns in English (such as himself and each other) are
referred to as anaphors (in a specialized restricted sense) rather than as pronominal elements. Under
binding theory, specific principles apply to different sets of pronouns.

Example reflexive
structure. Since
"himself" is
immediately
dominated by "John",
Principle A is
satisfied.
In English, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns must adhere to Principle A: an anaphor (reflexive or
reciprocal, such as "each other") must be bound in its governing category (roughly, the clause).
Therefore, in syntactic structure it must be lower in structure (it must have an antecedent) and have a
direct relationship with its referent. This is called a C-command relationship. For instance, we see that
John cut himself is grammatical, but Himself cut John is not, despite having identical arguments, since
himself, the reflexive, must be lower in structure to John, its referent. Additionally, we see examples like
John said that Mary cut himself are not grammatical because there is an intermediary noun, Mary, that
disallows the two referents from having a direct relationship.

Example pronoun
structure. Since "him"
is immediately
dominated by "John",
Principle B is
violated.

On the other hand, personal pronouns (such as him or them) must adhere to Principle B: a pronoun
must be free (i.e., not bound) within its governing category (roughly, the clause). This means that
although the pronouns can have a referent, they cannot have a direct relationship with the referent
where the referent selects the pronoun. For instance, John said Mary cut him is grammatical because
the two co-referents, John and him are separated structurally by Mary. This is why a sentence like John
cut him where him refers to John is ungrammatical.

Binding cross-linguistically
The type of binding that applies to subsets of pronouns varies cross-linguistically. For instance, in
German linguistics, pronouns can be split into two distinct categories — personal pronouns and d-
pronouns. Although personal pronouns act identically to English personal pronouns (i.e. follow Principle
B), d-pronouns follow yet another principle, Principle C, and function similarly to nouns in that they
cannot have a direct relationship to an antecedent.[9]
Antecedents
The following sentences give examples of particular types of pronouns used with antecedents:

Third-person personal pronouns:

That poor man looks as if he needs a
new coat. (the noun phrase that poor
man is the antecedent of he)
Julia arrived yesterday. I met her at the
station. (Julia is the antecedent of her)
When they saw us, the lions began
roaring (the lions is the antecedent of
they; as it comes after the pronoun it
may be called a postcedent)
Other personal pronouns in some
circumstances:
Terry and I were hoping no one would
find us. (Terry and I is the antecedent of
 us)
You and Alice can come if you like. (you
and Alice is the antecedent of the
second – plural – you)
Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns:
Jack hurt himself. (Jack is the
antecedent of himself)
We were teasing each other. (we is the
antecedent of each other)
Relative pronouns:
The woman who looked at you is my
sister. (the woman is the antecedent of
who)
Some other types, such as indefinite pronouns, are usually used without antecedents. Relative
pronouns are used without antecedents in free relative clauses. Even third-person personal pronouns
are sometimes used without antecedents ("unprecursed") – this applies to special uses such as
dummy pronouns and generic they, as well as cases where the referent is implied by the context.
English pronouns
English personal pronouns have a number of different syntactic contexts (Subject, Object, Possessive,
Reflexive) and many features:

person (1st, 2nd, 3rd);

number (singular, plural);
gender (masculine, feminine, neuter or
inanimate, epicene)
Personal pronouns in standard Modern English
Dependent
Independent
Person Number & gender Subject Object possessive Reflexive
possessive
(determiner)
Singular I me my mine myself
First
Plural we us our ours ourselves

Singular yourself
Second you your yours
Plural yourselves

Masculine he him his himself

Feminine she her hers herself

Third Neuter/Inanimate it its itself

Epicene themself
they them their theirs
Plural themselves

English also has other pronoun types, including demonstrative, relative, indefinite, and interrogative
pronouns:
Demonstrative Relative Indefinite Interrogative

this who / whom / whose one / one's / oneself who / whom / whose

these what something / anything / nothing (things) what

that which someone / anyone / no one (people) which

those that somebody / anybody / nobody (people)

former / latter

Personal and possessive

Personal
English personal pronouns[2]: 52
Case
Person Number
Subject Object

Singular I me
First
Plural we us

Singular
Second you
Plural

he him

she her
Singular
Third it

they them

Plural/Epicene they them

Personal pronouns may be classified by person, number, gender and case. English has three persons
(first, second and third) and two numbers (singular and plural); in the third person singular there are
also distinct pronoun forms for male, female and neuter gender.[2]: 52–53 Principal forms are shown in
the adjacent table.

English personal pronouns have two cases, subject and object. Subject pronouns are used in subject
position (I like to eat chips, but she does not). Object pronouns are used for the object of a verb or
preposition (John likes me but not her).[2]: 52–53

Other distinct forms found in some languages include:

Second person informal and formal

pronouns (the T–V distinction), like tu and
vous in French. Formal second person
pronouns can also signify plurality in many
languages. There is no such distinction in
standard modern English, though
Elizabethan English marked the distinction
with thou (singular informal) and you (plural
or singular formal). Some dialects of
English have developed informal plural
second person pronouns, for instance, y'all
(Southern American English) and you guys
(American English).
Inclusive and exclusive first person plural
pronouns, which indicate whether or not the
audience is included, that is, whether we
means "you and I" or "they and I". There is
no such distinction in English.
Intensive (emphatic) pronouns, which re-
emphasize a noun or pronoun that has
already been mentioned. English uses the
same forms as the reflexive pronouns; for
example: I did it myself (contrast reflexive
use, I did it to myself).
Direct and indirect object pronouns, such
as le and lui in French. English uses the
same form for both; for example: Mary
loves him (direct object); Mary sent him a
letter (indirect object).
Prepositional pronouns, used after a
preposition. English uses ordinary object
 pronouns here: Mary looked at him.
Disjunctive pronouns, used in isolation or in
certain other special grammatical contexts,
like moi in French. No distinct forms exist in
English; for example: Who does this belong
to? Me.
Strong and weak forms of certain
pronouns, found in some languages such
as Polish.
Pronoun avoidance, where personal
pronouns are substituted by titles or
kinship terms (particularly common in
South-East Asia).
Possessive
Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession (in a broad sense). Some occur as independent
noun phrases: mine, yours, hers, ours, theirs. An example is: Those clothes are mine. Others act as a
determiner and must accompany a noun: my, your, her, our, your, their, as in: I lost my wallet. (His and its
can fall into either category, although its is nearly always found in the second.) Those of the second
type have traditionally also been described as possessive adjectives, and in more modern terminology
as possessive determiners. The term "possessive pronoun" is sometimes restricted to the first type.
Both types replace possessive noun phrases. As an example, Their crusade to capture our attention
could replace The advertisers' crusade to capture our attention.[2]: 55–56

Reflexive and reciprocal

Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself, for example, John cut himself. In
English they all end in -self or -selves and must refer to a noun phrase elsewhere in the same
clause.[2]: 55

Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship (each other, one another). They must refer to a
noun phrase in the same clause.[2]: 55 An example in English is: They do not like each other. In some
languages, the same forms can be used as both reflexive and reciprocal pronouns.

Demonstrative
Demonstrative pronouns (in English, this, that and their plurals these, those) often distinguish their
targets by pointing or some other indication of position; for example, I'll take these. They may also be
anaphoric, depending on an earlier expression for context, for example, A kid actor would try to be all
sweet, and who needs that?[2]: 56

Indefinite
Indefinite pronouns, the largest group of pronouns, refer to one or more unspecified persons or things.
One group in English includes compounds of some-, any-, every- and no- with -thing, -one and -body, for
example: Anyone can do that. Another group, including many, more, both, and most, can appear alone or
followed by of.[2]: 54–55 In addition,
 Distributive pronouns are used to refer to
members of a group separately rather than
collectively. (To each his own.)
Negative pronouns indicate the non-
existence of people or things. (Nobody
thinks that.)
Impersonal pronouns normally refer to a
person but are not specific as to first,
second or third person in the way that the
personal pronouns are. (One does not clean
one's own windows.)

Relative and interrogative

Relative
Relative pronouns in English include who, whom, whose, what, which and that. They rely on an
antecedent, and refer back to people or things previously mentioned: People who smoke should quit
now. They are used in relative clauses.[2]: 56 Relative pronouns can also be used as complementizers.
Interrogative
Relative pronouns can be used in an interrogative setting as interrogative pronouns. Interrogative
pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. In reference to a person, one may use who (subject),
whom (object) or whose (possessive); for example, Who did that? In colloquial speech, whom is
generally replaced by who. English non-personal interrogative pronouns (which and what) have only one
form.[2]: 56–57

In English and many other languages (e.g. French and Czech), the sets of relative and interrogative
pronouns are nearly identical. Compare English: Who is that? (interrogative) and I know the woman who
came (relative). In some other languages, interrogative pronouns and indefinite pronouns are frequently
identical; for example, Standard Chinese 什么 shénme means "what?" as well as "something" or
"anything".

Archaic forms
Archaic personal pronouns[2]: 52
Case
Person Number
Subject Object

Singular thou thee

Second
Plural ye you

Though the personal pronouns described above are the current English pronouns, Early Modern English
(as used by Shakespeare, for example) use a slightly different set of personal pronouns, shown in the
table. The difference is entirely in the second person. Though one would rarely find these older forms
used in recent literature, they are nevertheless considered part of Modern English.

Kinship
In English, kin terms like "mother", "uncle", "cousin" are a distinct word class from pronouns; however
many Australian Aboriginal languages have more elaborated systems of encoding kinship in language
including special kin forms of pronouns. In Murrinh-patha, for example, when selecting a nonsingular
exclusive pronoun to refer to a group, the speaker will assess whether or not the members of the group
belong to a common class of gender or kinship. If all of the members of the referent group are male, the
MASCULINE form will be selected; if at least one is female, the FEMININE is selected, but if all the
members are in a sibling-like kinship relation, a third SIBLING form is selected.[10] In Arabana-
Wangkangurru, the speaker will use entirely different sets of pronouns depending on whether the
speaker and the referent are or are not in a common moiety. See the following example:

Pulalakiya panti-rda.
3du.kin fight-pres

They two [who are in the classificatory relationship of father and son] are fighting. (The people involved
were a man and his wife's sister's son.)[11]

See Australian Aboriginal kinship for more details.

Special uses
Some special uses of personal pronouns include:

Generic you, where second person

pronouns are used in an indefinite sense:
You can't buy good old-fashioned bulbs
these days.
Generic they: In China they drive on the right.
Gender non-specific uses, where a pronoun
refers to a non-specific person or a person
whose gender is not specified: English
usage and acceptance varies (and has
varied) regarding generic he and singular
they, among others.
A closely related usage is the singular
they to refer to a person whose gender
is specified as non-binary, genderqueer,
or other, which has gained popularity in
LGBTQ+ culture in particular.
Vernacular usage of "yo" as a gender
neutral pronoun has also been recorded
among school students in Baltimore.[12][13]
Preferred gender pronoun selected to
reflect gender identity
Dummy pronouns (expletive pronouns),
used to satisfy a grammatical requirement
 for a noun or pronoun, but contributing
nothing to its meaning: It is raining.
Royal we, used to refer to a single person
who is a monarch: We are not amused.
Nosism: The use of the pronoun we to refer
to oneself.
Resumptive pronouns, "intrusive" personal
pronouns found (for example) in some
relative clauses where a gap (trace) might
be expected: This is the girl that I don't know
what she said.

See also

Related topics

Anaphora (linguistics)
Cataphora
Clusivity
Gender-specific and gender-neutral
pronouns
Generic antecedents
Deixis
Inalienable possession
Indefinite pronoun
Logophoric pronoun
Neopronouns
Phi features
Pro-form
Pronoun game
Reciprocal pronoun
 Reflexive pronoun

In English

Old English pronouns

In other languages

Bulgarian pronouns
Cantonese pronouns
Chinese pronouns
Dutch grammar: Pronouns and determiners
Esperanto grammar: Pronouns
French pronouns
German pronouns
Ido pronouns
Interlingua pronouns
 Irish morphology: Pronouns
Italian grammar: Pronouns
Japanese pronouns
Korean pronouns
Macedonian pronouns
Novial: Pronouns
Portuguese personal pronouns
Proto-Indo-European pronouns
Slovene pronouns
Spanish grammar: Pronouns
Vietnamese pronouns

Notes

A. Not to be confused with prenominal, which

means "before the noun". English adjectives are
 prenominal – the blue house— and most of the
French adjectives are postnominal — la maison
bleue.

References

1. Bhat, Darbhe Narayana Shankara (2007).

Pronouns (https://archive.org/details/pronouns
oxfordst00bhat) (Paperback ed.). Oxford:
Oxford University Press. pp. 1 (https://archive.o
rg/details/pronounsoxfordst00bhat/page/n1
3) . ISBN 978-0199230242.
2. Börjars, Kersti; Burridge, Kate (2010).
Introducing English grammar (2nd ed.).
London: Hodder Education. pp. 50–57.
ISBN 978-1444109870.
3. Loos, Eugene E.; Anderson, Susan; Day, Dwight
H. Jr.; Jordan, Paul C.; Wingate, J. Douglas (3
December 2015). "What is a pronominal?" (http
s://glossary.sil.org/term/pronominal) .
Glossary of linguistic terms. SIL International.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201811
14141719/https://glossary.sil.org/term/prono
minal) from the original on 14 November
2018. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
4. Crystal, David (1985). A dictionary of linguistics
and phonetics (2nd ed.). Basil Blackwell.
5. Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K.
(2002). Cambridge grammar of the English
Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
6. For example, Vulf Plotkin (The Language
System of English, Universal Publishers, 2006,
pp. 82–83) writes: "[...] Pronouns exemplify
such a word class, or rather several smaller
classes united by an important semantic
distinction between them and all the major
parts of speech. The latter denote things,
phenomena and their properties in the ambient
world. [...] Pronouns, on the contrary, do not
denote anything, but refer to things,
phenomena or properties without involving
their peculiar nature."
7. Postal, Paul (1966). Dinneen, Francis P. (ed.).
"On So-Called "Pronouns" in English". Report of
the Seventeenth Annual Round Table Meeting
on Linguistics and Language Studies.
Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press:
177–206.
 8. For detailed discussion see George D. Morley,
Explorations in Functional Syntax: A New
Framework for Lexicogrammatical Analysis,
Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2004, pp. 68–73.
9. Simon, Horst J.; Wiese, Heike (2002). Pronouns
- Grammar and Representation. Linguistics
Today. p. 190. ISBN 9789027227737.
10. Walsh, Michael James. 1976. The Muɹinypata
Language of Northern Australia. The Australian
National University.
11. Hercus, Luise Anna (1994). A grammar of the
Arabana-Wangkangurru language, Lake Eyre
Basin, South Australia (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/32850800) . Canberra, Australia: Dept.
of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies, Australian National University.
ISBN 0-85883-425-1. OCLC 32850800 (https://
www.worldcat.org/oclc/32850800) .
12. Fogarty, Mignon (January 11, 2008). "Yo as a
Pronoun" (https://web.archive.org/web/201908
03152306/https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/
education/grammar/yo-as-a-pronoun) . Quick
and Dirty Tips. Archived from the original (http
s://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/gra
mmar/yo-as-a-pronoun) on 2019-08-03.
Retrieved 2019-04-05.
13. Liberman, Mark (January 7, 2008). "Yo" (http://it
re.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/0
05298.html) . Language Log. Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20190321052538/http://i
tre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/
005298.html) from the original on 2019-03-21.
Retrieved 2019-04-05.
Further reading

Wales, Katie (1995). Personal pronouns in

present-day English (Digital print. ed.). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 9780521471022.
Simon, Horst J. (2002). Pronouns - Grammar and
Representation. Linguistics Today.
ISBN 9789027227737.
Bhat, Darbhe N.S. (2007). Pronouns. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0199230242.

External links

English pronouns Look up

pronoun in
exercises (http://www.engl
Wiktionary,
ishgrammar.org/category/
 pronouns/) , by Jennifer the free
dictionary.
Frost
Look up
"Pronoun" (https://en.wiki Category:Pronoun
source.org/wiki/The_New_ by language in
Wiktionary, the
International_Encyclop%C free dictionary.
3%A6dia/Pronoun) . New
International Encyclopedia. 1905.

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