UNIVERSITY « 

GOCE DELCEV » STIP

FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AND LITERATURE

MORPHOLOGY 2 - Lecture 7
M.A . Sn e za na K iro va
 Pronouns
A. Personal pronouns
B. Possessive pronouns
C. Reflexive pronouns
D. Demonstrative pronouns
E. Indefinite pronouns
F. Distributive pronouns
G. Quantitative pronouns
H. Interrogative pronouns
I. Relative pronouns
 Pronouns belong to the set of closed system
items. They form a class of words with several
subclasses. They replace nouns or noun phrases
because they cannot generally occur with
determiners such as the definite article or with
pre-modifiers. Ex. (1)

 (1) a) the cats * the they

b) beautiful cats * beautiful they
1. They are not used with determiners
as in ex. (2):
(2) we cannot say *”the they”
2. They often have an objective case,
 
as in ex. (3):
(3) I – me he – him who -
whom
3. They often have person distinction so they
have first, second and third person as in ex.
(4):
(4) I you he
4. They often have gender contrast: masculine,
feminine and neuter as in ex. (5)
(5) masculine – he
feminine – she
neuter – it
5. Singular and plural forms are often not
morphologically related, as in ex. (6):
(6) I – we he - they
There are four categories by which
pronouns are distinguished:

I. the Category Case

II. the Category Person
III.the Category Gender
IV. the Category Number
I. The Category Case
two cases: common case and genitive case, as in ex. (7):
(7) Someone (common case)
som eone ’s case ( genitive case)

There are six pronouns which have an objective

case. Sometimes the genitive and objective case
are identical, as in ex. (8):
(8) Her – object of she, and the genitive, also.
 T he geniti ves of the personal pronoun s are call ed
possessives , as can be seen in ex. (9):
(9)

Subjective I we he she they who

Objective me us him her them whom

Genitive my our his her their whose

 II. The Category Person

Three subclasses of pronouns distinguish person, as in

ex. (10):
(10) 1. the Personal Pronouns
2. the Possessive Pronouns
3. the Reflexive Pronouns
The first person refers to the speaker and one or more
other persons including the speaker, ex. (11):
(11) I, we
 The s eco nd p ers on refers t o th e perso n addre ss ed,
ex . ( 12):
(1 2) y ou

The third person refers to one or more other

persons or things, ex. (13):
(13) singular: he, she, it
plural: they
III. The Category Gender
T h e P e r s o n a l , R e f l e x i v e a n d P o s s e s s i v e p r o n o u n s d i s t i n g u i s h i n t h e 3 . r d p e r s o n s i n g u l a r, e x .
(14):

(14) masculine: he – him – himself – his

feminine: she – her – herself – her
non-personal: it – it – itself – its
*Relative and interrogative pronouns and
determiners distinguish between personal and non-
personal gender.
 IV. The Category Number

o The personal and possessive determiners and

pronouns have one form for singular and plural in the
second person, ex. (15):
(15) you - your – yours

o The reflexive pronouns have two separate forms for

the second person, ex. (16):
(16) yourself – yourselves
 PERSONAL PRONOUNS
*Personal pronouns have two sets of case forms subjective
and objective, ex. (17, 18):
(17) subjective: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
(18) objective: me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them
*The pronouns for the second person “you” and the third
person “it” do not show such case distinction. The
subjective forms are used as subjects of finite verbs. They
are also often used as subject complement, as in ex. (19,
20):
(19) subject: He came yesterday.
(20) Subject complement: It was he.
T h e o b jec tiv e fo rms a re u s ed a s o b j e ct s a n d a s p r e p o si t i o n a l
c o m p le me n ts, a s in e x . ( 2 1 . 2 2 ) :
( 2 1 ) o b j ect : I saw h i m at t h e t h ea t r e .
( 2 2 ) p rep o sitio n a l co m p l e m e n t : We ca n n o t d e ci d e w i t h o u t h i m .

The objective forms also occur as subject complements

and as subject of sentences with elliptical predicates
mainly in the first person, as in ex. (23, 24):
(23) subject: Who broke the window? – Me.
(24) subject complement: It was him.
S ometimes both the su bjectiv e and ob jective f orms can be used.
F or examp le, in sentenc es beginning w ith “it”, “It is… ”. H er e
w e can use sub ject for m, as in ex . ( 25):
(25 ) I t is I.

But in everyday language the objective form “me” is more

natural, as in ex. (26):
(26) It is me.
In a relative clause follows, the subjective forms are often
used, as in ex. (27):
(27) It was I who saw it.
The objective form is also used, as in ex. (28):
(28) It was me who you saw.
The subjective form is used if the following
relative is the subject of the relative clause,
see ex. (28)
Both forms occur after “that” and “as”, as in
ex. (29):

(29) a) I like you more than she.

b) I like you more than her.
 In exclamatory sentences the objective form
occurs even in a subject position, as in ex. (32):
(32) What, me do a thing like that! – Not me!

The first person pronouns = I, we

In the singular it refers to the person speaking in
the plural it refers to the speaker or writer and
other persons. Sometimes we is used for people
in general, as in ex. (33):
(33) We should try to be more quiet.
a) “We” is also used by journalists,
authors, editors and is called “the
editorial we”, as in ex. (34):
(34) The volume that we have now
before us.

b) There is also the “Royal we” (the

Queen uses it), as in ex. (35):
(35) We are not amused.
The second person pronouns = You
a) The pronoun “You” denotes the
person (or persons) addressed as in ex.
(36):
(36) You are my sunshine.

b) Then “you” may be used for

anyone, as in ex. (37):
(37) You can’t tell what it is.
The third person pronoun (he, she, it, they)
He, she, it, they are 3.rd person pronouns.
They refer to another person, persons or
things. He, him are used about male persons if
the speaker is conscious of its sex and wants
to emphasize it, as in ex. (38, 39)

(38) Have you found the house? – He must have got lost in
the wood.
(39) he goat – she goat
* If he is not interested in the sex of the animal he uses “it”.
He, she
It is commoner to use certain pronouns with certain animals. He is
common for a dog or a horse. She for a cat or a mare. But there are
exceptions. In Literary English he is sometimes used about nouns like
inanimate nouns, ex. (40):

(40) Sea, River, Sun, Love, Death, Time, War

which are usually personified and written with a
capital letter.
She, her – refer to female persons and sometimes to
female animals when their sex is emphasizes.
“ She ” m ay be u se d f o r i na ni m at e s t o ex pr es s a ff ec t i o n or
f a m i l i a r i t y. So she is u s ed f or c ar s , sh i ps , cou nt r i e s, a s i n ex. ( 41 ):
( 41) A d ri ve r of a c ar sa ys : “ She dr i n ks a l ot of p et r o l . “
T he s ai l o r s sa y: “She ” f or t he i r s hi p.

In literary English “she” refers to inanimate

nouns, as in ex. (42):
(42) Moon, Nature, Liberty, Mercy, Peace
It
1. It refers to inaninmates.
a) It is often used for animals if the sex is not emphasized or
indicated, as in ex. (43):
(43) The herring deposits its eggs on the bottom of the sea.

b) It is used about small children if the sex is or

if it is a matter of indifference, unknown as in
ex. (44):
(44) The baby fell out of its pram.
c) It may be used as a formal subject when it precedes verbs and verb
phrases denoting weather conditions, time or distance, as in ex. (45):
(45) weather conditions: It rains. It is cold.
t i m e : I t ’s t e n o ’ c l o c k .
distance: It is fifty miles to that village. (it is a formal subject)

d) It may be used as a formal subject

anticipating the virtual subject which
follows the predicate. The virtual subject
may be the gerund or a clause, as in ex.
(46, 47):
(46)It is absurd talking like that. (it is formal subject)
( gerund)
the virtual subject

(47)It is incredible that he should refuse. (it is a

formal subject) (clause)
the virtual subject
e) It may be used as a formal subject in
sentences beginning with “it is” or “it was”
for emphasis, as in ex. (48):

(48) It was John who broke the window.

f) It may refer to a preceding sentence, as in ex.

(49):
(49) Peter has given up smoking. – I am glad
of it.
g) It may be used as an object of the verb in
some idiomatic expressions, as in ex. (50):
(50) a) to face it out
b) to fight it out
c) to have it

Introductory it – introduces “cleft sentences”

*When an infinitive is subject of a sentence:
It is easy to criticize.
Subject of impersonal verbs:
It seems /appears/books/happens
 They – may be used to refer to
people in general. It may be
used with the verb say, as in ex.
(51):

(51) They say there’ll be a lot

of snow this month.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
Possessive pronouns combine genitive functions with pronominal functions. There are two series (groups):
attributive, nominals and predicatives, as in ex. (1, 2):

( 1 ) a t t r i b u t i v e s ( s i n g u l a r ) : m y, y o u r, h i s , i t s
(plural): our, your, their

(2) nominals, predicatives (singular): mine, yours,

his, hers, its,
(plural): ours, yours,
yours, theirs
The attributives are
syntactically determiners
and the nominals
(predicatives) are used like
elliptical genitive, as in ex.
(3, 4):
 (3) Mary’s book.
 Her > is determiner
 (4) The book is Mary’s (elliptical
genitive)
 hers > is a possessive pronoun
The possessives in English are used
with reference to parts of the body and
personal belongins, as well as in
several other expressions, as in ex. (5,
6):
(5) Mary broke her leg when she was skiing in
Austria.
(6) They have changed their minds again.
In the passive the definite article is used, as in
ex. (7):
(7) He was hit on the head with a hammer.
The following examples illustrate the
use of the possessive pronouns in
nominal function, ex. (8,9,10,11)

(8) Subject
(9) Subject compliment
(10) Object
(11) Prepositional complement