Pronouns - Explore What is, Definition, Types and Examples,What is a pronoun?
Pronouns refer to either a noun that has already been mentioned or to a noun that does not need to be named specifically. The most common pronouns are the personal pronouns, 4 rows · A pronoun is used in the place of a noun. It substitutes the noun in a paragraph or piece of 31/08/ · A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or noun phrase that has already been referenced or is understood on its own. Pronouns help add variety in writing and speech 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 What is a pronoun? A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Examples: he, she, it, they, someone, who Pronouns can do all of the things that nouns can do. They can be ... read more
In this article, you will learn more about what pronouns are, their definition, types of pronouns and how they are used in sentences. A pronoun is used in the place of a noun. It substitutes the noun in a paragraph or piece of writing to avoid repetition of the noun.
Pronouns can be used in singular and plural forms. The verb used in the sentence should be used in accordance with the particular form of the pronoun used. Pronouns can be classified into different types based on their functions.
Given below are the various types of pronouns. Go through the examples carefully to have a clear understanding of each type of pronoun and its function.
Some examples of pronouns are I, he, him, you, we, him, her, yours, theirs, someone, where, when, yourselves, themselves, oneself, is, hers, when, whom, whose, each other, one another, everyone, nobody, none, each, anywhere, anyone, nothing, etc. Your Mobile number and Email id will not be published. Request OTP on Voice Call. Interrogative pronouns are used to ask a question or refer to people or objects.
The five primary interrogative pronouns who, what, which, whom, and whose also appear in lists of relative pronouns. The difference, however, is that interrogative pronouns appear only in questions. A reflexive pronoun refers back to the noun and can act as the object or indirect object in a sentence. Reciprocal pronouns indicate a give-and-take relationship between two or more nouns in which a certain action affects both nouns simultaneously. There are more than pronouns in the English language.
The following are some of the most common ones. Me You He. Him She. Her It We. Us They. Mine Yours His Hers Its Ours.
Neither Some. Whichever Who. Whoever Whom. Whomever Whose. Each other. One another. View all articles. 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". 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". 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.
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. 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. Linguists in particular have trouble classifying pronouns in a single category, and some do not agree that pronouns substitute nouns or noun categories.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
On the other hand, personal pronouns such as him or them must adhere to Principle B: a pronoun must be free i. 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.
The type of binding that applies to subsets of pronouns varies cross-linguistically. Although personal pronouns act identically to English personal pronouns i. 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. 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 personal pronouns have a number of different syntactic contexts Subject, Object, Possessive, Reflexive and many features:. English also has other pronoun types, including demonstrative, relative, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns:.
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. 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. 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. 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. Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship each other , one another. They must refer to a noun phrase in the same clause.
In some languages, the same forms can be used as both reflexive and reciprocal pronouns. 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.
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. Subtypes include personal and possessive pronouns , reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns , relative and interrogative pronouns , and indefinite pronouns. 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 ". For example, in That's not the one I wanted , the phrase the one containing the prop-word one is a pronominal. 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.
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". 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". 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.
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. 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.
Linguists in particular have trouble classifying pronouns in a single category, and some do not agree that pronouns substitute nouns or noun categories. 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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
On the other hand, personal pronouns such as him or them must adhere to Principle B: a pronoun must be free i. 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. The type of binding that applies to subsets of pronouns varies cross-linguistically.
Although personal pronouns act identically to English personal pronouns i. 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. 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 personal pronouns have a number of different syntactic contexts Subject, Object, Possessive, Reflexive and many features:. English also has other pronoun types, including demonstrative, relative, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns:. 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.
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. 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.
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. Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship each other , one another. They must refer to a noun phrase in the same clause. In some languages, the same forms can be used as both reflexive and reciprocal pronouns. 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? 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.
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. 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. In English and many other languages e. 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? 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.
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. See the following example:. 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.
See Australian Aboriginal kinship for more details. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Word that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. This article is about a word which is used instead of a noun.
What Is A Pronoun? Types And Examples,Types of Pronouns with Examples
31/08/ · A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or noun phrase that has already been referenced or is understood on its own. Pronouns help add variety in writing and speech 20/12/ · What Is a Pronoun? A pronoun is not a professional noun. It is a short word that is used in place of a noun. Many times pronouns are used to prevent the writer from having to 4 rows · A pronoun is used in the place of a noun. It substitutes the noun in a paragraph or piece of Pronouns refer to either a noun that has already been mentioned or to a noun that does not need to be named specifically. The most common pronouns are the personal pronouns, 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 What is a pronoun? A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Examples: he, she, it, they, someone, who Pronouns can do all of the things that nouns can do. They can be ... read more
Main article: Relative pronoun. The Australian National University. Wales, Katie fight- PRES. For example, in That's not the one I wanted , the phrase the one containing the prop-word one is a pronominal.
Hidden categories: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles containing Ancient Greek to -language text Articles containing Latin-language text Wikipedia articles needing context from July All Wikipedia articles needing context What is a pronound introduction cleanup from July All pages needing cleanup Articles needing additional references from May All articles needing additional references Articles containing Chinese-language text Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the New International Encyclopedia Articles with GND identifiers Articles with NDL identifiers Articles with NKC identifiers, what is a pronound. Even third-person personal pronouns are sometimes used without antecedents "unprecursed" — this applies to special uses such as dummy pronouns and generic theyas well as cases where the referent is implied by the context. View this post on Instagram. Generally speaking, what is a pronound, pronouns allow us to shorten our sentences and make them sound less repetitive. Instead, you can use the pronouns she and her to refer to Sarah:.
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