Encyclopedia > Pronoun

Article Content

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that usually takes the place of a noun previously mentioned.

Personal pronouns refer to things. The English personal pronouns are: First person is the speaker(s), Second is the person spoken to and third is someone else. Reflexive is when the doer of the action is the same as what the action was done to.

	Singular	Plural
1st nom.	I	we
2nd nom.	thou⁽¹⁾, you	you, ye, y'all⁽⁴⁾, youse⁽⁴⁾, you-uns⁽⁴⁾, you-guys⁵
3rd nom.	he, she, it, they⁽³⁾	they
1st acc.	me	us
2nd acc.	thee⁽¹⁾, you	you, ye⁽²⁾
3rd acc.	him, her, it, them⁽³⁾	them
1st gen.	my	our
2nd gen.	thy⁽¹⁾, your	your
3rd gen.	his, her, its, their⁽³⁾	their
1st noun	mine	ours
2nd noun	thine⁽¹⁾, yours	yours
3rd noun	his, hers, its, theirs⁽³⁾	theirs
1st refl.	myself	ourselves
2nd refl.	thyself⁽¹⁾, yourself⁽⁶⁾	yourselves⁽⁶⁾
3rd refl.	himself, herself, itself, themself⁽³⁾	themselves

Sometime between 1600 and 1800, the forms of Thou began to pass out of common usage in most places, except in poetry, archaic-style literature, and descriptions of other languages' pronouns. Thou refers to either a close friend or one person. Thou still exists in northern England and Scotland, and in some Christian religious communities.
In Scotland, Ye is the plural you. In older times and in some other places, Ye is the accusative singular you.
Though using They as a singular pronoun when sex is not known or is not important is often condemned by traditionalists, its often found in informal speech. It is actually a revival of an earlier usage and may one day become standard usage because it is so common.
Y'all, Youse and You-uns are often used in colloquial speech as a plural you. Saying you was and You were to distinguish the same thing is also done.
You-guys is the new plural you. It seems to have originated in Canada.
The only common distinction between singular and plural you is in the reflexive and emphatic forms.

Most of these other pronouns can be arranged in a table of correlatives like the one conceived by L. L. Zamenhof. Many languages form these pronouns in a similar way, so it might be just as valid for, say, another language. For English, the Table of Correlatives looks like this:

	Query	This	That	Some	No	Every
Adjective	which	this	that	some	no	every
Person	who	this	that	someone	no one	everyone
Thing	what	this	that	something	nothing	everything
Place	where	here	there	somewhere	nowhere	everywhere
Time	when	now	then	sometime	never	always
Way	how	thus		somehow
Reason	why

In one of the most salient features of Indo-European languages, pronouns are ambiguous. Is 'Who' relative or interrogative? Is it true that 'that' is a relative or demonstrative? Which kind is 'which?'

Most other language families don't have this ambiguity.

French Pronouns

Personal pronouns:

	Singular		Plural
1st nom.	je		nous
1st acc.	me		nous
1st dat.	me		nous
1st disj.	moi		nous
2nd nom.	tu		vous
2nd acc.	te		vous
2nd dat.	te		vous
2nd disj.	toi		vous
3rd nom.	il	elle	ils	elles
3rd acc.	le	la	les	les
3rd dat.	lui	lui	leur	leur
3rd disj.	lui	elle	eux	elles

The French possessive pronouns (mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa, ses, notre, notre, nos, votre, votre, vos, leur, leur, leurs) are technically adjectives because they decline into masculine, feminine and plural forms and further agree with their heads (not their antecedents).

Many languages contain different pronouns used to show varying levels of respect. See T-V distinction.

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!