The English form a relatively small category of words in Modern English whose primary Semantics function is that of a pro-form for a noun phrase.
They clearly include , , interrogative pronouns, and reciprocal pronouns.
Overview
Forms
Standard
Pronouns in formal modern English.
† Rare.
Full list
The full set of pronouns (
i.e. personal, relative, interrogative and reciprocal pronouns), along with dummies
it and
there, of which the status as pronouns is disputed. Nonstandard, informal, and archaic forms are in
italics.
* Whom and
which can be the object of a fronted preposition, but
who cannot:
The tool with which they sew the dress and
The person in whom she confides, but
*The person in who she confides.
That often cannot be used with a fronted preposition:
The book is good, in that it's well written, but
*The chair on that she sat. An omitted (∅) pronoun can never be the object of a fronted preposition, but can be the object of a non-fronted preposition:
The chair (that) she sat on, but
*The chair on (that) she sat.
† Rare.
†† Except in free or fused relative constructions, in which case
what,
whatever or
whichever is used for a thing and
whoever or
whomever is used for a person:
What he did was clearly impossible,
Whoever you married is welcome here (see below)
.
Distinguishing characteristics
Pro-forms
Pronoun is a category of words. A
pro-form is not. It is a meaning relation in which a phrase "stands in" for (expresses the same content as) another where the meaning is recoverable from the context.
In English, pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns.
Pronouns can be pro-forms for non-noun phrases. For example, in
I fixed the bike, which was quite a challenge, the relative pronoun
which doesn't stand in for "the bike". Instead, it stands in for the entire proposition "I fixed the bike", a
clause, or arguably "fixing the bike", a verb phrase.
| +Pronouns vs Pro-forms
!Example
!Pronoun
!
!Explanation |
| It a good idea. | | | The pronoun it "stands in" for whatever was mentioned and is a good idea. |
| I know the people who work there. | | | The relative pronoun who stands in for "the people". |
| Who works there? | | | The interrogative pronoun who doesn't stand in for anything. |
| It raining. | | | It is a dummy pronoun, one that doesn't stand in for anything. No other word can function there with the same meaning; we don't say "the sky is raining" or "the weather is raining". |
| I asked her to help, and she did so right away. | | | Did so is a verb phrase, but it stands in for "help". |
| JJ and Petra helped, but the others didn't. | | | Others is a common noun, not a pronoun, but the others stands in for this list of names of the other people involved. |
Deixis
Most pronouns are
Deixis:
they have no inherent
denotation, and their meaning is always contextual. For example, the meaning of
me depends entirely on who says it, just as the meaning of
you depends on who is being addressed. Pronouns are not the only deictic words though. For example
now is deictic, but it's not a pronoun.
Also, dummy pronouns and interrogative pronouns are not deictic. In contrast, most noun phrases headed by common or proper nouns are not deictic. For example,
a book typically has the same denotation regardless of the situation in which it is said.
Syntactic functions
English pronouns have all of the functions of other noun phrases:
| +Functions of NPs with pronouns and other nouns
!Function
!Non-pronoun
!Pronoun |
| Subject | Jess is here. | She is here. |
| Object | I have two pens. | I have them. |
| Object of a preposition | It went to your address. | It went to you. |
| Predicative complement | This is my brother. | This is him/he.[ ]This is he is usually used in formal styles, while This is him''
/ref>'' |
| Determinative | the box's top | its top |
| Adjunct | Try again Monday. | I did it myself. |
| Modifier | a Shetland pony | a she goat |
On top of this, pronouns can appear in
Tag question (e.g.,
that's the one, isn't it?).
These tags are formed with an auxiliary verb and a pronoun. Other nouns cannot appear in this construction. This provides justification for categorizing dummy
there as a pronoun.
Subjects
Subject pronouns are typically in nominative form (e.g.,
She works here .), though independent genitives are also possible (e.g., Hers is better.). In non-finite clauses, however, there is more variety, an example of form-meaning mismatch. In
Participle clauses, the nominative, accusative, and dependent genitive are all possible:
-
Nominative: Some people, I being one of them, are just not good at it.
-
Accusative: Him getting bullied doesn't make him weak.
-
Dependent genitive: It worked without our having to do anything at all.
In Infinitive, accusative case pronouns function as the subject:
-
Accusative: It's not easy for me to change.
Object
Object pronouns are typically in accusative form (e.g.,
I saw him.) but may also be reflexive (e.g.,
She saw herself ) or independent genitive (e.g., We've got ours.).
Object of a preposition
The pronoun object of a preposition is typically in the accusative form but may also be reflexive (e.g.,
She sent it to herself ) or independent genitive (e.g., I hadn't heard of theirs.). With
but,
than, and
as in a very formal register, nominative is also possible (e.g.,
You're taller than me /I.)
Predicative complement
A pronoun in predicative complement position is typically in the accusative form. Apart from the verb
to be, which usually takes the accusative form in informal styles (e.g.,
It's me , This is him), but the nominative form in formal styles (e.g.,
It is I , This is he).
However, a predicate complement may also be in the reflexive form (e.g.,
She isn't herself today) or the independent genitive form (e.g.,
It's theirs.).
Determinative
Only genitive pronouns may function as determinatives.
Adjunct
The most common form for adjuncts is the reflexive (e.g.,
I did it myself ). Independent genitives and accusative are also possible (e.g., Only one matters, mine /me.).
Dependents
Like proper nouns, but unlike common nouns, pronouns usually resist dependents.
They are not always
Grammaticality, but they are quite limited in their use:
| +Dependents in noun phrases headed by pronouns
!
!Common noun
!Pronoun |
| Determinative | the book | the you you want to be
* the you |
| Relative clause | books you have | the you you want to be
* you you want to be |
| Preposition phrase modifier | books from home | *it from home |
| Adjective phrase modifier | new books | a new you
*new them |
| Nominal modifier | school books | school me is different from home me |
| Complement | answer to the quiz | *it to the quiz |
Undisputed subtypes
Personal
Personal pronouns are those that participate in the grammatical and semantic systems of person (1st, 2nd, & 3rd person).
They are called "personal" pronouns for this reason, and not because they refer to persons, though some do. They typically form
Definiteness NPs.
The personal pronouns of modern standard English are presented in the table above. They are I, you, she, he, it, we, and they, and their inflected forms.
The second-person you forms are used with both singular and plural reference. In the Southern United States, y'all (from you all) is used as a plural form, and various other phrases such as you guys are used in other places. An archaic set of second-person pronouns used for singular reference is thou, thee, thyself, thy, thine, which are still used in religious services and can be seen in older works, such as Shakespeare's—in such texts, ye and the you set of pronouns are used for plural reference, or with singular reference as a formal V-form.
The third-person singular forms are differentiated according to the gender of the referent. For example, she is used to refer to a woman, sometimes a female animal, and sometimes an object to which feminine characteristics are attributed, such as a ship, car or country. A man, and sometimes a male animal, is referred to using he. In other cases it can be used. (See Gender in English.)
The third-person form they is used with both plural and singular . Historically, Singular they was restricted to quantificational constructions such as Each employee should clean their desk and referential cases where the referent's gender was unknown.
The dependent genitive pronouns, such as my, are used as determinatives together with nouns, as in my old man, some of his friends. The independent genitive forms like mine are used as full noun phrases (e.g., mine is bigger than yours; this one is mine). Note also the construction a friend of mine (meaning "someone who is my friend"). See English possessive for more details.
Interrogative
The interrogative pronouns are
who,
whom,
whose, which and
what (also with the suffix
-ever). They are chiefly used in interrogative
for the
speech act of asking
.
has impersonal gender, while
who,
whom and
whose have personal gender;
they are used to refer to persons.
Whom is the accusative form of
who (though in most contexts this is replaced by
who), while
whose is the genitive form.
For more information see
who.
All the interrogative pronouns can also be used as relative pronouns, though what is quite limited in its use;
Relative
The main
in English are
who (with its derived forms
whom and
whose), and
which.
[Some linguists consider that in such sentences to be a complementizer rather than a relative pronoun. See .]
The relative pronoun which refers to things rather than persons, as in the shirt, which used to be red, is faded. For persons, who is used ( the man who saw me was tall). The oblique case form of who is whom, as in the man whom I saw was tall, although in informal registers who is commonly used in place of whom.
The possessive form of who is whose (for example, the man whose car is missing); however the use of whose is not restricted to persons (one can say an idea whose time has come). This can be used without a head noun, as in This is Jen, a friend of whose you've already met.
The word that is disputed. Traditionally, it is considered a pronoun, but modern approaches disagree. See below.
The word what can be used to form a free relative clause – one that has no antecedent and that serves as a complete noun phrase in itself, as in I like what he likes. The words whatever and whichever can be used similarly, in the role of either pronouns ( whatever he likes) or determiners ( whatever book he likes). When referring to persons, who(ever) (and whom(ever)) can be used in a similar way (but not as determiners).
Generic
A generic pronoun is one with the interpretation of "a person in general". These pronouns cannot have a
Definiteness or specific referent, and they "cannot be used as an anaphor to another NP."
The generic pronouns are
one (e.g.,
one can see oneself in the mirror) and
you (e.g.,
In Tokugawa Japan, you couldn't leave the country), with
one being more formal than
you.
Reciprocal
The English reciprocal pronouns are
each other and
one another. Although they are written with a space, they're best thought of as single words. No consistent distinction in meaning or use can be found between them. Like the reflexive pronouns, their use is limited to contexts where an antecedent precedes it. In the case of the reciprocals, they need to appear in the same clause as the antecedent.
Disputed pronouns
Determiners
Today, the English
are generally seen as a separate category of words, but they were traditionally viewed as adjectives when they came before a noun (e.g.,
some people,
no books,
each book) and as pronouns when they were
(e.g.,
I'll have some;
I had none,
each of the books).
What and which
As pronouns,
what and
which have non-personal gender.
This means they cannot be used to refer to persons;
what is that cannot mean "who is that". But there are also determiners with the same forms. The determiners are not gendered, so they can refer to persons or non-persons (e.g.,
what genius said that).
Relative which is usually a pronoun, but it can be a determiner in cases like It may rain, in which case we won't go. What is almost never a relative word, but when it is, it is a pronoun (e.g., I didn't see what you took.)
Demonstratives
The demonstrative pronouns
this (plural
these), and
that (plural
those), are a sub-type of determiner in English.
Traditionally, they are viewed as pronouns in cases such as
these are good; I like that.
Indefinites
The determiners starting with
some-,
any,
no, and
every- and ending with
-one,
-body, -
thing,
-place (e.g.,
someone,
nothing) are often called indefinite pronouns, though others consider them to be compound determiners.
The generic pronouns one and the Generic you are sometimes called indefinite. These are uncontroversial pronouns.
-
determiner: I have one book; I'll have one too.
-
noun: one plus two is three
-
pronoun: if one considers oneself correct
Dummy there
The word
there is a
dummy pronoun in some clauses, chiefly existential (
There is no god) and presentational constructions (
There appeared a cat on the window sill). The dummy subject takes the number (singular or plural) of the logical subject (complement), hence it takes a plural verb if the complement is plural. In informal English, however, the contraction
there's is often used for both singular and plural.
There can undergo inversion, Is there a test today? and Never has there been a man such as this. It can also appear without a corresponding logical subject, in short sentences and : There wasn't a discussion, was there?
The word there in such sentences has sometimes been analyzed as an adverb, or as a dummy predicate, rather than as a pronoun.[For a treatment of there as a dummy predicate, based on the analysis of the copula, see Andrea Moro, The Raising of Predicates. Predicative Noun Phrases and the Theory of Clause Structure, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 80, Cambridge University Press, 1997.] However, its identification as a pronoun is most consistent with its behavior in inverted sentences and question tags as described above.
Because the word there can also be a Deixis adverb (meaning "at that place"), a sentence like There is a river could have either of two meanings: "a river exists" (with there as a pronoun), and "a river is in that place" (with there as an adverb). In speech, the adverbial there would be given stress, while the pronoun would not – in fact, the pronoun is often pronounced as a weak form, .
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
These words are sometimes classified as nouns (e.g.,
Tomorrow should be a nice day), and sometimes as
(
I'll see you tomorrow).
But they are alternatively classified as pronouns in both of these examples.
In fact, these words have most of the characteristics of pronouns (see above). In particular, they are pro-forms, and they resist most dependents (e.g.,
*a good today).
Relative that
Traditional grammars classify
that as a relative pronoun.
Most modern grammars disagree, calling it a subordinator or a
complementizer.
Relative that is normally found only in restrictive relative clauses (unlike which and who, which can be used in both restrictive and unrestrictive clauses). It can refer to either persons or things, and cannot follow a preposition. For example, one can say the song that or I listened to yesterday, but the song to which not I listened yesterday. Relative that is usually pronounced with a reduced vowel (schwa), and hence differently from the demonstrative that (see Weak and strong forms in English). If that is not the subject of the relative clause (in the traditional view), it can be omitted ( the song I listened to yesterday).
Other pro-forms
There is some confusion about the difference between a pronoun and a
pro-form. For example, some sources make claims such as the following:
We can use other as a pronoun. As a pronoun, other has a plural form, others:
-
We have to solve this problem, more than any other, today
-
I’ll attach two photos to this email and I’ll send others tomorrow.
But
other is just a common noun here. Unlike pronouns, it readily takes a determiner (
many others) or a
relative clause modifier (
others that we know).
Old English
Interrogative pronouns
Hwā ("who") and
hwæt ("what") follow natural gender, not grammatical gender: as in Modern English,
hwā is used with people,
hwæt with things. However, that distinction only matters in the
Nominative case and
, as they are identical in other cases:
| +Declension of hwā and hwæt
!
!"who"
!"what" |
| Nominative | hwā | hwæt |
| Accusative | hwone |
| Genitive | hwæs |
| Dative | hwām |
| Instrumental | hwon, hwȳ |
Hwelċ ("which" or "what kind of") is inflected like an adjective. Same with
hwæðer, which also means "which" but is only used between two alternatives:
| Old English | Hwæðer wēnst þū is māre, þē þīn sweord þē mīn? |
| Translation | Which one do you think is bigger, your sword or mine? |
Personal pronouns
The first- and second-person pronouns are the same for all genders. They also have special dual forms, which are only used for groups of two things, as in "we both" and "you two." The dual forms are common, but the ordinary plural forms can always be used instead when the meaning is clear.
| +Personal pronouns
! rowspan="3" | Case
! colspan="3" | 1st person
! colspan="3" | 2nd person
! colspan="4" | 3rd person |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many of the forms above bear a strong resemblance to the Modern English words they eventually became. For instance, in the genitive case,
ēower became "your,"
ūre became "our," and
mīn became "my." However, the plural third-person personal pronouns were all replaced with
Old Norse forms during the
Middle English period, yielding "they," "them," and "their."
Middle English
Middle English
were mostly developed from those of Old English, with the exception of the third-person plural, a borrowing from
Old Norse (the original Old English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped). Also, the nominative form of the feminine third-person singular was replaced by a form of the
demonstrative that developed into
sche (modern
she), but the alternative
heyr remained in some areas for a long time.
As with nouns, there was some inflectional simplification (the distinct Old English dual forms were lost), but pronouns, unlike nouns, retained distinct nominative and accusative forms. Third-person pronouns also retained a distinction between accusative and dative forms, but that was gradually lost: the masculine hine was replaced by him south of the Thames by the early 14th century, and the neuter dative him was ousted by it in most dialects by the 15th.[Fulk, R.D., An Introduction to Middle English, Broadview Press, 2012, p. 65.]
The following table shows some of the various Middle English pronouns. Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources because of differences in spellings and pronunciations at different times and in different dialects.[See and ]
| +Middle English personal pronouns
! rowspan="3" | Personal pronouns
! colspan="2" | 1st person
! colspan="2" | 2nd person
! colspan="4" | 3rd person |
|
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Notes
Works cited
