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40-483: /au̯/ appears to be the only phonemic diphthong that can be reconstructed. The forms below are spelt as they are in the cited sources, either in Latin style or in phonetic notation. The latter may not always agree with the phonology given above. Nouns are reconstructed as having three cases: a nominative , an accusative , and a genitive - dative : Some nouns of the –C type had inflections with alternating stress or syllable count: There were also ‘neuter’ nouns. In

80-553: 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"

120-425: 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. The use of pronouns often involves anaphora , where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on another referential element. The referent of

160-491: A direct relationship to an antecedent. The following sentences give examples of particular types of pronouns used with antecedents: 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

200-444: 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

240-414: A nominative case are nouns, adjectives, pronouns and (less frequently) numerals and participles. The nominative case often indicates the subject of a verb but sometimes does not indicate any particular relationship with the other parts of a sentence. In some languages, the nominative case is unmarked, and it may then be said to be marked by a null morpheme . Moreover, in most languages with a nominative case,

280-545: 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. In Arabana-Wangkangurru ,

320-448: A noun phrase (or determiner phrase), normally in a context where it is clear which noun it is replacing. For example, in a context in which hats are being talked about, the red one means "the red hat", and the ones we bought means "the hats we bought". The prop-word thus functions somewhat similarly to a pronoun, except that a pronoun usually takes the place of a whole noun (determiner) phrase (for example, "the red hat" may be replaced by

360-436: 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. This is consistent with the determiner phrase viewpoint, whereby

400-543: 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

440-451: 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

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480-658: 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

520-663: 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. 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

560-451: Is in the nominative, and the nominative is often the form listed in dictionaries. The English word nominative comes from Latin cāsus nominātīvus "case for naming", which was translated from Ancient Greek ὀνομαστικὴ πτῶσις, onomastikḗ ptôsis "inflection for naming", from onomázō "call by name", from ónoma "name". Dionysius Thrax in his The Art of Grammar refers to it as orthḗ or eutheîa "straight", in contrast to

600-446: 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.g. French and Czech ), the sets of relative and interrogative pronouns are nearly identical. Compare English: Who

640-414: 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

680-417: 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". Though the personal pronouns described above are the current English pronouns, Early Modern English (as used by Shakespeare, for example) use

720-426: Is used for the subject of a transitive verb or a voluntary subject of an intransitive verb but not for an involuntary subject of an intransitive verb. Since such languages are a relatively new field of study, there is no standard name for this case. English is now often described as having a subjective case , instead of a nominative, to draw attention to the differences between the "standard" generic nominative and

760-421: The accusative (comparable to the oblique or disjunctive in some other languages): I (accusative me ), we (accusative us ), he (accusative him ), she (accusative her ), they (accusative them ) and who (accusative whom ). A usage that is archaic in most current English dialects is the singular second-person pronoun thou (accusative thee ). A special case is the word you : originally, ye

800-405: The nominative case ( abbreviated NOM ), subjective case , straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb , or (in Latin and formal variants of English) a predicative nominal or adjective , as opposed to its object , or other verb arguments . Generally, the noun "that is doing something"

840-452: The oblique or "bent" cases. The reference form (more technically, the least marked ) of certain parts of speech is normally in the nominative case, but that is often not a complete specification of the reference form, as the number and the gender may need to be specified. Thus, the reference or least marked form of an adjective might be the nominative masculine singular. The parts of speech that are often declined and therefore may have

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880-488: 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 . The use of pronouns often involves anaphora , where

920-793: 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 . In addition, 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 also be used as complementizers . Relative pronouns can be used in an interrogative setting as interrogative pronouns. Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing

960-437: 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. Certain types of pronouns are often identical or similar in form to determiners with related meaning; some English examples are given in

1000-453: 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 adjective form of the word "pronoun" is " pronominal ". 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

1040-558: The nominative form is the lemma ; that is, it is the reference form used to cite a word, to list it as a dictionary entry etc. Nominative cases are found in Albanian , Arabic , Estonian , Sanskrit , Slovak , Ukrainian , Hungarian , Lithuanian , Georgian , German , Latin , Greek , Icelandic , Old English , Old French , Polish , Serbian , Czech , Romanian , Russian and Pashto , among other languages. English still retains some nominative pronouns , which are contrasted with

1080-500: 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 English, pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns. Examples [1 & 2] are pronouns and pro-forms. In [1],

1120-399: 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

1160-552: The pronoun "it".) 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 . Pronouns ( antōnymía ) are listed as one of eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar ,

1200-555: 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

1240-620: The referent is implied by the context. English pronouns have often traditionally been classified as different from nouns, but at least one modern grammar defines them as a subclass of nouns. 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

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1280-695: 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. 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 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,

1320-414: The same meaning; we do not say "the sky is raining" or "the weather is raining". A prop-word is a word with little or no semantic content used where grammar dictates a certain sentence member, e.g., to provide a "support" on which to hang a modifier. The word most commonly considered as a prop-word in English is one (with the plural form ones ). The prop-word one takes the place of a countable noun in

1360-586: The singular they would have been treated as masculine and in the plural as feminine, often with a collective sense. For the most part, the typical way to form a comparative would have been to add magis or plus (‘more’) to a positive adjective. A few words can be reconstructed as having a comparative ending -ior , which would have been inflected as follows: Superlatives would have been formed by adding definite articles to comparatives. The stressed or 'strong' forms: The unstressed or 'weak' forms: As follows: (/quod?) Nominative case In grammar ,

1400-434: The table. 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. (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

1440-539: The third person singular there are also distinct pronoun forms for male, female and neuter gender. 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 ). Other distinct forms found in some languages include: Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession (in

1480-436: 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.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

1520-478: The verb is active, the nominative is the person or thing doing the action ( agent ); when the verb is passive, the nominative is the person or thing receiving the action. In copular sentences , the nominative is used for both subject and predicate. Pronoun In linguistics and grammar , a pronoun ( glossed 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

1560-408: The way that it is used in English. The term objective case is then used for the oblique case , which covers the roles of accusative, dative and objects of a preposition. The genitive case is then usually called the possessive form, rather than a noun case per se . English is then said to have two cases: the subjective and the objective. The nominative case marks the subject of a verb. When

1600-404: Was its nominative form and you the accusative, but over time, you has come to be used for the nominative as well. The term "nominative case" is most properly used in the discussion of nominative–accusative languages , such as Latin, Greek and most modern Western European languages. In active–stative languages , there is a case, sometimes called nominative, that is the most marked case and

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