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English Pronouns
The English pronouns form a relatively small category of words in Modern English whose primary semantic function is that of a pro-form for a noun phrase. Traditional grammars consider them to be a distinct part of speech, while most modern grammars see them as a subcategory of noun, contrasting with common and proper nouns. Still others see them as a subcategory of determiner (see the DP hypothesis). In this article, they are treated as a subtype of the noun category. They clearly include personal pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and reciprocal pronouns. Other types that are included by some grammars but excluded by others are demonstrative pronouns and indefinite pronouns. Other members are disputed (see below). 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) 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 part of speech, 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 pronoun, personal and possessive pronouns, reflexive pronoun, reflexive and reciprocal pronoun, reciprocal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronoun, relative and interrogative pronouns, and indefinite pronouns. The use of pronouns often involves anaphora (linguistics), anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on an antecedent (grammar), 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indefinite Pronoun
An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun which does not have a specific, familiar referent. Indefinite pronouns are in contrast to definite pronouns. Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or noncount nouns. They often have related forms across these categories: universal (such as ''everyone'', ''everything''), assertive existential (such as ''somebody'', ''something''), elective existential (such as ''anyone'', ''anything''), and negative (such as ''nobody'', ''nothing''). Many languages distinguish forms of indefinites used in affirmative contexts from those used in non-affirmative contexts. For instance, English "something" can be used only in affirmative contexts while "anything" is used otherwise. Indefinite pronouns are associated with indefinite determiners of a similar or identical form (such as ''every'', ''any'', ''all'', ''some''). A pronoun can be thought of as ''replacing'' a noun phrase, while a determiner ''introduces'' a noun phrase and precedes any ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One (pronoun)
''One'' is an English language, gender-neutral, indefinite pronoun that means, roughly, "a person". For purposes of verb agreement it is a third-person singular pronoun, though it sometimes appears with first- or second-person reference. It is sometimes called an impersonal pronoun. It is more or less equivalent to the Scots "", the French pronoun , the German/ Scandinavian , and the Spanish . It can take the possessive form ''one's'' and the reflexive form ''oneself'', or it can adopt those forms from the generic he with ''his'' and ''himself''. The pronoun ''one'' often has connotations of formality, and is often avoided in favour of more colloquial alternatives such as generic ''you''. The noun ''one'' can also be used as a pro-form (e.g. "The green one is an apple"), which is not to be confused with the pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, the pronoun ''one'' has three shapes representing five distinct word forms: * ''one'': the nominative (subjec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
They
In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accusative (objective, called the ' oblique'.) and a non-standard determinative form. * ''their:'' the dependent genitive (possessive) form * ''theirs'': independent genitive form * ''themselves'': prototypical reflexive form * ''themself'': derivative reflexive form (nonstandard; now chiefly used instead of "himself or herself" as a reflexive epicenity for ''they'' in pronominal reference to a singular referent) History Old English had a single third-person pronoun , which had both singular and plural forms, and ''they'' wasn't among them. In or about the start of the 13th century, ''they'' was imported from a Scandinavian source (Old Norse , Old Danish, Old Swedish , ), in which it was a masculine plural demonstrative pronoun. It com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singular They
Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'', and ''themselves'' (also ''themself'' and ''theirself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun derived from plural they. It typically occurs with an indeterminate antecedent, to refer to an unknown person, or to refer to every person of some group, in sentences such as: This use of singular ''they'' had emerged by the 14th century, about a century after the plural ''they''. Singular ''they'' has been criticised since the mid-18th century by prescriptive commentators who consider it an error. Its continued use in modern standard English has become more common and formally accepted with the move toward gender-neutral language. Some early-21st-century style guides described it as colloquial and less appropriate in formal writing. However, by 2020, most style guides accepted the singular ''they'' as a personal pronoun. In the early 21st century, use of singular ''the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epicenity
Epicenity is the lack of gender distinction, often reducing the emphasis on the masculine to allow the feminine. It includes androgyny – having both masculine and feminine characteristics. The adjective '' gender-neutral'' may describe epicenity (and both terms are associated with the terms ''gender-neutral language'', ''gender-neutral pronoun'', ''gender-blind'', and ''unisex''). Specialized uses In linguistics, an ''epicene'' word has the same form for male and for female referents. In some cases, the term ''common gender'' is also used, but should not be confused with ''common'' or ''appellative'' as a contrary to ''proper'' (as in ''proper noun''). In English, for example, the epicene (or common) nouns ''cousin'' and ''violinist'' can refer to a man or a woman, and so can the epicene (or common) pronoun ''one''. The noun ''stewardess'' and the third-person singular pronoun ''she'' on the other hand are not epicene (or common). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It (pronoun)
In Modern English, ''it'' is a grammatical number, singular, Grammatical gender, neuter, Grammatical person, third-person personal pronoun, pronoun. Morphology In Modern English, ''it'' has only three shapes representing five word Morphology (linguistics), forms: * ''it'': the nominative case, nominative (subjective) and Accusative case, accusative (objective) forms. (The accusative case is also called the "Oblique case, oblique".) * ''its:'' the dependent and independent Genitive case, genitive (possessive) forms * ''itself'': the Reflexive pronoun, reflexive and Intensive pronoun, intensive form Historically, though, the morphology is more complex. History Old English Old English had a single third-person pronoun – from the Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic demonstrative base *''khi''-, from Proto-Indo-European language, PIE *''ko''- "this" – which had a plural and three Grammatical gender, genders in the singular. The modern pronoun ''it'' developed out of the ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
She (pronoun)
In Modern English, ''she'' is a Grammatical number, singular, Grammatical gender, feminine, Grammatical person, third-person personal pronoun, pronoun. Morphology In Standard English, Standard Modern English, ''she'' has four shapes representing five distinct word Morphology (linguistics), forms: * ''she'': the Nominative case, nominative (subjective) form * ''her'': the Accusative case, accusative (objective, also called the 'Oblique case, oblique'.) form; the dependent Genitive case, genitive (possessive) form * ''hers:'' the independent Genitive case, genitive form * ''herself'': the Reflexive pronoun, reflexive form History Old English had a single third-person pronoun – from the Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic demonstrative base , from Proto-Indo-European language, PIE *' – which had a plural and three Grammatical gender, genders in the singular. In early Middle English, one case was lost, and distinct pronouns started to develop. The modern pronoun ''It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
He (pronoun)
In Modern English, ''he'' is a singular, masculine, third-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''he'' has four shapes representing five distinct word forms: * ''he'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''him'': the accusative (objective) form (also called the oblique case)) * ''his:'' the dependent and independent genitive (possessive) forms * ''himself'': the reflexive form History Old English had a single third-person pronoun — from the Proto-Germanic demonstrative base -, from PIE *''ko''- "this" — which had a plural and three genders in the singular. The modern pronoun '' it'' developed out of the neuter singular, starting to appear without the ''h'' in the 12th century. ''Her'' developed out of the feminine singular dative and genitive forms, while the other feminine forms and the plural were replaced with other words. The older pronoun had the following forms: In the 12th century, ''it'' started to separate and appear without an ''h' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thou
The word ''thou'' () is a second-person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in most contexts by the word '' you'', although it remains in use in parts of Northern England and in Scots (). ''Thou'' is the nominative form; the oblique/ objective form is ''thee'' (functioning as both accusative and dative); the possessive is ''thy'' (adjective) or ''thine'' (as an adjective before a vowel or as a possessive pronoun); and the reflexive is ''thyself''. When ''thou'' is the grammatical subject of a finite verb in the indicative mood, the verb form typically ends in ''-(e)st'' (e.g., "thou goest", "thou do(e)st"), but in some cases just ''-t'' (e.g., "thou art"; "thou shalt"). Originally, ''thou'' (in , ) was simply the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun '' ye'', derived from an ancient Indo-European root. In Middle English, ''thou'' was sometimes represented with a scribal abbreviation that put a small "u" over the le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I (pronoun)
In Modern English, ''I'' is the singular, first-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''I'' has five distinct word forms: * ''I'': the nominative (subjective) form **''I'' is the only pronoun form that is always capitalized in English. This practice became established in the late 15th century, though lowercase ''i'' was sometimes found as late as the 17th century. * ''me'': the accusative (objective, also called ' oblique') form * ''my:'' the dependent genitive (possessive) form * ''mine'': the independent genitive (possessive) form * ''myself'': the reflexive form History Old English had a first-person pronoun that inflected for four cases and three numbers. ''I'' originates from Old English (OE) , which had in turn originated from the continuation of Proto-Germanic , and ; the asterisk denotes an unattested form, but was attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions (in some cases notably showing the variant ; see also ek erilaz). Linguists assume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genitive Case
In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. For example, some verbs may feature arguments in the genitive case; and the genitive case may also have adverbial uses (see adverbial genitive). The genitive construction includes the genitive case, but is a broader category. Placing a modifying noun in the genitive case is one way of indicating that it is related to a head noun, in a genitive construction. However, there are other ways to indicate a genitive construction. For example, many Afroasiatic languages place the head noun (rather than the modifying noun) in the construct state. Possessive grammatical constructions, including the possessive case, may be regarded as subsets of the genitive construction. For example, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
