A disjunctive pronoun is a stressed form of a

personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it''). Personal pronouns may also take different f ...

reserved for use in isolation or in certain syntactic contexts.

Examples and usage

Disjunctive pronominal forms are typically found in the following contexts. The examples are taken from French, which uses the disjunctive first person singular pronoun ''moi''. The (sometimes colloquial) English translations illustrate similar uses of ''me'' as a disjunctive form. *in syntactically unintegrated disjunct (or "dislocated") positions :''Les autres s'en vont, mais moi, je reste.'' :: The others are leaving, but me, I'm staying. *in

elliptical construction In linguistics, ellipsis () or an elliptical construction is the omission from a clause of one or more words that are nevertheless understood in the context of the remaining elements. There are numerous distinct types of ellipsis acknowledged in ...

s (often "sentence fragments") with no verb (e.g. short answers) :''Qui veut du gâteau ? Moi.'' :: Who wants cake? Me. (cf. "I do") :''Il est plus âgé que moi.'' :: He is older than me. (cf. "I am") *in the main clause of a

cleft sentence A cleft sentence is a complex sentence (one having a main clause and a dependent clause) that has a meaning that could be expressed by a simple sentence. Clefts typically put a particular Constituent (linguistics), constituent into Focus (linguisti ...

:''C'est moi que vous cherchez.'' :: It's me that you're looking for. Disjunctive pronouns are often semantically restricted. For example, in a language with

grammatical gender In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...

, there may be a tendency to use masculine and feminine disjunctive pronouns primarily for referring to

animate Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

entities. :''Si l'on propose une bonne candidate, je voterai pour elle.'' :: If someone proposes a good candidate, I'll vote for her. :''Si l'on propose une bonne loi, je voterai pour elle.'' :: If someone proposes a good law, I'll vote for her (it).

"It's me"

In some languages, a personal pronoun has a form called a disjunctive pronoun, which is used when it stands on its own, or with only a copula, such as in answering the question "Who wrote this page?" The natural answer for most English speakers in this context would be "me" (or "It's me"), parallel to ''moi'' (or ''C'est moi'') in French. Unlike in French, however, where such constructions are considered standard, English pronouns used in this way have caused dispute. Some grammarians contend that the correct answer should be "I" or "It is I" because "is" is a linking verb and "I" is a

predicate nominative A predicative expression (or just predicative) is part of a clause predicate, and is an expression that typically follows a copula or linking verb, e.g. ''be'', ''seem'', ''appear'', or that appears as a second complement (object complement) of ...

, and up until a few centuries ago spoken English used pronouns in the

subjective case In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), 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 E ...

in such sentences. However, since English has lost noun inflection and now relies on word order, using the objective case ''me'' after the verb ''be'' like other verbs seems natural to modern speakers. "It is I" developed from the Old and

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

form "It am I". "It" was used as the complement of "am", but in modern English "it" is the subject.

References

* {{lexical categories, state=collapsed Personal pronouns

Examples and usage

"It's me"

See also

References