Questions tagged [pronouns]
A (usually closed) class of words that can replace nouns.
144 questions
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Similarity between personal pronouns in French and Russian
I noticed that the personal pronouns in French and Russian sound very similar.
Why? Is there a common ancestor language?
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Is a personal pronoun or a proper noun projected to N' in X-bar theory?
In English, for example, a personal pronoun or a proper noun typically doesn't have any specifier or modifier. They form NPs on their own. Then, is a personal pronouns or a proper noun projected to N' ...
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Are interrogative pronouns deictic?
From what I've read, deixis happens when some constituent or other can't be interpreted without information about the context of the utterance. For example ...
First and second person pronouns are ...
- 8,800
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4
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Do all languages distinguish between persons and non-persons?
I am teaching the concept of "person" and "personhood" to my Grade 12 philosophy class, and we have a video to watch in which the philosopher observes that English pronouns ...
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Are all pronouns proforms?
The definition of a pronoun according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is "any of a small set of words... that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases". The definition of a pro-...
- 111
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Languages with distinct pronouns for concrete and abstract things
I was wondering which languages (spoken or otherwise) have distinct separate pronouns (more specific than the words "this" and "that") for referring to concrete and abstract things,...
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2
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512
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What effect does the wrong T-V pronoun have on truth-value?
Suppose someone uses the wrong T-V pronoun in a sentence, e.g. a French person uses "tu" instead of "vous". Is that considered to render the sentence (a) false or (b) without truth-...
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Is it a coincidence that both Italian and German use third person feminine pronouns for formal second-person address?
In both Italian and German, the third person feminine pronouns ("lei" and "Sie," respectively) also serve as the formal second person pronoun.
Etymologically, is it a coincidence ...
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1
answer
189
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Possessive reflexive pronouns (himself's, herself's, myself's, etc.)
"He looked out the window and saw his car."
Does "his" mean the same person initially called "he", or someone else? In English, it could be either one.
If the English ...
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Could it be that the pronoun *eǵh₂om ("I") in PIE is not an innovation?
I think, it is generally believed that the word for "I" in PIE was an innovation and in more ancient branches the 1st person singular pronoun was similar to the plural one, "min/men&...
- 6,800
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On an argument concerning whether weather *it* is truly an expletive
Morgan (1968) claims that many instances of unstressed it are meaningless. He offers the following argument: the pronoun he in (1a) can refer to either John or Bill but the gap in (1b) can only refer ...
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Are there any languages with second-person pronouns marked for a proximal/distal distinction?
I am curious if there are any natural languages where the personal pronoun used to refer to the addressee varies in some way depending on their distance to the speaker. For instance, one form might be ...
- 161
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Grammatical person and the generic you
In English, the second-person pronoun you can be used indefinitely. Wiktionary labels the generic you as an indefinite personal pronoun. Nonetheless, unlike pronouns such as one and anyone, the ...
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Is there a term for mixed gender in plural pronouns (as opposed to masculine, feminine, or neuter)?
In English, there is only one third person plural pronoun to refer to groups of any gender or genders. Multiple "he"s becomes they, multiple "she"s becomes they, multiple "it&...
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Question about coordination
I encounter something interesting about coordination in binding theory.
(1) John1 picked [his own] 1/*2 shoes and [his]*1/2 clothes.
(2) John1 picked [his] 1/2 shoes and [his own]1/*2 clothes.
(3) ...
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