Classes of Pronouns

Lesson 6. Typology of Pronoun

Contents

Lesson 6. Typology of Pronoun. 1

1. Typological Characteristics of the Pronoun. 1

2. Classes of Pronouns. 1

2. 1. Personal Pronouns. 2

2.2. Ppossessive pronouns. 2

2.3. Reflexive pronouns. 2

2.4. Demonstrative pronouns. 2

2.5. Interrogative pronouns. 3

2.6. Relative pronouns. 3

2.7. Reciprocal pronouns. 3

2.8. Indefinite pronouns. 4

Typological Characteristics of the Pronoun

The Pronounas a part of speech correlates in English and Ukrainian with the following parts of speech: a) with nouns: he/Pete, she/Ann, etc.; b) Some classes of pronouns may also correlate (attributive function) with adjectives (his, her, your, etc. book); the first/ second, etc. look; c) Several pronouns also correlate in English and Ukrainian with numerals when they denote generalising quantity: кілька, декілька (some, much, few/a few). Their Ukrainian equivalents кілька, декілька, кільканадцять, however, belong to indefinite cardinal numerals. Hence, these words correlate lexically and functionally, performing in both languages the attributive function. Eg: some/few friends, much snow/water, кілька/декілька друзів. Багато снігу/води, etc.

Most Ukrainian pronouns have the following morphological categories: 1) that of number (мій — мої, наш — наші); 2) case (мого, моєму, моїм) and 3) gender (мій брат, моя сестра, моє завдання). English pronouns have nominative case (somebody), genitive case (somebody's, my, his, her, your, their), and objective case (me, him, her, us, them, whom).

As to their structure, both English and Ukrainian pronouns are characterised by isomorphism. They may be 1) simple (/, he, she, you, some, which, what; я, ти, він, хто, що, ваш, той, цей, наш, etc.); 2) compound (myself, ourselves, someone, somebody, nobody, nothing; абихто, абищо, будь-що, хто-небудь, що-небудь); 3) Composite (І myself, this same, somebody else, neither he nor she; що таке, той самий, хто інший, я сам, кожен і всякий, ніхто й ніщо, etc.).

Syntactic functions of pronouns in the sentence in both contrasted languages are practically isomorphic. An exception make only English reflexive pronouns which are also used to form reflexive verbs, eg: to wash oneself, to shave themselves/to shave himself, shave yourself/ yourselves, etc. A similar function performs the Ukrainian -ся(-си)pronoun in a Western Ukrainian dialect. Cf. Вони си зустріли і си поцілували. Hence, one can speak of the existence of a typological isomorphism, going back to the Indo-European linguistic prehistory.

Classes of Pronouns

Each of the eight classes of pronouns in the contrasted languages is endowed with some isomorphic and allomorphic features of its own.

2.1. Personal Pronouns

There are (seven in English: /, he, she, it, we, you, they) and eight in Ukrainian (because of the existence of mu — thou which was substituted in English by you). All personal pronouns in Ukrainian are declinable: я, мене, мені, мною, на мені. They have person and gender distinctions (мій олівець, моя ручка, моє завдання). All English personal pronouns, except itand you take their explicit objective case forms (me, him, her, us, them). Of peculiar nature and meaning is the itpronoun in English which may be used a) anaphorically (cf. the book is on the table — it is on the table); b) as an anticipatory element (It is necessary that...); c) as an impersonal pronoun (It is cold); d) as a demonstrative element (it was he who said that); e) as a formal element (to foot it — іти пішки, to catch it — "зловити" прочухана).

The Ukrainian impersonal pronoun воноis also endowed with some characterising meanings. It is often used to express sympathy, compassion on the one hand or contempt on the other, eg: Воно й училось, нівроку йому. (А. Тесленко) Що воно тямить / з себе корчить; чого воно так кирпу гне? (contempt). Воно ніби так і треба (impersonal meaning).

The pronouns we, you, they may form in English indefinite personal sentences, eg: We must not allow children do what they like (не треба дозволяти дітям робити, що їм заманеться). You don't say so. He може бути! Невже? They say. Кажуть.

There is an absolute identity, however, in both languages in the use of the pronoun "we" by speakers or authors instead of the personal pronoun "I" (cf. We hold the view that... Ми вважаємо, що...).