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Pronouns
What are the
things we need to know about Pronouns?
For a thorough understanding of them
we need to know:
What
are Pronouns?
They are words that take the place of nouns. They are substitutes
for nouns.
It
is painful for the ear to hear and the eye to read the same noun over
and over again. When the same word is repeated often, we get irritated.
Here's what I mean. Read
this paragraph about a former tennis star. Try to read it aloud.
Vijay
Amrithraj was a brilliant tennis player. Vijay Amrithraj's shots were
graceful and appeared effortless. Vijay Amrithraj had a great quality.
Whenever an opponent made a good shot, Vijay Amrithraj would applaud.
It showed that Vijay Amrithraj was a great human being. I am Vijay
Amrithraj's fan even today.
Here I am
trying to talk about brilliance and grace...but see how tedious the
language is to read about those things!
Now
let’s read the same paragraph with a pronoun substituted for the name
'Vijay Amrithraj' every time it occurs, except the first time.
Vijay
Amrithraj was a brilliant tennis player. His shots were graceful and
appeared effortless. He had a great quality. Whenever an opponent made
a good shot, he would applaud. It showed that he was a great human
being. I am his fan even today.
That sounds better, doesn’t it? Pronouns
make things easier to read or hear. They are substitutes for
bigger-looking or harder-sounding words.
More
accurately speaking…
They are substitutes for noun phrases
Look at these sentences:
- Boys
like bikes.
- Those
very smart boys like bikes.
- They
like bikes.
The word ‘they’ in sentence 3 is a substitute for the phrase ‘those
very
smart boys’
in sentence 2. If the word 'they' had replaced only ‘boys’, the
sentence would have read:
*Those very smart they like bikes.
That would be an ungrammatical sentence. (The asterisk * indicates an
ungrammatical sentence in English language teaching.)
So we know they are
substitutes for noun phrases, not merely for single
nouns.In
grammar, even the single word ‘boys’ of sentence 1 is
considered to be a noun phrase.
It has
the properties of a noun…and more
Since it takes the place of a noun, it must be like a noun. It
has the grammatical
properties of a noun and does the work of a noun.
Like a noun, it has number,
gender
and case.
An fourth property which it has is that of ‘person’.
Grammatical
Number
A pronoun may be singular
or plural.
I, me, he, him, she, her, it, anyone, this, that, are all singular; and
we,
us, they, them, all, these, those, are all plural.
Grammatical
Gender
It may be masculine,
feminine, common, or neuter.
Masculine—he, him, his
Feminine—she, her, hers
Common—they, them, theirs
Neuter—it, its, that, this
Case
Case refers to the different
forms associated with the different jobs
a noun or a pronoun does in a sentence. In the examples below, I show
you the different forms of ‘he’ performing different
functions in sentences.
A pronoun can
be…
- the subject of a verb—as in “He helped the poor
man.”
- the object of a finite verb—The boys saw him.
- the object of a non-finite verb—The boys wanted
to help him.
- the object of a preposition—Give this money to him.
- indirect object of a verb—The boys gave him the money.
- or show possession—The blue shirt is his.
- or be a complement after a linking verb—It is he.
- or perform an appositive function—The Company’s
troubleshooter, he,
solved this problem.
These
various functions of pronouns become visible to us through the
different forms they can take in a sentence.
Unfortunately, in English,
we don’t have a unique form for every particular use, unlike in
languages like, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, or Hindi. There is no
one-to-one correspondence between the different forms and uses. In
English, we economize on the number of forms! We make do with a few of
them
for the many tasks, I have listed above.
Person
Pronouns are divided into three ‘grammatical
persons’. They are:
- First
Person—refers to the one(s) doing the speaking. (I, me,
mine, we, us, ours);
- Second
Person—refers to the one(s) spoken to, i.e. directly
addressed. (you, yours);
- Third
Person—refers to the one(s) spoken about, be they human,
animal, vegetable, mineral, or abstract. (it, its, they, theirs, them.)
All nouns belong to the Third Person; so we usually don’t talk about
person when referring to nouns.
A
closed set of words
Pronouns
consist of a limited number of words. You can’t keep adding to their
number. Nouns are numerous and we can keep adding to a list of nouns.
The
Different Types
Here I am just listing the
names of the various kinds
with examples just to give you a basic idea. You will find a more detailed
list here. There will be lessons for
each of these types as we progress. So, you don't have to be worried
about what these names mean.
- Personal P.
(Possessive Pronouns are merely the Genitive/Possessive Case of
Personal P.)
- Compound Personal P.
(Reflexive and Intensive are two sub-types. They are similar in form
but different in function.)
- Demonstrative P.
- Indefinite P.
- Distributive P.
- Reciprocal P.
- Interrogative P.
- Relative P.
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