{"id":579,"date":"2019-05-25T05:23:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T05:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/?p=579"},"modified":"2020-06-14T01:28:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T01:28:53","slug":"pronouns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/?p=579","title":{"rendered":"Pronouns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unlike nouns which are large classes of words which are constantly evolving, pronouns are a small and static class of word. There are around 60 in everyday use in English. However, because there is a cultural dimension to pronoun use, usage does change to reflect political and cultural changes. There are six types of pronoun:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Personal, possessive & reflexive pronouns<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Personal pronouns, possessive pronouns and reflexive pronouns are closely related. Personal pronouns inflect in the 1st<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> persons when used as complements, direct and indirect objects, and in prepositional phrases. Reflexive and possessive pronouns are invariable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Impersonal pronouns<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Impersonal pronouns are concerned with sets and populations considered from a neutral perspective. There are two sets. The first set might be called true impersonal pronouns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The more emphatic forms whosoever, whomsoever <\/em><\/strong>and whatsoever<\/em><\/strong> are less commonly used today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second set are effectively adjectives that have become detached from an accompanying noun. This may just be a case of elision. For example, few have the choice<\/em><\/strong> may just be a shorter way of saying few people have the choice<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interrogative pronouns<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Interrogative pronouns are used to pose questions to which the answer is a person or thing. The longer form is used to convey uncertainty or surprise: whatever can that be<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These pronouns are dealt with together with interrogative adjectives and adverbs in the entry covering Questions & Relative Terms. https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/?p=581<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relative pronouns<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Relative pronouns are used to head a relative clause. They replace an antecedent in another clause to which they refer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note that in a relative clause, which<\/em><\/strong> and that<\/em><\/strong> refer to antecedent things, whereas in questions what<\/em><\/strong> refers to things. This is because relative clauses are an alternative to the use of adjectives to qualify or provide additional information. For that reason, whatever<\/em><\/strong> and whatsoever<\/em><\/strong> can be used as relative pronouns because they have the force of adjectives, as in, for example: whatever book it is<\/em><\/strong>, or whatsoever reason is given<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These pronouns are dealt with together with relative adjectives and adverbs in the entry covering Questions & Relative Terms. https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/?p=581<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlike nouns which are large classes of words which are constantly evolving, pronouns are a small and static class of word. There are around 60 in everyday use in English. However, because there is a cultural dimension to pronoun use, usage does change to reflect political and cultural changes. There are six types of pronoun:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[23,22],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-grammar","tag-closed-class","tag-pronouns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s37PEJ-pronouns","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.language-cafe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}