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But what is more important, pronouns can be substituted «not only for nouns, but for other parts of speech as well. Traditionally, pronouns are divided into 'noun pronouns' and 'adjective pronouns'. In reality pronouns may also be used instead of numerals (Cf. twenty books — several books, many books) and adverbs (here, there, now, then). Using the prefix pro- in its meaning "instead of", we may, therefore, classify pronouns with regard to the parts of speech into pro-nouns, pro-adjectives, pro-numerals and pro-adverbs.

Thus, pronouns are a collection of words correlated with different parts of speech, which accounts for their not being united by any morphological categories or syntactical func­tions.

§ 141. Sometimes a pronoun is correlated with one part of speech only. But very often this is not so. In a part of speech, as we know, variants of the same lexeme may belong to different subclasses. The peculiarity of pronouns is that variants of the same lexeme may be correlated with different parts of speech. This in the sentence Is this the bike? (Saroyan) is a pro-noun, while in the sentence He gave me this bike? (Ib.) it is a pro-adjective. Here in He lives here is a pro-adverb, but in from here to Moscow it is a pro-noun.

§ 142. As pointed out by A. I. Smirnitsky ¹, the bounda­ries of pronouns and those parts of speech with which they are correlated are rather fluid. The word this in this bike may be regarded both as an adjective pronoun and as a pro­nominal adjective, the word here — as a pronominal adverb and as an adverbial pronoun.

The relative references of the words to-day, yesterday, to-morrow are somewhat akin to those of pronouns, yet they are not relative enough because the words denote definite units of time, days. Qf. now or then ².

It is no wonder, therefore, that there exist many words which are regarded as pronouns by some authors and as nouns or adjectives by others.

§ 143. Since pronouns form a class chiefly on the basis of their semantical peculiarities, it is but natural that the

¹ Op. cit, p. 195.

² А. И. С м и p н и ц к и и,

op. cit., p. 195.

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subdivision of pronouns into groups should be carried out on the same basis, though some grammatical peculiarities of each group are also taken into consideration. Pronouns may be divided into

1. personal,

2. possessive,

3. reflexive,

4. demonstrative,

5. interrogative,

6. connective,

7. reciprocal,

8. indefinite,

9. negative,

10. generalizing,

11. quantitative,

12. contrasting.

It must be borne in mind, however, that a pronoun may belong to more than one group at the same time. The pro­noun whose may be treated as interrogative (or connective) and possessive. The pronouns one, one's, oneself may be grouped together as indefinite personal, or they may be classified separately one as personal, one's as possessive, oneself as reflexive, etc.

Personal Pronouns

§ 144. The personal pronouns "are the nucleus of the class. They are: / (me), thou (thee)1, he (him), she (her), it, we (us), you, they (them).

• The personal pronouns serve to indicate all persons and things from the point of view of the speaker who indicates himself or a group of persons including him by means of the personal pronouns of the first person — /, we. He indi­cates his interlocutor or interlocutors by means of the pro­nouns of the second person — thou (archaic) and you. All other persons or things are indicated by him with the help of the pronouns of the third person — he, she (for persons), it (for things), they (for both).

§ 145. Though all the personal pronouns are said to be noun pronouns or pro-nouns, it is only the pronouns of the third person thaLcan be used anaphorically, instead of a noun mentioned previously.

E. g. The dark thing was Ferse ... he was dead. (Gals­worthy). The personal pronouns of the first and the second

Archaic.

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person do not in fact replace any names. In the sentence / am sure of it the pronoun / is not substituted for any noun because no noun can be used with the verb am no noun can denote the first person.

/

§ 146. In Modern English the personal pronouns have the category of case represented in two-member opposemes. But these opposemes differ from the case opposemes of nouns. The general meaning of "case" manifests itself in the partic­ular meanings of the "nominative" and "objective" cases.

Ps.

I

II

III

Sg.

I — me

thou — thee lie — him she — her it - it

PL

we — us you — you

they — them

Case, as we know, is a morphological category with syntac­tical significance. The opposition of the nominative and the objective case is realized syntactically in the opposition of the subject and the object of the sentence.

E. g. She asked her.

With nouns it is different because a noun in the common case fulfils the functions of both the subject and the object. The pronouns you and it having only one form for both cases seem to resemble nouns in this respect. But by analogy with the majority of the personal pronouns you and it may be interpreted as having two homonymous forms each.

The pronoun of the second person singular (thou — thee) was formerly used in address as a form of endearment and familiarity and so came to imply contempt and has been ousted by you. Thou is no longer used in everyday speech, but still lingers in poetry and elevated prose.

Hail to thee (a skylark), blithe spirit — Bird thou never wert.

(Shelley).

You was formerly the objective case, the nominative being ye. Ye is now used only in appeals and exclamations found in poetry and elevated prose.

Nor ye proud, impute to them the fault.

(Gray).

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§ 147. Some facts point to serious changes in the correla­tion between the nominative and objective cases taking place in Modern English. The objective case pronouns seem to encroach on their case opposites. We observe a peculiar trend which is steadily gaining ground, to use the objective case instead of the nominative when the pronoun is used predica-tively or when it is separated from the predicate-verb, as in M e and my wife could have fed her anyhow. (Caldwell). // is т e (instead of Я is /) has established itself as a literary norm. // is him, her, etc. are still avoided by careful speakers '. / didn't leave little Sheila, 'it was her who left me (O'Casey).

The nominative case is regularly preserved when an unstressed personal pronoun is used with a verb as the subject of a sentence to show the person and the number of the agent the action of the verb is associated with.

In B. A. Ilyish's opinion, the unstressed personal pronouns in cases like lie read, t/геу worked are well advanced on the way towards becoming a kind of verbal prefixes ² of person and number. B. A. Ilyish is inclined to think that Modern English gradually develops a system ol the personal pronouns similar to that of Modern French in which the unsteressed conjoint personal pronouns ('pronoms conjoints') je, tu, II, Us, directly precede the verb, and the stressed absolute per­ sonal pronouns ('pronoms absolus') mot, tot, lui, eux are used in all other cases, including the predicative function (c'est moi — it's me) and cases like Moi et топ pere, nous aimons ... — Me and my father, we

However that may be, at the present stage the unstressed personal pronouns can hardly be regarded either as being or as tending to become verbal morphemes similar to the -(e)s morpheme of the third person singular ⁸.

1. They may be used not only as subjects — That was h e. It is s h e. John is taller than I.

¹ But see Deskbook of Correct English by Michael West and P. F. Kim- ber, Л., 1963, p. 130: "It is I" should be used in all formal writing and where "/" is followed by "who" ("It's I who —"), but "It's me" may be used in conversational contexts where no relative clause follows. So also "It's her, — htm, — us, — them\"

2. ^{B. A. Ilyish, op. cit, p 197, see also Л. С. Бархударов, Д, А. Ш т e л и h r, op. cit., p 78.}

2. See А. И. С м и p н и ц к и и, op. cit., p 182—186.

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2. They can be coordinated with the help of conjunctions, which is not typical of morphemes. Neither h e nor I am likely to be present at the meeting (Hornby).

3. They can be coordinated with nouns. Ma and I both ran inside. (Caldwell).

4. They have some freedom of distribution. / forget. Do

1 ever forget? I do not easily forget, etc.

Neither can they be treated as word-morphemes partici­pating in the formation of analytical words. This is proved by the absence of a personal pronoun when a verb has a noun-subject. Thus we have Tom came, but not * Tom he came, which would be natural, if he came were an analytical word.

Thus it seems in keeping with language facts to treat the'' unstressed personal pronouns in the nominative case as in­dependent words

§ 148. As to the category of number, it should be Observed that strictly speaking, the personal pronouns have no cate­gory of number. / and we or he and they cannot be treated as number opposites inasmuch as they differ from each other not only grammatically, but lexically as well. We is not / + / but rather / and you, I and she, I and they, etc. They is not always lie + he, it may as well mean he + she. You is said to indicate both the singular and the plural. So it ought to be similar to cases like sheep, deer. But it is not.

2 sheep = 1 sheep + 1 sheep, in other words, sheep pi. = sheep sg. + sheep sg. With you it is different. You pi. does not always indicate you sg. + you sg. It may indicate you sg. + + he, you sg -|- they, etc.

Since / and we differ lexically, they do not belong to the same lexeme, they do not form an opposeme, and their num­ber meanings are not grammatical. But /, he, she, it form a group of words whose combinability resembles that of "singular" nouns. Cf. /, he, she, it, John, the student ... was (not were). . The pronouns we, you, they, on the contrary, have the combinability of "plural" nouns. We may then regard the pronouns of the first group as singularia tantum, and those of the other group as pluralia tantum '. In other words, the personal pronouns possess oblique or lexico-grammatical meanings of number.

¹ See "Nouns", § 74.

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Similarly, we may speak of the lexico-grammatical mean­ing of person. The words /, me, we, us (as well as pronouns of other groups: my, mine, our, ours, myself, ourselves) are united by their reference to the first person, the speaker. Of these only / has grammatical combinability with am. Only the "singulars" (7, me, my, mine, myself) refer to the first person alone. The "plurals" include, besides the first person, reference to the second (/ and you), or the third (/ and he, she, or they), or both.

The words you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves are united by their reference to the second person, the hearer. But all of them (except yourself) may include reference to the third person as well (you and he, she or they). So in fact they are united negatively by not including reference to the first person.

The words he, him, she, her, it, they, them (also pronouns of other groups) are united by their reference to the third person, the 'spoken-of ¹, or negatively by not including reference to the first and second persons, the speaker and the hearer. Of these words he, she and it have explicit grammati­cal combinability (he speaks, she has ..., it is...).

The oblique grammatical meaning of 'third person' does not unite pronouns alone. All the nouns and noun equivalents are associated with this meaning.

Cf. He (she, it, John, Mary, rrtilk) is ..., not am.

This is the reason why nouns can be replaced by the pro­nouns he, she, it, they, but not by /, we, or you.

As to gender it is possible to discuss, for instance, the lexico-grammatical subclass of the masculine gender only in case we include pronouns of other groups, such as his, himself, besides he (him). ^

The pronoun it is the only "personal" pronoun which in­dicates lifeless things or "non-persons". Together with its, itself, what, which, something, etc. it forms a subclass opposed to another subclass indicating persons (/, he, she, my, his, myself, herself, who, somebody, etc.).

§ 149. The combinability of the personal pronouns dif­fers from that of nouns. The reference to a particular person or thing makes all descriptions and limitations unnecessary. Such phrases as * The handsome it or * the he sound uncommon.

E. Nida. Morphology. Ann Arbor, 1946.

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On the other hand, a personal pronoun usually replaces a noun with all its attributes.

You feel ill at ease when your old friend tells you that h e can't place his short stories. (Maugham).

When used in speech most of the personal pronouns (we, you, they, he) may acquire a generalizing force, as in the examples We don't kill a pig every day (proverb). У о и cannot get blood from a stone (proverb). They say she is breathtakingly beautiful. (The Times). H ё who pays the piper calls the tune (proverb).

Possessive Pronouns

§ 150. The possessive pronouns are usually treated as adjective pronouns, whereas they are in reality noun pro­nouns or pro-nouns, but they replace only possessive case nouns with which they are correlated. Cf. This is the teacher's (his, her) bicycle. This bicycle is the teacher's (his, hers).

The combinability and functions of the possessive pronouns and the 'possessive case' nouns are almost identical, which justifies the view that the pronouns in question are possessive case opposites of the personal pronouns. The only argument we can put forward against that view and in favour of the opinion that the possessive pronouns are a separate group, is as follows.

§ 151. Modern English differs from Old English and from other Modern Germanic languages in having two sets of pos­sessive pronouns — the conjoint possessive pronouns my, thy, /us, her, its, our, your, their and the absolute possessive pronouns mine, thine, hit, tiers, ours, yours, theirs.

'Possessive case' nouns, as we know (§ 97) can also be used absolutely (the idea was George's), but with them it is only a matter of usage in speech, since it is not fixed in any language forms. It is quite different with the pronouns. The pairs my — mine, thy — thine, our — ours, your — yours, etc. can be regarded as opposemes of a grammatical category. It is difficult to find a name for that category, but it resem­bles the category of case. As shown (§ 82), a case opposeme be­longs to the morphological system of the language, but it reflects speech combinability and syntactical functions The same can be «-aid about an opposeme like my — mine The difference between its members is in combinability and func-

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tion. My has right-hand connections with nouns and func­tions as an attribute. Mine has other connections and other functions in the sentence. Now if we assume that both my and mine are 'possessive case' opposites of /, we have then to speak of a case opposeme within the possessive case. There­fore, it would, probably, be more in keeping with language facts (a) to treat my (mine), tier (hers), our (ours), etc. not as the possessive case of personal pronouns but as a sub­class of pronouns; (b) to regard my — mine, lier — hers, etc. as a kind of case opposemes. It is obvious that further research is vitally necessary.

§ 152. The possessive pronouns of the first and second persons (as well as the corresponding personal pronouns) do not in fact replace any nouns, but their usage does not dif­fer from that of the third person pronouns.

The pronoun its has a much wider application than the possessive case of nouns denoting inanimate things.

Cf. The atmosphere of the room, rarely the room's atmos­phere, but its atmosphere.

Its has no 'absolute' opposite. The 'absolute' and 'con­joint' his may be regarded as homonyms.

Cf. Her (his) friend, a- friend of hers (his).

§ 153. One of the peculiarities of Modern English is the extensive use of conjoint possessive pronouns. When used in cases like He entered with h i s eyes shining and h i s hair in disorder, they add very little information. In fact their function is to specify nouns in the way the definite article does. They might be treated as pro-articles, but (a) they are correlated only with the definite article, (b) the meaning of the definite article is much more general than that of his or her.

Reflexive Pronouns

§ 154. They are compound noun prono/ms whose second 'element -self expresses the anaphorical relation of the first element, i. e. it shows that the first element refers to the person mentioned previously in the sentence. Thus, / ... myself, thou .. thyself, he (or John) ... himself, she (or Mary) ... herself, it (or bird) . itself, we .. ourselves, you ... ^your­self (you/selves), they (or the chidren) ... themselves, one ... oneself.

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