Categorial Characteristics of Pronouns in Modern English from the Point of View of Prototype Theory

Abstract

Summary. The object of the study of this article is the points of view of the linguists on grammaticalstatus of pronouns in Modern English. The subject of our investigation is cognitive characteristics of pronounsin Modern English and possibilities of their representation in classifications of pronouns. The purpose of ourwork is to try to find adequate criteria for classification of pronouns in Modern English. Methodologically ourresearch is based upon the laws of cognition, on such psychological categories as conceptual category, archetype.The descriptive analysis and comparison were used. The findings of our work include principles of classification of pronouns in Modern English. Practical value of our research consists in possibility of acquiring its results in the course of teaching English as a foreign language and in possibility of their use in fundamental cognitiveinvestigations of the parts of speech of the English language. Results of our work are: 1) the prototype theorycan be very effective in helping to classify the miscellaneous group of pronouns according to the conceptual categories they reflect, it can also help to explain the cases of hypostasis within the subgroups of pronouns;2) pronouns can be united on the ground of their common function — to point to a certain phenomena of the objective world without identifying it, they are associated with different conceptual categories (substance,possession, location, temporality, quality, quantity) which explains differences in their formal characteristics.