Pronouns

Abstract

The word “pronoun” can refer to many things; its name suggests that it stands for or refers to another noun. Personal, reflexive, reciprocal, relative, and indefinite pronouns indeed replace nouns, or more accurately noun phrases (NPs) or determiner phrases (DPs). Possessive, demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns can either refer to an NP or DP on their own or modify a noun to form part of a DP, and are then referred to as determiners. There are also “preforms” that stand for a prepositional phrase, adjective phrase, and verb phrase; the proforms will not be discussed here. From a diachronic perspective, there are many generalities in how pronouns arise. Thus, third-person personal pronouns often develop from demonstratives, and reflexives develop from nouns related to “person” or “self.” Since a pronoun is not stable diachronically, languages vary between whether pronouns are arguments, topics, or agreement and whether they are pronouns, clitics, or affixes. Cross-linguistic studies show that (subject) agreement is more frequent than pronouns and it is therefore important to consider the status of this (pronominal) agreement as opposed to full pronouns. If a pronoun stands for a noun phrase, the question arises as to what its syntactic category is, i.e., is it a D with an empty noun or a DP/NP? The answer is that it varies cross-linguistically. Pronouns can be specialized for the person, number, and gender of the referent and are, in many languages, marked by case for its grammatical function and for level of formality. Looking from a typological perspective, it is obvious that these marking are not arbitrary; for instance, third person pronouns are more likely to indicate gender. Pronouns can mark politeness and inclusiveness and exclusiveness of the addressee. The syntax and morphology of pronouns centers around the question if they are a D or a DP or somewhere in between. This question is obviously related to their status as full argument or as agreement marker. Languages also differ as to what features are encoded and how. The pragmatics and semantics of pronouns are also complex. In many languages, the topicality of the noun phrase is marked by the use of a full nominal, a pronoun, or a zero form. For instance, a pronoun may be left out (pro-drop in Romance) when the noun phrase referred to is highly topical and an emphatic pronoun is used when the topic is switched. Finally, references on acquisition and retention have been provided.