Different classes of pronouns

§ Important because of different functions and categories
§ Classification is different in different grammars
§ All the classes are closed classes = they contain final set of elements (thou, thee as the 2nd person disappeared)

Personal
subjective (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)
objective (me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them)

Possessive
attributive
o stand as determiner in front of the noun (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
nominal / independent
o (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs)

Reflexive
(myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)
function
o coreferential
o emphasize

Reciprocal
each – other
o usually expresses relationship between two entities
one – another
o usually expresses relationship among more entities

Demonstrative
this – these
o implies nearness
that – those
o implies distance (special, psychological, in time)
o ® may be relative

Interrogative
(who, whose, whom, what, which)
where, when, why are adverbs

Relative
(who, whose, whom, what, which, that)
o conjunctive elements joining relative clause with another clause

Indefinite
universal
o (every, everyone, everybody, everything, each, all, both, enough by some grammars)
partitive
o assertive
(some, someone, somebody, something, either)
§ used in positive declarative sentences
o non-assertive (any, anyone, anybody, anything, either)
§ used in negative interrogative sentences
o negative
(no, no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither)

Quantifying
multual
o indicate large quantities (many, much, more, most)
paucal
o indicate small quantities (little, few, less, least, fewer, fewest, several)

Substitutive
(one, ones, that, those, each, some)
o one head of the nominal group with pre-modification
o that head of the nominal group with post-modification
o each Give the boys an apple each.
o some You have so many apples. Can you give me some?

Generic
§ refer to the whole class of people (one, you, we, they)
one highly formal
you most common
(You can’t go to the party when you must write an essay. - Člověk nemůže jít na večírek…)
we more subjective attitude, the speaker is included
(We can’t smoke here.)
they implies distance
(They increase the taxes again.)