pronouns study guide

8/12/2019 Pronouns Study Guide

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ENGL 672 March 12, 2012

Pronouns/proforms study guideGQ Ch. 6, Schachter & Shopen 2.1

Major topics in GQ Ch. 6 (see also GQ Ch. 12: 12.3-12.13) on English pronouns. Situate and elaborate

English situation with crosslinguistic information in Schachter & Shopen 2.1

Classes of pronouns: central, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite (summarized 6.1)

Central pronouns: case, person, gender, number, first person plural, generic reference of personal

pronouns, it, reflexives, possessives

Pronouns without a person contrast: relative, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite (universal,

partitive)

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OUTLINE,NOTES,AND PRACTICE EXERCISESto help you organize and prioritize information in the

readings on pronouns (answers to exercises provided; best to work the exercises before looking at

the answers)

1. Identify the constituent the proform in each substitutes for.1

a. Pat is in Londonand Sid is theretoo.

b. Lee arrived on Tuesdayand Rob arrived thentoo.

c. She hoped that theyd clean the house carefully before she got home, but they didnt do

so.

d. The senatorfinished her dinner andshewent straight to bed.

e. If hes a criminal,its his parents who have made himso.

2. Central pronouns: GQ: 6.2 (PERSON,NUMBER,GENDER CASEcoded for some central pronouns;

understand how these grammatical categories are specified/coded in English, i.e. whatPERSON/CASE/GENDER/NUMBERdistinctions are made in English pronouns?)

a. PERSONAL PRONOUNS: S&S: 24-26

CASE:I/me, she/her [subjective/objective]

PERSON:I/you/she, etc. [contrast between 1, 2, 3]

GENDER: personal and nonpersonal, e.g. he/shev. itand masculine and feminine,

e.g.she/he.

NUMBER:I/we

3. Case: subjective, objective (GQ 6.7: subject territory and object territory)

a. prescriptive issue in Standard English: misuse of pronoun case

It was she who came. (standard)

The only person to hear the news was me . (standard=I)It was________(she/her) that Pat criticized.

4. It(GQ 6.9)

a. refers to a variety of Ns, NPs, whole clauses or sentences

1a. adverbial, b. adverbial, c. predication, d. NP or subject, e. NP or subject complement.


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b. Dummy/prop it: What time is it?Is it raining?

c. ambient it(Bolinger 1977): Nonanaphoric is uses often make reference to the immediate

situation: weather, time, circumstance, whatever is obvious by the nature of reality.

Bolinger suggests that its a mistake to confuse no meaning with generality of meaning.

5. Itreference: What is itreferring to (the referent) in each of the following?2

a. She made some soup and gave itto the children.

b. A: Who said I was crazy? B: I said it.

c. Its getting dark.

d. Parliaments answer to all problems is to establish a Royal Commission whose findings it

can then ignore.

6. First person plural: inclusive, exclusive

a. Kuri (Austronesian)

DUAL PLURAL

incl. !ea! !ullia

excl. !ea!-wai !u!ullia

b. GQ 6.10: different uses of we, e.g. editorial we

7. Limited modification of pronouns [relative to other nominals] (GQ 6.11): some adjectives,

appositives, PPs, universal pronouns, relative clauses.

8. Generic reference of personal pronouns: generic 3s, we, you, they, one(formal)

9. Reflexive pronouns: used when two NPs coreferential(refer to the same thing). (GQ: 6.13, S&S:

26-28)

a. They helped themselves. (subject & direct object coreferential)

b. She allowed herself a rest. (subject & indirect object coreferential)

c. He is not himself today. (subject & subject complement coreferential)

d. The deli pays for itself. (subject & prepositional complement)

emphatic use of reflexive form in English; not necessarily the same form used for both

functions (reflexive, emphatic) in other languages.

10. Possessive pronouns (GQ 6.16): GQ make a distinction between determiner and independent

function (see Table 6.2). Other treatments only call the independent function apronounand

classify the determiner function simply as a determiner. You should be able to distinguish thesetwo functions.

2Answers may vary. a. noncount noun (substance), b. clause, c. ambient it, d. collective N (Parliament).


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11. Reciprocal pronouns (S&S: 28-29)

12. Relative pronouns (GQ: 6.17, S&S: 30): Review from GenLing if necessary. More on relativeclauses at the end of the term.

a. gender and case contrastsb. relative pronouns have a double function: refer to antecedent, and function as a clause

element in the relative clause, e.g. The book thatyou ordered last month arrived.Here

the relative pronoun thatboth refers back to the antecedent (the head noun, the book) and

also functions as a clause element in the relative clause ( thatis the subject of the relative

clause that you ordered last month).

c. zero relative pronoun in English: cant have zero relative pronoun in subject function, e.g.

*I saw the woman works at the Naro[I saw the woman whoworks at the Naro.]

13. What is the function of the relative pronoun in the relative clause (S, Od, Oi, C, A, etc.)?3

a. The boy thatwe met was Freddie.b. She arrived the day thatI was ill (on).

c. I dont like the person thatmy son has become.

d. The person whospoke to him told him the wrong thing.

14. Interrogative pronouns (GQ: 6.18, S&S: 33-34)

15. Demonstrative pronouns (GQ: 6.19, S&S: 29)

16. Indefinite pronouns (GQ: beginning 6.21, S&S: 29-30)

17. What kind of pronoun (based on GQ classification)? (Central (C: what kind?), Relative (R),

Interrogative (I), Demonstrative (D), Universal (U), Partitive (P: assertive or nonassertive?)4

a. Pat told us( ) all about himself ( ).

b. Everyone( ) at the barbeque hadsome( ) of the shrimp salad.

c. This( ) will appeal to either( ) of the twins.

d. Which( ) of the umbrellas isyours( )?

e. Anyone( ) who( ) cant bluff shouldnt play poker.

3a. Od, b. A, c. Cs, d. S.4a. C-personal, C-reflexive, b. U, P-assertive, c. D, P-nonassertive, d. I, C-possessive, e. P-nonassertive, r.

pronouns study guide

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