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Concept
English pronouns
Summary
The English pronouns form a relatively small category of words in Modern English whose primary semantic function is that of a pro-form for a noun phrase. Traditional grammars consider them to be a distinct part of speech, while most modern grammars see them as a subcategory of noun, contrasting with common and proper nouns. Still others see them as a subcategory of determiner (see the DP hypothesis). In this article, they are treated as a subtype of the noun category.
They clearly include personal pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and reciprocal pronouns. Other types that are included by some grammars but excluded by others are demonstrative pronouns and indefinite pronouns. Other members are disputed (see below).
Pronouns in formal modern English .
Those types that are indisputably pronouns are the personal pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and reciprocal pronouns. The full set is presented in the following table along with dummy there. Nonstandard, informal and archaic forms are in italics.
Whom and which can be the object of a fronted preposition, but not who, that or an omitted (Ø) pronoun: The chair on which she sat or The chair (that) she sat on, but not *The chair on that she sat.
†Except in free or fused relative constructions, in which case what, whatever or whichever is used for a thing and whoever or whomever is used for a person: What he did was clearly impossible, Whoever you married is welcome here (see below).
Pronoun is a category of words. A pro-form is not. It is a meaning relation in which a phrase "stands in" for (expresses the same content as) another where the meaning is recoverable from the context. In English, pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns.
Examples [1 & 2] are pronouns and pro-forms. In [1], the pronoun it "stands in" for whatever was mentioned and is a good idea. In [2], the relative pronoun who stands in for "the people".
Examples [3 & 4] are pronouns but not pro-forms.
Official source
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