We have Pronouns

[major_kerina]

Pronouns

Types of Pronouns
Subject Pronouns
Object Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns
Reflexive Pronouns
Others to be presented later
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Interrogative Pronouns - to ask questions.
Relative Pronouns - with an adjectival/relative clause.

The Semantic Features of Pronouns

Person refers to the situational characteristics of the participants in a conversation
+ First person--the one who is speaking ( I and We)
+ Second person--the one who is being addressed (You and Y'all)
+ Third person--person or entity being referred to (He, She, It, They)
Number
+ Singular (I)
+ Plural (They)
Gender
+ Masculine (He)
+ Feminine (She)
+ Neuter (It)
+ Zappy? (unknown)

Subject Pronouns - called so because always used as the subjects of sentences with

tensed verbs.

Object Pronouns - always follow prepositions and verbs and always the objects of

prepositions and verbs

                  Subject Pronouns Object Pronouns

1st Person Singular I me
2nd Person Singular you you
3rd Per. Singular M. he him
3rd Per. Singular F.                 she her
3rd Per. Singular N.                 it it
1st Person Plural       we us
2nd Person Plural     you you
3rd Person Plural     they them

Possessive - pronouns that sub for noun phrases that have possessive determiners in

them.
Reflective Pronouns - occur after a verb and refer back to the subject 

                                Possessive Pronouns 
                                                                  Reflexive Pronouns

1st Person Singular mine myself
2nd Person Singular yours yourself
3rd Per. Singular M. his himself
3rd Per. Singular F.                 hers herself
3rd Per. Singular N. ---             -------- itself
1st Person Plural                 ours ourselves
2nd Person Plural      yours yourselves
3rd Person Plural                 theirs themselves

Distribution of Pronouns

Subject pronouns
Occur as the subjects of finite clauses (finite clauses - those which have tensed verb

groups in them)
Tom is (tensed - is - present tense) a good student  -->
He is a good student
Students know that Dr. Ray is a good instructor  --> (from "that..." is a finite subordinate

clause - is tensed again)
Students know that she is a good instructor

Object pronouns
Occur as the objects of verbs and prepositions
The students liked the guest lecturers -->
The students liked them
The committee received a proposal from Dr. Ray  -->
The committee received a proposal from her

Possessive pronouns
Occur in either subject or object position but substitute for noun phrases with possessive

determiners.
Your courses seem interesting, but  my <--(possessive determiner) courses are dull -->
Your courses seem interesting, but mine are dull
Ambar likes her courses, but Fred doesn’t like his courses -->
Ambar likes her courses, but Fred doesn’t like his<---(possessive)

Reflexive pronouns
Occur as direct objects when they are co-referential to the subject - same semantic features

as the head noun
* The chemistry student burned themselves
The chemistry student burned himself
*We blamed themselves for the accident
We blamed ourselves for the accident

Grammarical Features of Pronouns

Agreement
Pronouns agree with their antecedents in person, number, and gender
When Fred took the exam, he looked worried
When the students took the exam, they  looked worried
When Mary took the exam, she looked worried

Substitution
Pronouns substitute for entire noun phrases.
The corpulent man with the artificial tan is a professor of ethics
He is a professor of ethics
We received the manuscript from the professor of linguistics
We received the manuscript from him

Noun Phrase Boundaries
Pronouns can be used to identify the boundaries of noun phrases.
She met the man in the green shirt
She met him
She met the man in the park
She met him in the park

Exercises

Each sentence below has an underlined noun.  Using pronoun substitution identify the boundaries of the noun phrase.
They bought the bicycle with the bent wheel (They bought it)
They bought the bicycle at the garage sale (They bought it at the garage sale).
The people in the auditorium began to cheer (They began to cheer).
The man who bought the coat returned it (He returned it)
We watched a concert in the park (We watched it in the park).

Errors with Pronouns
Even older writers make some agreement errors with pronouns. 
They get themselves into the following situation:  They write a generalization using a singular subject and then refer to that singular subject with plural pronouns.
The following are actual sentences written by university students.
======================= *both shift between plural and singular pronoun usage*

Once a child has realized the parameters of their language, they simply plug words in the proper order to form a sentence.

Every person is born equipped with a Universal Grammar that tells them how to extract syntactic patterns out of the speech that they hear around them.

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Avoid the error by writing in the plural.
Once children have realized the parameters of their language, they simply plug words in the proper order to form a sentence.
All people are born equipped with a Universal Grammar that tells them how to extract syntactic patterns out of the speech that they hear around them.