Areas in the Use of Personal Pronouns in Standard English

Abstract

A pronoun is a term used in the grammatical classification of words, referring to the closed sets of items which can be used to substitute for a noun phrase (or single noun). There are many types of pronoun, with terminology varying somewhat between grammars. Personal pronouns include I, you, etc. in their variant forms (e.g. I/me); in their form my/mine the term possessive pronoun is often used. Other classes of pronoun regularly recognised include demonstrative pronouns, e.g. this/ that (in certain of their uses); interrogative pronouns, e.g., certain uses of who/which/what; reflexive pronouns, e.g. myself/yourself; indefinite pronouns, e.g. anyone/nobody; and relative pronouns, e.g. who/whom/that.Most pronouns replace noun or full noun phrases and can be seen as economy devices. Personal pronouns, for example, serve as pointers to neighbouring text (usually preceding text) or to the speech situation (Quirk et al., 1985: 335). Personal pronouns, moreover, can identify speakers and addressees. They have subjective, objective, and possessive forms and their main function is to create grammatical cohesion. Moreover, they are typically used as anaphors to NP antecedents. They refer either to nouns or full noun phrases anaphorically (backward) and cataphorically (forward).