pronouns

pronouns

1. A pronoun is a word used to refer to (and instead of) a noun or noun phrase that has already been mentioned or is known, especially in order to avoid repetition, e.g. We invited the Jones family to our party because we like them and When Jane saw what had happened she laughed. Pronouns include the familiar forms I, we, he, she, it, they, you (plus their object forms me, us, him, her, it, them, you); the possessive pronouns (also now called possessive adjectives or possessive determiners) my, your, his, her, its, our, their (and the group mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs, which are normally used predicatively, i.e. after a verb as in The responsibility is ours); the reflexive pronouns myself, yourself, etc.; the demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, those, the relative pronouns that, which, who, whom, whose; the interrogative pronouns what, which, who, whom, whose; the indefinite pronouns all, any, both, each, either, none, one, everybody, everyone, nobody, no one, somebody, someone; and the so-called ‘extended’ pronouns whatever, whichever, whoever, whosoever, each other, one another.

2. When a pronoun refers back to a person or thing previously named, it is important that the gap is not so large that the reader (or hearer) might have difficulty relating the two, and that ambiguity is avoided when more than one person might be the antecedent, as in the following exchange in a play (where the ambiguity is deliberate):

• Septimus: Geometry, Hobbes assures us in the Leviathan, is the only science God has been pleased to bestow on mankind. Lady Croom: And what does he mean by it? Septimus: Mr Hobbes or God? —Tom Stoppard, 1993.