DISTINCTION OF TYPES OF PRONOUNS

There are many examples in English pronouns of the same phonetic unit used to express different meanings in different contexts. So the question arises whether this is a case of polysemy, that is, different meanings of the same word, or of homonymy, that is, different words sounding alike. We may state the following cases in point: that demonstrative and that relative; who interrogative and who relative; which interrogative and which relative; myself (and the other self -pronouns) reflexive, and the same pronouns intensive (non-reflexive).

That seems to be the easiest of the problems to settle, as we can apply the test of the plural form here. The demonstrative that has a plural form those, whereas the relative that remains unchanged in the plural.

It is obvious that the that which remains unchanged in the plural cannot be the same word as the that which has the plural form those. So we arrive at the conclusion that there are two different pronouns: that (relative) and that / those (demonstrative, parallel to this).

With the other pronouns mentioned above no criterion of this kind can be applied, as they, none of them, have any special plural form. So, if that question is to be solved at all, we shall have to look for criteria of a different kind, which may not prove so decisive as the one we applied in the case of that.

We shall have to rely on meaning and syntactical function. It is not hard to distinguish between the interrogative and the relative meaning in the pronouns who, what, and which. It is also evident that the relative who, what, and which can introduce subordinate clauses. However, it is not so easy to say whether the pronoun what is interrogative or relative in a sentence like the following: I know what you mean. On the one hand the meaning of the pronoun what seems to be the same as in the sentence I know what

¹ And of course also by the alternation [f]/[v], just as in the nouns s helf/shelves, wolf/wolves, etc. This is irrelevant here.

The Pronoun 71

has happened (a so-called indirect question), where it is obviously interrogative. On the other hand, it can hardly be denied that what may be taken here as equivalent to that which and as connecting the subordinate clause with the main clause. ¹ Since no clear distinction can be established, it seems unjustified to separate the two and to say that they are homonyms. More or less similar considerations apply to the other cases enumerated on page 70. We will therefore speak of "the pronoun himself", etc., without distinguishing "the reflexive pronoun himself" and "the emphatic pronoun himself". ²

LIMITS OF THE PRONOUN CLASS

The limits of the pronoun class are somewhat difficult to define. That is, there are words which have some pronominal features, without being full pronouns, or, even, have other features which are not pronominal at all. We may take the word many as a case in point.

Many is in several respects similar in meaning and function to the pronouns some and several; -cf. some children, some of the children, some of them; several children, several of the children, several of them; many children, many of the children, many of them. In this respect many differs from adjectives, which of course cannot be followed by the group "of + noun or pronoun". That would favour the view that many belongs to the pronoun class. On the other hand, however, many has an important characteristic which separates it from pronouns and brings it together with adjectives; it has degrees of comparison: more, (the) most. No pronoun has degrees of comparison, and indeed the pronouns some and several, which stand so close to many in other respects, cannot form such degrees. So, in determining the part of speech to which many belongs we have to decide which of its characteristics is more essential, unless we prefer to state that many, few, much and little are hybrids, partaking both of pronouns and of adjectives. Since the choice of the more essential feature remains somewhat arbitrary, the conclusion on the word many may be affected by it. If, for example, we decide that the morphological feature is more essential, we will say that many is an adjective, but we shall have to add that it shares some vital syntactical features with pronouns.

Another case in point is the word certain. When used as a predicative it is of course an adjective, as in the sentence, We were

¹ For a general theory of subordinate clauses, see Chapter XXXIV.

² The question of polysemy and homonymy of words is of course a lexicological, not a grammatical, question. We only touched on it here because we have to express a view of these words when we speak of their grammatical peculiarities.

72 The Pronoun and the Numeral

quite certain of the fact. Things are different, however, when certain is used as an attribute standing before a noun and has a meaning much the same as some, e. g. There are certain indications that this is true, or, A certain Mr Brown wants to see you. The question arises, is this the same word, the adjective certain as in the first sentence, or is it a pronoun? Here, too, we should apply some objective tests. One of the peculiarities of the word is that it can be preceded by the indefinite article, which generally is not the case with pronouns. ¹ We must also find out whether certain can be followed by the group "of + noun or pronoun". If no such examples are met with, we shall have to conclude that there are no sufficient reasons to class certain with the pronouns, in spite of the peculiar meaning it has in such sentences.

Other problems of this kind would have to be treated along similar lines.

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