Indefinite and Negative Pronouns

Indicate persons or non-persons or else their properties in a general way without defining the class of objects they belong to, class or properties they possess. They are: some, any, somebody, anybody, someone, anyone, something, anything, one.

Some and any are both noun-pronouns and adjective-pronouns; their compounds in -body, -one, or -thing, as well as the pronoun one, are only noun-pronouns.

Some, any, something, anything have no grammatical categories; somebody, anybody, someone, anyone, and one have the category of case (somebody’s, anybody’s, someone’s, anyone’s, one’s).

Some and any indicate qualities or quantities, depending on the class and grammatical form of the noun with which they are used as attributes or for which they function as their substitutes. The idea of quantity is actualized if they combine with:

a) countable nouns in the plural:

(E.g. Are there any roses in your garden? I have a tot of flowers in my garden, some of them are sweet-scented, some are not).

b) nouns of material:

(E.g. Give me some water, please. Can you see any snow on the mountaintop?)

c) abstract nouns:

(E.g. She won’t give you any trouble.)

When used before noun-phrases with cardinal numerals some denotes approximate quantity: some ten years ago, some twenty people (около, приблизительно).

The idea of quality is actualized when some and any combine with count nouns in the singular. In a positive statement any acquires the meaning of ‘любой'.

(E.g. They bought some old house in the country, (какой-то дом)

Any horse will do now.) (любая лошадь)

Very often the idea of quality and that of quantity go together: Some people will do it of their own free will means a certain type of persons and о certain number of people.

Some and any, indicating both indefinite qualities and quantities, differ in meaning: some has assertive force, that is presupposes the presence of some quality or quantity. It generally corresponds to the Russian неко­торый, какой-то, некоторое количество. Any has a non-assertive force, that is, does not presuppose the presence of any quality or quantity, and generally corresponds to the Russian какой-нибудь, какой-либо, сколько-нибудь.

The difference in meaning predetermines their use. Some is commonly used in affirmative and imperative sentences.

(E.g. There are some apples on the table. Give him some milk.)

Any i s commonly used:

1) In negative sentences (with negatives not, no, never, neither... nor), in sentences with incomplete negatives (hardly, little, few, least, etc.), and with implied negatives (fail, prevent, reluctant, hard, difficult).

(E.g. I don’t like any of them. She has never lasted any wine.

I hardly knew any of those present.

He failed to find any of them).

2) In questions, mostly general:

(E.g. Did you see any of them? Is there any bread there?)

3) In conditional clauses:

(E.g. If any person learns about it, you will have to leave).

4) In comparative phrases:

(E.g. He did more for me than any of you).

However, some not any, is used in interrogative sentences when their basic meaning is assertive and the speaker suggests that a certain state of affairs exists, as in:

(E.g. Did you see some new English books on the shelf?

When will you have some time to show me your presents?)

Some, not any, is preferable when making invitations or offers if it presupposes an acceptance (e.g. Will you have some tea? Would you like to see some of my pictures?)

The same holds true for negative sentences and conditional clauses with positive orientation.

(E.g. She would not find some letters she had left on the table.

If you bring her some flowers, she'll be only too glad).

On the other hand any can be found in affirmative sentences if used with the meaning of no matter what, no matter who, as in (E.g. I am so hungry. I’ll eat any piece of stale bread. Any of them will do. (Я съем любой черствый кусок хлеба, любой из них подойдет).

Syntactically some and any can be used as subject, object, or attribute.

The compound pronouns of this subclass (something, somebody, someone, anything, anybody, anyone) are used only as noun-pronouns. Those ending in -thing imply non-persons, and those ending in -body imply persons. The difference in their communicative value is the same as between some and any. The pronouns with the element some- are used in affirmative and conditional sentences, or in interrogative, negative and conditional sentences if they are assertive (E.g. Something unexpected always happened to him. Что-нибудь неожиданное всегда случалось с ним. Let somebody bring me a glass of water. Пусть кто-нибудь принесет мне стакан воды. Did somebody called me up? Мне кто-то звонил?)

The pronouns beginning with any are used in negative and interrogative sentences, in conditional clauses, in comparative phrases and in affirmative sentences meaning no matter what, no matter who.

(E.g.I don’t see anyone here.

Я никого здесь не вижу.

If anyone calls, ask them to wait a moment.

Если кто-нибудь зайдет, попросите подождать минуту).

The Pronoun one is indefinite-personal. It indicates people in general implying inclusion of the speaker, much in the same way as the indefinite-personal we, you, they do:

One is used as subject and attribute (in the genitive case)

(E.g. One never knows what may happen.

Никогда не знаешь, что может случиться).

The use of one is rather formal. In everyday speech weor you is preferable:

(E.g. You never know what may happen).

Negative Pronouns as the term implies render the general meaning of the sentence negative.

They are: no, none, nothing, nobody, no one, neither. No is used only as an adjective-pronoun, none, nothing, nobody, no one as noun-pronouns, neither may be used as both adjective-pronoun and noun-pronoun.

Unlike Russian, in sentences with negative pronouns no other nega­tive words can be used (E.g. Я ему ничего не сказал. - 1 told him nothing). Only two negative pronouns have the category of case: nobody – nobody’s, no one - no one’s. The other pronouns of this subclass have no grammatical categories. No and none refer to all nouns denoting both persons and things, nothing refers to things, whereas nobody and no one refer to persons only. (E.g. Nobody means to offend you). The pronoun neither refers to two persons or things and therefore correlates only with count nouns. It has a disjunctive force (ни тот, ни другой). (E.g. No trees could be seen. I will give you no trouble). (E.g. I have no pen. = I have n’t a pen with me. (ни одной ручки)).

None refers to many people, therefore it agrees with the predicate verb in the plural. (E.g. None were present at the meeting. I remember none of the stories. Nothing happened. I could see nothing there. Nobody answered. (Not anybody) No one stirred. (Not anyone) Neither came back. Neither book interested me).

When neither is used as subject, the predicate verb is in the singular: (E.g. Neither was present).

Nobody and no one cannot be postmodified by an of-phrase.Only none can be used in this case. (E.g. None of my relatives came to our wedding).

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