A word that is used in place of a noun expression.
5
votes
0answers
74 views
Personal vs. Demonstrative Pronouns
I've read in a number of places (e.g. Wikipedia) that Proto-Indo-European had first and second-person personal pronouns, but no third-person pronouns. Instead, a system of anaphoric demonstrative ...
4
votes
1answer
174 views
Why did English stop using thou?
In Shakespearean English, thou/thee/thy/thine were used for second person singular, and you/your/yours were used for second person plural. In modern English, you is used for both singular and plural. ...
3
votes
2answers
108 views
Are deictic pronouns at all apparent in written language?
Considering the nature of deixis, I have trouble coming up with written examples where the pronoun is of a deictic nature, other than quotes from speech etc. Or maybe I have misunderstood the meaning ...
4
votes
1answer
135 views
How did the Portuguese pronoun “se” take on these other functions?
In Portuguese, the third person accusative pronoun se ("himself/herself/itself/themselves") can be used for four different purposes:
1.) Most straightforwardly, as a reflexive pronoun:
Mantém-se ...
13
votes
3answers
735 views
What languages lack personal pronouns, and why?
The Japanese language lacks personal pronouns in the IE sense. Japanese is very pro-drop, and often sentences will be constructed so personal pronouns do not appear, and the agents which the pronouns ...
4
votes
2answers
172 views
The meaning of “what”?
"What" is defined grammatically as an interrogative pronoun
... used interrogatively in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc. (Wiktionary)
In dictionaries, ...
7
votes
3answers
291 views
Are the Finnish pronouns related to their Indo-European counterparts?
Although not belonging to the Indo-European family, Finnish has personal pronouns that resemble (to a layperson, at least) the corresponding pronouns in Indo-European languages. For example, the ...
14
votes
2answers
308 views
Are there any fundamental differences in personal pronoun acquisition across languages?
I am interest in reversal errors in personal pronoun acquisition. My knowledge comes mostly from studies done with English-speaking children, and I was wondering if there is any languages where this ...
5
votes
2answers
254 views
Can the /m/ sound in a 1st person pronoun be considered a linguistic universal?
For example,
english: me, mine, my
Russian: мне, меня, мой
Estonian: mina, mind, mulle
How prevalent is this in world's languages and what should it be attributed to?
