Questions tagged [pro-forms]
The pro-forms tag has no usage guidance.
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Are all pronouns proforms?
The definition of a pronoun according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is "any of a small set of words... that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases". The definition of a pro-...
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How can you establish that a word is a proform?
A pro-form is a word, substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic context.
But how do you establish a word as a ...
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How do pro-forms get their meaning?
How do pro-forms get their meaning? For example, does the word 'he' in the sentences
Harry got a toy. He was happy.
get it's meaning from the context, or what the speaker meant by "he"?
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Do all pro-forms need to have antecedents?
Are all pro-forms the same in that they have to have antecedents and postcedents in the conversation to have any meaning? For example, the word "it" derives its meaning from a noun located either just ...
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Propositional pro-forms like "so" English?
I'm looking for examples of dedicated embedding pro-forms for propositions in other languages. In particular, I'm curious to know about analogs to uses of so in English like the following:
I think so....
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