In French Grammar, the pronoun is a Mot-outil variable whose main role is of to replace an unspecified element, linguistic or not. The pronoun is thus before a whole representative.

• Étymologiquement, pronoun means put for the name (the prefix pro has the direction of in the place of ).

• In addition, the pronoun can sometimes be the core of a syntagm (called pronominal syntagm ):

We saw something the really interesting one.

the pronominal syntagm “ something of really interesting ” has as a core the indefinite pronoun “ something ”.

• Certains pronouns has correspondents in the category of the determining. The difference between a pronoun and the corresponding determinant, are that the determining one is always followed Nom core with which it forms a Syntagme, while the pronoun is employed all alone, replacing at the same time the determinant and the name:

Les vacances is finished. I would like to be able les to start again.

the syntagm “ the holidays ”, made up of a name core (“ holidays ”) brought up to date by a determinant (the Definite article “ ”), is the antecedent of the personal pronoun “ the ”.

• If the element represented is of linguistic or phrastic nature (a Nom or a unspecified Mot, a Syntagme, a proposal, a Phrase…), the pronoun is a textual representative. If on the contrary the replaced element is of extralinguistic nature, the pronoun is a representative reference frame.

Pronoun, textual representative

When the pronoun is a textual representative, it is put at the place of a term being in the text, employee or quoted, either before the pronoun (function of Anaphore), or more rarely, after (function of Cataphore). The anaphora and the cataphore are endophores (of the Greek endon , “in inside”, here in inside of the sentence).

• the personal pronouns of the third nobody are generally textual representatives.

• represented anaphora is generally called Antécédent, while that of the cataphore is generally called consequent:

Paul sounded with the door. Il brought flowers to me. Elles was very beautiful.

the personal pronoun “ It ” (anaphora) has as an antecedent the name “ Paul ”; the personal pronoun “ they ” (anaphora) has as an antecedent the syntagm “ flowers ”.

Elles was very beautiful, the flowers that it offered to you.

the personal pronoun “ They ” (cataphore) has for consequent the syntagm “ the flowers that it offered to you”.

• That it is of an antecedent or consequent, represented can be: a Name (it is the most frequent case, corresponding to the etymology even of the word pronoun ), another pronoun, a Adjectif, a Verbe or a whole Phrase:

That his wife was very sick, it l' ignored forever.

the pronoun “ the ” has as an antecedent the proposal “ That his wife was very sick ”.

Pronoun, representative reference frame

• When the pronoun is a representative reference frame, it indicates, either a segment of the text, but an element not yet indicated by a Nom, and however likely to be it, in other words, a referent. At the bottom, the role of the pronoun reference frame consists in making referent the equivalent of a name (for this reason some grammairiens speak about nominal to indicate this type of representative).

• the personal pronouns of 1st and 2nd people (the famous Embrayeur S of the situation of stating) are necessarily reference frames:

Je te speaks. Rien is not worth the life. Tout m'interess. Qui sleeps dines. Comment ça goes?

All the underlined pronouns are reference frames because none them has of antecedent. The pronoun “ I ” has as a referent the speaker, the pronoun “ you ”, the recipient, etc

Cinetism of the pronoun

Cinetism of negativation of the animated pronouns

The cinetism guillaumien described here by Olivier Soutet, in connection with the negativation of the pronouns, relates to the directly referential pronouns, i.e. those which are not endophoric. Let us specify that which (distr.) is the distributive Pronom which in Each one had brought a gift, which of the flowers, which of the chocolates, which of frozen chestnuts .

As for the nobody 1 (seized early), it acts of the Forclusif of the negation (… nobody and nobody… ). One could say that in the order nobody lets enter! , the pronoun refers to very virtual people but whose existence remains possible. The “negativation of the individual” (Olivier Soutet) is total only with the nobody 2 : Nobody in the streets, nobody with the doors of the city.

Cinetism of negativation of the inanimate pronouns

August 1st

Another cinetism

August 1st

Function of the pronoun

That represented either of linguistic or extralinguistic nature, in other words, that it is previous, consequent or referent, this element virtually has a value of name , so that the pronoun which represents it (or nominalizes it), necessarily all the usual functions of this category will inherit.

• But if the functions of the pronoun are well the same ones as those of the name, its employment and its Syntaxe on the other hand, does not obey the same rules.

Various categories of pronoun

There exist six subcategories of pronouns.

• personal Pronom

• possessive Pronom
• conclusive Pronom
• indefinite Pronom
• Relative pronoun
• interrogative Pronom

the interrogative pronoun is a variety of interrogative tool. They are mainly the pronouns “ which ” (like its inflections “ which, which, which ”), “ which ” (like its inflections “ which, to which, of which …”), “ which, that, what ” and “ where ”:

Quelle is this flower? Of all these flowers, laquelle do you prefer? Où is the flowers?

• One will notice that there exists neither exclamative pronoun , nor numeral pronoun . However, in certain employment, the Numeral adjective - cardinal or ordinal - can have value of numeral pronoun , but its form remains that of the numeral adjective:

I bought apples. The deux that I ate were excellent.

One can consider that the cardinal numeral adjective “ two ” has here the value of a numeral pronoun, anaphoric representative of the name “ apples ”.

There were four trees. I was under the deuxième .

In the same way, the ordinal numeral adjective “ second ” has here the value of a numeral pronoun, anaphoric representative of the name “ tree ”.

Related articles

• Anaphora and cataphore
• Complement
• Determinant
• Embrayeur
• Stating
• List of the concepts used in linguistics
• Name
• Syntax

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