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Typological Characteristics of the Pronoun
The Pronoun as a part of speech correlates in English and Ukrainian with the following parts of speech as their deictic substitutes: a) with nouns: he/Pete, she/Ann, etc.; b) Some classes of pronouns may also correlate (attributive function) with adjectives (his, her, your, etc. book); the first/ second, etc. look; c) Several pronouns also correlate in English and Ukrainian with numerals when they denote generalising quantity: кілька, декілька (some, much, few/a few). Their Ukrainian equivalents кілька, декілька, кільканадцять, however, belong to indefinite cardinal numerals. Hence, these words correlate lexically and functionally, performing in both languages the attributive function. Eg: some/few friends, much snow/water, кілька/декілька друзів. Багато снігу/води, etc.
Most Ukrainian pronouns have the following morphological categories: 1) that of number (мій — мої, наш — наші); 2) case (мого, моєму, моїм) and 3) gender (мій брат, моя сестра, моє завдання). English pronouns have nominative case (somebody), genitive case (somebody's, my, his, her, your, their), and objective case (me, him, her, us, them, whom). [54; 96]
There exists generally almost complete isomorphism in the classes of pronouns though some of them are not yet finally identified and unanimously accepted by many grammarians, at least by the majority of West European grammarians. To these belongs (for a longer time disputed already in English and Ukrainian) the whole group of indefinite pronouns. Some grammarians and researchers restrict this class of pronouns quantitatively by singling out of the class some semantically distinct subclasses of them. Thus, the authors of the Ukrainian scientific Morphology (Морфологія 32: 283-284) allot to this class only the following undoubtedly indefinite pronouns: дехто, будь-хто, будь-що, хто-небудь, нічий, ніякий, котрийсь, and some others. The Kharkiv grammarians Khaimovych B. and Rohovska E. (47: 111-116) subdivide the English indefinite pronouns into some subclasses. Namely, into: negative pronouns (nobody, nothing, etc.), generalising pronouns (all, both, every, each), quantitative pronouns (little, many, much, few) and contrasting pronouns (another, other, otherwise, one, ones). The Petersburg grammarian I. Ivanova and her co-authors (15) completely agree on the point with B. Strang, V. Zhihadlo and other grammarians. They also restrict the class of indefinite pronouns to some, any, every, no and to their derivatives (somebody, anybody, nothing, nobody, etc.). There also exist some quite different nomenclatures within the group of indefinite pronouns in other English and Ukrainian grammars. Despite all this the class of indefinite pronouns can not be questionable or discarded altogether since it is in the typological system of this subclass of pronouns in at least all European languages. The matrix of English and Ukrainian pronouns can be presented in the following classes of them:
| Personal/Особові Possessive/Присвій I Reflexive/Звороти | Demonstrative/Bxa | ||
| I, he, she, it, we, you, they; я, ти, віи, вона, воно, ми, ви, вони. | my, his, her, its, our, your, their, mine, hers, yours, ours; мій, твій, її, наше, ваше, ваш, їхня, | myself, itself, himself, yourself, yourselves, ourselves; себе, собі, собою, (на) собі | зівні: this (these), that (those), such a, (the) same; цей, той, ті, той самий, та сама, такий |
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Relative/Відносні: Interrogative\Питальні:
who, what, which, who, whose, what,
whose, хто, що, який, PRONOUNS ЗАЙМЕННИКИ which, how much; хто,
котрий, чий/чия, чиє, що, який, котрий, які
чийого, чиї, чиїх. саме, хто саме.
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Indefinite and Negative:Reciprocal/Взаємні:
any, anybody, somebody, each other, one another;
something, nobody, none, один одного, одна одну
nothing; дехто, декого, одне одного, одні одних
декому, будь-що, будь-хто,
нічий, який-небудь,
котрийсь, котрий/котра-небудь.
Each of the eight classes of pronouns in the contrasted languages is endowed with some isomorphic and allomorphic features of its own. This can be seen from their short characteristics that follows.
1. Personal Pronouns (seven in English: /, he, she, it, we, you, they) and eight in Ukrainian (because of the existence of mu — thou which was substituted in English by you). All personal pronouns in Ukrai nian are declinable: я, мене, мені, мною, на мені. They have person and gender distinctions (мій олівець, моя ручка, моє завдання). All English personal pronouns, except it and you take their explicit objective case forms (me, him, her, us, them). Of peculiar nature and meaning is the it pronoun in English which may be used a) anaphorically (cf. the book is on the table — it is on the table); b) as an anticipatory element (It is necessary that...); c) as an impersonal pronoun (It is cold); d) as a demonstrative element (it was he who said that); e) as a formal element (to foot it — іти пішки, to catch it — "зловити" прочухана).
The Ukrainian impersonal pronoun воно is also endowed with some characterising meanings. It is often used to express sympathy, compassion on the one hand or contempt on the other, eg: Воно й училось, нівроку йому. (А. Тесленко) Що воно тямить / з себе корчить; чого воно так кирпу гне? (contempt). Воно ніби так і треба (impersonal meaning).
The pronouns we, you, they may form in English indefinite personal sentences, eg: We must not allow children do what they like (не треба дозволяти дітям робити, що їм заманеться). You don't say so. He може бути! Невже? They say. Кажуть.
There is an absolute identity, however, in both languages in the use of the pronoun "we" by speakers or authors instead of the personal pronoun "I" (cf. We hold the view that... Ми вважаємо, що...).
2. English possessive pronouns, unlike their counterparts in Ukrainian, may be of two types: a) possessive conjoint (my, his, her, etc.) and b) possessive absolute (mine, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs.). The latter are used as attributes (the friend of mine) or as predicatives (that book is mine). English possessive conjoint pronouns very often function as determiners, eg: He has his hands in his pockets. Allomorphism is observed in Ukrainian possessive pronouns which have gender (мій, моя моє), case (мого, моєму,моїм, etc.) and number categories (мої, твої, наш - наші) lacking in English. Besides, they are often substantivised in colloquial speech (cf. Твоя прийшла). Вона (сестра, дружина) вдома? Чий (хлопець, чоловік) то приходив? Наша взяла.
3. Reflexive pronouns(self-pronouns) in English have singular and plural forms (myself, himself, ourselves, themselves, etc.). They correspond to the Ukrainian себе pronoun which has no nominative case form but only genitive and other case-forms ^Є6Є, собі, себе, собою на собі) and no number distinctions (я питаю себе, ти вигороджуєш себе, вони знають себе). In some Western Ukrainian dialects the old short forms си/ся are used (ми си/ся зустріли). The short reflexive ся pronoun is also used in literary Ukrainian expressions as: Як ся маєш? Як ся маєте? whereas the dative case form собі may acquire in some context the meaning and function of a particle, eg: ...одно вона вчиться собі. (Тесленко) Деякі сиділи собі на диванчику... (Ibid).
Reflexive pronouns in English are used to form reflexive verbs (to wash oneself, to restrain herself, to show themselves, etc.).
4. English demonstrative pronouns have virtually the same equivalents in Ukrainian with their common (attributive) function in speech.These pronouns are this/that, these/those, this same/that same, such a,such; цей/той, ці/ті, такий/такі, цей самий/той самий, стільки.These English demonstrative pronouns agree in number with the head noun: this day — these days, such a book — such books, this same book — these same books/those same books. They form in English the only synthetic by structure substantival word-groups.
Apart from the category of number Ukrainian demonstrative pronouns, which are more numerous than in English, have also case and gender distinctions, eg: цей самий студент — ця сама студентка -це саме число. Declinable are also other demonstrative pronouns: цього/цієї, цьому/цій, цим/цією, etc. They agree with their headwords in number, case and gender.
There exists a semantic and syntactic correlation between the English such a — such pronouns and their Ukrainian equivalents такий (-а, -е), такі (cf. such a boy — such boys, такий сон — такі сни). But Ukrainian demonstrative pronouns are always declinable not only with count nouns, but also rarer with uncountable nouns, eg.: скільки грошей, стільки снігу, скільки часу, стільки людей, стількох людей, стільком людям; цього хлопця, цьому хлопцеві, цим хлопцем, таким/цим снігом, etc.
Note. The demonstrative pronouns цей, той, такий, той самий, такий самий are equally declinable with Ukrainian and foreign nouns, cf. Цей чай, цього чаю, цим чаєм у цьому чаї. Or: у такому сарі/кімоно, у тім галіфе, до такого галіфе/сарі, скільком галіфе, etc.
Besides, Ukrainian demonstrative pronouns may often have some parallel case forms as in the following examples: на цьому - на цім, на тому - на тім, цієї-цеї, тієї-тої-на тій,на ньому-на нім, etc.
5. Interrogative pronouns in the contrasted languages are used as noun-pronouns (who, what, how many/how much; хто, що, скільки) and as adjective pronouns (which, whose; який, котрий, чий). They may correlate with numerals (how much/how many? — скільки?). In contrast to Ukrainian, English interrogative pronouns have no number, case or gender distinctions (except "whom" and "whose") expressing respectively the objective and genitive case form as most of their Ukraini an equivalents do, eg: чий, чия, чиє, чиї/чийому, чиїй, чиїх, etc. The pronoun стільки, as has been illustrated already, does not express gender or number category but only quantity (cf. скільки снігу, скільки людей) as its English equivalents (how many books? How much sugar?).
Interrogative pronouns are characterised in both languages by the identity of their functional meanings in the sentence (those of the noun and those of the adjective respectively). Very often, however, Ukrainian interrogative pronouns perform the function of the simple nominal predicate, eg: От вам що. Ось нас стільки/скільки.
6. Relative pronouns in English and Ukrainian coincide in their form (structure) with the interrogative pronouns. They perform the function of connectors (cf. I know what to do. He asked who did it. Я знаю, що робити. Він запитував, хто це зробив/ скільки це коштуватиме).
Ukrainian relative pronouns, however, are declinable (cf. Він знав, кому завдячувати це. Він запитував, кого запросити на збори. Вона не цікавилася, скількох це стосувалося, бо знала, чого це все коштувало). The only exception makes, of course, the pronoun скільки (referring to uncountables). Eg. Вони не знали, скільки часу це ще триватиме. But: Ми знали, скільком (countable) мільйонам українців національна ідея коштувала життя.
7. Reciprocal pronouns (взаємні займенники) are two in English (each other and one another) and one in Ukrainian, where it exists in three gender forms used in singular and plural as noun pronouns: один одного, одна одну, одне одного, одні одних.. Very often, however, the neuter gender form may be used in Ukrainian for any gender and number (singular or plural) nouns. Eg: The two younger people looked at one another. (Huxley) — Обоє молодят поглядали одне на одного. They looked into each other's eyes for a silent moment. (M. Wilson) - Вони якусь мить мовчки дивились у вічі одне одному. Or: Хлопці й дівчата були варті одні одних.
8. Indefinite pronouns (неозначені займенники) constitute, as was already pointed out, a rather controversial class. Some grammarians (R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, J. Svartvik) speak of "universal pronouns" (each, all, every, the very) and of 'partitive pronouns' (some thing, anything, nothing, either, neither, any, no, none, etc.). Hence, as indefinite in both languages can be identified such pronouns as some, any, somebody, anybody/ anybody's, someone/someone's, something, anything. They have for their Ukrainian equivalents дехто, дещо, хтось, щось, хто-небудь, що-небудь, який-небудь, будь-хто, будь-що, казна-хто, казна-що. Equivalents of some English pronouns (cf. much, little, few) are allotted in Ukrainian to indefinite numerals (небагато/кілька). В. S. Khaimovich and B. I. Ro-hovska, as has been mentioned already, subdivided the English indefinite pronouns into three subclasses: 1) "genuine indefinite pronouns" (some, any and their com pounds); 2) "generalising pronouns" (all, both, each, and their com pounds); 3) "quantitative pronouns" (many, much, few, little), and 4) "con trasting pronouns" (another, other, one).
Note. Ukrainian grammarians single out one more subclass within the class of indefinite pronouns - this is the so-called "identifying (означальні) pronouns. They are: весь, всякий, жодний, кожний, інший, сам (the last one is a reflexive pronoun in English). The functions of indefinite ("identifying") pronouns in the sentence coincide respectively with those of the noun or adjective, for example: some are wise and some are otherwise (Saying). That is all. I saw nobody there. We shall go another way. Хто розумний, а хто навпаки. Це. було все. Я нікого не бачив. Ми знаємо інший вихід.
Many grammarians treat negative pronouns (заперечні займенники) as a separate class of pronouns. The latter are generally common in English and Ukrainian, cf.: no, nobody, none, nothing, neither — ніхто, ніщо, ніякий/нікотрий, нічий, ніскільки. Ukrainian negative pronouns are naturally declinable and are used as noun pronouns. Isomorphic in the contrasted languages are the structural forms of negative pronouns, which may be simple (no), compound, or composite, eg: none (no one), nobody, nothing, nothing else, nothing more -ніхто, ніщо, ніякий, нікотрий, ніхто інший, жоден інший, ні один (із них), більш нічого.
Allomorphism is observed in the wide use of English negative pronouns to form negative word-groups and sentences, eg: no pains, no gains (під лежачий камінь вода не тече); nobody home-клепки не вистачає. Both smiled but neither spoke. (Heyer) Nobody ever knows anything. (Hemingway) Ukrainian equivalent sentences have the negative pronouns + the negative particle не: Обоє посміхались, але «ніхmo/жоден з них не озвався. Ніхто взагалі нічого не знає. Some Ukrainian negative pronouns have diminutive forms which are completely unknown in English pronouns (cf. нічогісінько, аніскіле-чки, ніякісінький).
As to their structure, both English and Ukrainian pronouns are characterised by isomorphism. They may be 1) simple (/, he, she, you, some, which, what; я, ти, він, хто, що, ваш, той, цей, наш, etc.); 2) compound (myself, ourselves, someone, somebody, nobody, nothing; абихто, абищо, будь-що, хто-небудь, що-небудь); 3) Composite (І myself, this same, somebody else, neither he nor she; що таке, той самий, хто інший, я сам, кожен і всякий, ніхто й ніщо, etc.).
Syntactic functions of pronouns in the sentence in both contrasted languages are practically isomorphic. An exception make only English reflexive pronouns which are also used to form reflexive verbs, eg: to wash oneself, to shave themselves/to shave himself, shave yourself/ yourselves, etc. A similar function performs the Ukrainian -ся(-си) pronoun in a Western Ukrainian dialect. Cf. Вони си зустріли і си поцілували. Hence, one can speak of the existence of a typological isomorphism, going back to the Indo-European linguistic prehistory.