In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, a pro-form is a type of
function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...
,
phrase
In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
,
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
or
sentence where the
meaning is recoverable from the context. They are used either to avoid repetitive expressions or in
quantification (limiting the variables of a proposition).
Pro-forms are divided into several categories, according to which
part of speech
In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are assi ...
they substitute:
* A
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
substitutes a
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
or a
noun phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...
, with or without a
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
: ''it'', ''this''.
* A pro-adjective substitutes an
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
or a phrase that functions as an adjective: ''so'' as in "It is less ''so'' than we had expected."
* A pro-adverb substitutes an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
or a phrase that functions as an adverb: ''how'' or ''this way''.
* A
pro-verb
In linguistics, a pro-verb is a verb or partial phrase that substitutes for a contextually recognizable verb phrase (via a process known as grammar, grammatical gapping), obviating the need to repeat an antecedent verb phrase.https://glossary.s ...
substitutes a
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
or a
verb phrase
In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntactic unit composed of a verb and its arguments except the subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quickly put the money into the box'', the words ''quic ...
: ''do'', as in: "I will go to the party if you do".
* A
prop-word
A prop-word is a word with little or no semantic content used where grammar dictates a certain sentence member, e.g., to provide a "support" on which to hang a modifier. The word most commonly considered as a prop-word in English is ''one'' (wi ...
: ''one'', as in "the blue one"
* A
pro-sentence
A pro-sentence is a sentence where the subject pronoun has been dropped and therefore the sentence has a null subject.
Overview
Languages differ within this parameter, some languages such as Italian and Spanish have constant pro-drop, Finnish and ...
substitutes an entire sentence or subsentence: ''Yes'', or ''that'' as in "''That'' is true".
An
interrogative pro-form is a pro-form that denotes the (unknown) item in question and may itself fall into any of the above categories.
The rules governing allowable syntactic relations between certain pro-forms (notably personal and reflexive/reciprocal pronouns) and their antecedents have been studied in what is called
binding theory.
Table of correlatives
Some 19th-century grammars of Latin, such as Raphael Kühner's 1844 grammar,
organized non-personal pronouns (interrogative,
demonstrative
Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
, indefinite/
quantifier,
relative) in a table of "correlative" pronouns due to their similarities in
morphological derivation
Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as For example, ''unhappy'' and ''happiness'' derive from the root word ''happy.''
It is differenti ...
and their syntactic relationships (as
correlative
In grammar, a correlative is a word that is paired with another word with which it functions to perform a single function but from which it is separated in the sentence.
In English, examples of correlative pairs are ''both–and, either–or, nei ...
pairs) in that language. Later that century,
L. L. Zamenhof
L. L. Zamenhof (15 December 185914 April 1917) was an ophthalmologist who lived for most of his life in Warsaw. He is best known as the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language.
Zamenhof first dev ...
, the inventor of
Esperanto
Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
, made use of the concept to systematically create the pro-forms and determiners of Esperanto in a regular ''table of correlatives''. The table of correlatives for English follows.
Some languages may have more categories. See
demonstrative
Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
.
Note that some categories are regular and some are not. They may be regular or irregular also depending on languages. The following chart shows comparison between English,
French (irregular) and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
(regular):
(Note that "daremo", "nanimo" and "dokomo" are universal quantifiers with positive verbs.)
Some languages do not distinguish interrogative and indefinite pro-forms. In
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
, "''Shéi'' yǒu wèntí?" means either "''Who'' has a question?" or "Does ''anyone'' have a question?", depending on context.
See also
*
*
*
*
References
External links
*
SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: Pro-Adverb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pro-Form
Parts of speech