In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, a pro-form is a type of
function word
In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speak ...
or
expression (linguistics)
In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis 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 ...
that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...
,
phrase
In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...
,
clause
In language, a clause is a Constituent (linguistics), constituent or Phrase (grammar), phrase that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic Predicate (grammar), predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject (grammar), ...
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 ...
they substitute:
* A
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) 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 part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...
substitutes a
noun
In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
or a
noun phrase
A noun phrase – or NP or nominal (phrase) – is a phrase that usually has a noun or pronoun as its head, and has the same grammatical functions as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently ...
, with or without a
determiner
Determiner, also called determinative ( abbreviated ), is a term used in some models of grammatical description to describe a word or affix belonging to a class of noun modifiers. A determiner combines with a noun to express its reference. Examp ...
: ''it'', ''this''.
* A
prop-word: ''one'', as in "the blue one"
* A pro-adjective substitutes an
adjective
An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
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, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
or a phrase that functions as an adverb: ''how'' or ''this way''.
* A
pro-verb substitutes a
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
or a
verb phrase
In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntax, syntactic unit composed of a verb and its argument (linguistics), arguments except the subject (grammar), subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quic ...
: ''do'', as in: "I will go to the party if you do".
* A
pro-sentence 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 (list of glossing abbreviations, 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 ...
, 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 differentia ...
and their syntactic relationships (as
correlative pairs) in that language. Later that century,
L. L. Zamenhof, the inventor of
Esperanto
Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
, 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 (list of glossing abbreviations, 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 ...
.
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 (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, "''Shéi'' yǒu wèntí?" means either "''Who'' has a question?" or "Does ''anyone'' have a question?", depending on context.
See also
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References
External links
*
SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: Pro-Adverb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pro-Form
Parts of speech