next up previous contents index
Next: Confusion with other pos-values Up: pos-value p Previous: pos-value p

Central semantic of value pronoun

Syntactic criterion

  1. A morphological unit is a pronoun if it can realize the positon of a non-terminal syntagm. Pronouns have this in common with those proper nouns which realize a NP without a determiner. But as opposed to proper nouns, pronouns denote a particular object only in context. Remark: We include here the morphological units comment, combien etc. that are traditionally categorized as interrogative adverbs because they can occupy non-terminal syntactic positions like the other pronouns.

Test

Given NP a nominal phrase, If X occupies the positon of a NP, X can be a pronoun.

Test

Given PP a prepositional phrase, ADVP an adverbial phrase, If X occupies the position of a PP or of a ADVP, X is a pronoun.

Test

If X occupies the position of a subordinate sentence, X is a pronoun.

Pragmatic criterion

  1. The particular object to which the pronoun refers has to be present in the linguistic or extra-linguistic context. This distinguishs pronouns from proper nouns.

Test

Given X a morphological unit which occupies a non-terminal phrase and which refers to a particular object/ particular objects, that are only present in the extra-linguistic or linguistic context, If questions concerning the identity of the given object(s) arise, X is a pronoun.

Test

Given X which occupies a position of a verb argument or which is followed by an infinitive, E an expansion, If X enables E, or if the sentence in which X occupies a position has emotive or conative function, X is a pronoun.

Semantic criterion

  1. Pronouns which can occupy the position of a PP or an ADVP have no ``semantic orientation'', whereas adverbs that occupy the same position do have. A given pronoun can commute with adverbs that have different semantic values. In other words, pronouns have anaphoric value, whereas adverbs have deictic value.

Test

Given X which occupies a non-terminal syntactic position, If X can commute with different morphological units and if X embody their different semantic values, X can be a pronoun.

The following compound pronouns are composed of an article and an indefinite adjective:

pos=p
D e s c r i p t i o nE x a m p l e s
definite article + toutLe tout /pos=p   n'est pas perdu
definite article + unL'un /pos=p   n'est pas venu
definite article + autreL'autre /pos=p   est venu
definite article + mêmeLe même /pos=p   est venu
definite article + seulLe seul /pos=p   qui puisse l'aider
indefinite article + telUn tel /pos=p   est venu
indefinite article + autreUn autre /pos=p   est venu
indefinite article + seulUn seul /pos=p   est venu

Notice that other compound pronouns exist, like nous autres, qui que ce soit, quoi que ce soit.



next up previous contents index
Next: Confusion with other pos-values Up: pos-value p Previous: pos-value p