The referent of a pronoun is established according to the link it establishes with other words already named.
Pronoun is a type of word without a fixed referent, since it is determined according to the relationship it establishes with others that have already been named. Pronouns act as nouns , referring to extralinguistic people or things.
It is important to determine the etymological origin of the term that concerns us now. In that sense, we would have to make it clear that it emanates from Latin and more precisely from the word pronomen , which can be translated as "instead of name." It is made up of two parts: the prefix pro- , which is equivalent to "in front of or instead of"; and the noun nomen , which is synonymous with "name."
It must be emphasized that pronouns as a general rule, with some exceptions, have gender and number.
Examples of pronouns
A noun can be said to have a fixed referent: the word "book" , for example, will always refer to a "book" . On the other hand, pronouns like "my" , "with you" or "I" depend on different variables.
"My brother is a soccer player" is an expression that begins with the pronoun "my" , which determines the meaning of the sentence. The phrase can be pronounced by Lionel Messi 's brother, since he is a footballer, but not by George Bush 's brother, since "his" brother is not dedicated to this sport.
An expression like "I feel comfortable with you" also acquires its meaning according to the pronoun ( "with you" ), since it does not have a fixed referent. "With you" can refer to Jorge , Manuel , Carla , Michael , Sharon , Silvia or any other person.
There are various kinds of pronouns.
Classification according to type
There are various kinds of pronouns. Personal pronouns are morphemes without lexical content that refer to an antecedent: "I am responsible for this company," "You are not welcome in the house," "You always have to do what he wants," "Count on me to help. " whatever you need."
Furthermore, we would have to establish that there are so-called adjective pronouns , which are those whose mission is to determine the noun in question. It must also be emphasized that they are postponed to that one and help us determine what or who they are mentioning.
However, there are other types of pronouns that are also worth knowing. This would be the case of the following:
- Courtesy pronouns , which are those used to address someone with whom you do not trust, who is older and who has a superior position. An example of this is "you" .
- Relative pronouns , which are used to refer to a name that has been mentioned previously. Among the most significant are "that" , "who" and "where" .
- Interrogative pronouns . As their name indicates, they are those that serve to carry out the creation of an interrogative sentence and have the peculiarity that they do not accompany any name.
Other types of pronouns are possessive pronouns ( “Is this jacket yours?” , “Sir, return what is not yours” ), demonstrative pronouns ( “That car has two engines,” “That business is new” ), and indefinite pronouns ( "Someone has been screaming for hours" ), among others.