Lecture 5: Typological Features of the Pronoun in English and Ukrainian

Lecture 4: Typological Features of the Pronoun in English and Ukrainian


Contents
1. Typological characteristics of the English and Ukrainian pronoun as a part of speech.
2. Lexico-grammatical classes of English and Ukrainian pronouns: allomorphic and isomorphic features.
3. Stem structure of English and Ukrainian pronouns.
4. Isomorphism and allomorphism in the expression of grammatical categories by English and Ukrainian pronouns.


1. Pronoun is a part of speech which serves to denote substances, qualities, quantities, circumstances etc. not by naming or describing them, but by indicating them. English and Ukrainian pronouns correlate with (1) nouns, cf. he/він, she/вона, something/щось, somebody/хтось; (2) adjectives, cf. his/його, that/цей; (3) numerals, cf. some/кілька, much/багато, few/мало; (4) adverbs, cf. here/тут, there/там.


2. Pronouns fall into the following isomorphic classes in English and Ukrainian: (1) personal; (2) possessive; (3) reflexive; (4) demonstrative; (5) interrogative; (6) connective (conjunctive and relative); (7) reciprocal; (8) negative; (9) indefinite.


Personal pronouns in both languages distinguish person, gender and number: I/я, you/ти – ви, he/він, she/вона, it/воно, we/ми, they/вони. English personal pronouns have objective case forms: me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
Of peculiar nature is the English pronoun it which can be used:
(1) anaphorically (The book is on the table. Yes, it is on the table);
(2) as an anticipatory element (It is necessary that…);
(3) as an impersonal element (It is cold);
(4) as a demonstrative element (It was he who said that);
(5) as a formal element (to foot it, to catch it).
The pronouns we, you, they may form indefinite personal sentences (We must not allow children do what they like/Не треба дозволяти дітям робити, що їм заманеться; You don’t say so/Не може бути; They say/Кажуть).
On the other hand, absolutely isomorphic is the use of the pronoun we/ми instead of I/я (We hold the view that …/Ми вважаємо, що…).
The Ukrainian pronoun воно is often used to express sympathy, compassion, on the one hand, or contempt, on the other hand (Воно й училось, нівроку йому. Що воно тямить). Besides, similar to the English it, воно has impersonal meaning (Воно ніби так і треба).