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

Conjunctive pronouns introduce subject, predicative object and appositive clauses (noun clauses), cf. What he knows is no longer a secret/ Те, що він знає, вже не секрет; I don’t know what he thinks about it/Я не знаю, що він про це думає. English compound conjunctive pronouns introduce adverbial clauses as well, cf. Whatever he says is of no importance. She won’t change her mind whatever he says.
Relative pronouns introduce relative or attributive clauses and, unlike conjunctive pronouns, they are always correlated with some antecedent in the principal clause, cf. There stood a handsome man who(m) she hadn’t met before.


Reciprocal pronouns: each other, one another; один одного/одна одну/одне одного/одні одних. English reciprocal pronouns can take possessive case forms, cf. each other’s nerves, one another’s tears. Ukrainian reciprocal pronouns admit number, gender and case with the exception of the nominative, cf. один одного – один одному – один одного – один одним – (на) один одному. Sometimes, neuter gender form may be used for any gender and number, cf. Молодята поглядали одне на одного.


Negative pronouns: negative pronouns proper (no, nobody, nothing, neither – ніхто, ніщо); pro-adjectives (no, neither – ніякий/нікотрий/ніякісінький, жоден, ні один, ніхто інший); pro-adverbs (nowhere – ніде); pro-numerals (none – ніскільки/ніскілечки/аніскілечки). English negative pronoun nobody admits possessive case (nobody’s). Ukrainian negative pro-adjectives distinguish gender, number and case; pro-nouns admit case inflexions. Some Ukrainian negative pronouns have diminutive forms not typical for English.