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

Quantitative pronouns: quantitative pronouns proper (many, much, (a) few, (a) little, several, enough – багато, чимало, немало, мало/небагато, кілька, достатньо); pro-adjectives (much, (a) little, enough – багато, чимало, немало, мало/небагато, мало/небагато); pro-numerals (many, several, (a)few); pro-adverbs (much, (a)little, enough – багато, чимало, немало, кілька, достатньо). Some Ukrainian quantitative pro-adjectives and pro-numerals distinguish case.


Contrasting pronouns: pro-adjectives (other, another – інший/інша/інше/інші); pro-adverb (otherwise). English contrasting pro-adjectives admit possessive case. Ukrainian contrasting pro-adjectives distinguish gender, number and case.

??????Ukrainian grammarians single out one more subclass within the class of indefinite pronouns - this is the so-called "identifying" (означальні) pronouns. They are: весь, всякий, жодний, кожний, інший, сам (the last one is a reflexive pronoun in English). The functions of indefinite ("identifying") pronouns in the sentence coincide respectively with those of the noun or adjective, for example: some are wise and some are otherwise (Saying). That is all. I saw nobody there. We shall go another way. Хто розумний, а хто навпаки. Це. було все. Я нікого не бачив. Ми знаємо інший вихід.

English indefinite-personal pronoun. The English pronoun ONE is used with the generalizing-personal (showing that the action refers to any subject) and with the indefinite-personal meaning (that refers the action to some person which is not exactly defined). Being used in the function of subject of indefinite-personal sentences, it performs the function which is in Ukrainian attached to the forms of the third person plural of verbs (One says… — Кажуть…) and to the forms of the second person singular (One never knows… — Ніколи не знаєш…).

ONE always denotes some person; grammatically it always has the meaning of singularity, and is used in common and possessive cases (One must always keep one’s word. — Треба завжди дотримуватися свого слова.).
The pronoun ONE in the function of subject is widely used with the verbs must, should, ought, can, may. In Ukrainian the mentioned combinations are rendered with the help of unchangeable predicate words (присудкові слова): треба, потрібно, слід, можна (One must take — треба взяти; one should study well — слід добре вчитися; one can find — можна знайти).