Pronouns

Latest revision as of 21:47, 10 March 2014

Pronouns are LRUs that substitute other LRUs.

Natural Language

In the UNL^arium framework, pronouns are classified as follows:

• personal (PPR) ("I", "me")
• demonstrative (DEP) (“this”, in "this is my house") (not to be confounded with demonstrative determiners: "this house")
• dummy (DUM) ("it" in "it is raining")
• emphatic (EPR) (“myself”, in "I did it myself")
• indefinite (NPR) (“somebody”, “nothing”)
• interrogative (IPR) (“who”, in "who is there?")
• possessive (SPR) (“mine”) (not to be confounded with possessive determiners: "my house")
• reflexive (FPR) (“myself”, in "I saw myself")
• reciprocal (CPR) (“each other”, “one another”)
• relative (RPR) ("who" in "I didn't see who is there").

Pronouns playing determiner roles (such as possessive determiners or demonstrative determiners) must be classified as determiners.

UNL

In UNL, pronouns are to be represented:

• as pronoun attributes assigned to the null UW, in case of exophora (i.e., when reference is made to an extra-sentential referent); and
• by their referents in case of endophora (i.e., when reference is made to an intra-sentential referent, which may come either before (anaphora) or after (cataphora) the pronoun).

Personal pronouns

To be represented as 00.@1 (first person), 00.@2 (second person) and 00.@3 (third person), as follows:

00.@1 - the speaker

I (en), me (en), we (en), us (en), je (fr), on (fr), nous (fr);

00.@2 - the addressee

you (en), tu (fr), vous (fr);

00.@3 - other

he (en), she (en), it (en), they (en), il (fr), elle (fr), ils (fr), elles (fr).

They can be modified by the following attributes:

Number

@pl (00.@1.@pl = we (en));

Gender

@male (00.@3.@male = he)

@female (00.@3.@female = she)

@neutral (00.@3.@neutral = it)

Social Deixis

@polite (00.@2.@polite = vous (fr))

Discourse

@emphasis (00.@1.@emphasis = I [did it] myself)

Dummy (semantically empty) pronouns (used when grammatical rules require a noun), such as in "It is raining", must not be represented.

Possessive pronouns (not to be confounded with possessive determiners)

To be represented as Personal Pronouns as the target argument of a relation "POS".

The book is mine = pos(book, 00.@1)

Demonstrative Pronouns

To be represented as "00.@proximal" (proximal), "00.@medial" (medial) and "00.@distal" (distal).

00.@proximal

used to refer to the person, thing or event present, nearby, just mentioned or about to be said.

this, these (en): This is my cat. These are my tools.

ceci, celui-ci, celle-ci, ceux-ci, celles-ci (fr): Tout ceci ne me plaît guère.

éste, estos, ésta, éstas (es)

00.@medial

used to refer to something near the addressee.

used to refer to the one designated, implied, mentioned, or understood.

that, those (en): What kind of soup is that?

cela, celui-là, celle-là, ceux-là, celles-là (fr): Qui c'est celui-là?

ése, ésos, ésa, esas (es)

00.@distal

used to refer to something far from both speaker and listener.

that, those (en): What kind of soup is that?

cela, celui-là, celle-là, ceux-là, celles-là (fr): Qui c'est celui-là?

aquél, aquéllos, aquélla, aquéllas (es)

Indefinite pronouns

To be represented by the null UW and the corresponding attributes.

• all = 00.@all
• another = 00.@other
• any = 00.@any
• anybody = 00.@any.@person
• anyone = 00.@any.@person
• anything = 00.@any.@thing
• both = 00.@both
• each = 00.@each
• either = 00.@either
• everybody = 00.@all.@person
• everyone = 00.@all.@person
• everything = 00.@all.@thing
• few = 00.@paucal
• fewer = 00.@paucal.@less
• less = 00.@paucal
• little = 00.@paucal
• many = 00.@multal
• more = 00.@more
• most = 00.@most
• much = 00.@multal
• no one = 00.@no.@person
• nobody = 00.@no.@person
• none = 00.@no
• nothing = 00.@no.@thing
• one = 00
• other = 00.@other
• others = 00.@other.@pl
• plenty = 00.@multal
• several = 00.@multal
• some = 00.@paucal
• somebody = 00.@person
• someone = 00.@person
• something = 00.@thing
• such = 00.@such

Relative pronouns

To be represented by the antecedent. The attribute @relative must be assigned to the main entry of the relative clause.

Hunter is the boy who kissed Monique.

aoj(boy, Hunter)

agt(kiss.@relative, boy)

Hunter is the boy to whom Monique gave a gift.

aoj(boy, Hunter)

gol(give.@relative, boy)

Jack built the house in which I now live.

obj(build, house)

plc(live.@relative, house)

Jack is the boy whose friend built my house.

aoj(boy, Jack)

pos(friend, Jack)

agt(build.@relative, friend)

Interrogative pronouns

To be represented by the null UW and the attribute .@wh.

Who is he?

aoj(he, 00.@wh)

Where is he?

plc(he, 00.@wh)

How is he?

man(he, 00.@wh)

Reflexive pronouns

Not to be represented. The attribute @reflexive (Middle voice) should be assigned to the main entry of the clause.

Peter killed himself = agt(kill.@reflexive, Peter) 

Reciprocal pronouns

Not to be represented. The attribute @reciprocal (Middle voice) should be assigned to the main entry of the clause.

The boys killed each other = agt(kill.@reciprocal, boy)