ABSTRACT
Part of speech named for its function of standing for (‘pro’) the noun. Pronouns form a very heterogeneous group in regard to syntax and semantics. All pronouns share the property of deixis, but differ from nominal expressions in that nominal expressions such as proper nouns always refer to the same elements in the real world, independent of the specific speaker context, while pronouns refer to various objects in the real world in a way that is dependent on the specific linguistic context of the utterance. Thus, the proper name Mozart usually refers to the same individual, irrespective of the linguistic context, while the reference of a pronoun like he can only be determined from the context of the utterance, i.e. the man last mentioned, the individual pointed to by the speaker, etc. Morphologically, pronouns in inflectional languages generally have a complex inflectional pattern and are subject to agreement with their antecedents. Pronouns are divided into several syntacto-semantic subgroups, including personal, reflexive, possessive, demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative, and relative pronouns, as well as pronominal adverbs.
