PRON: pronoun
Definition
Pronouns are words that substitute for nouns or noun phrases, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic context. In Classical Armenian, pronouns inflect for number and case.
The Classical Armenian grammar traditionally extends the term pronoun to words that substitute for adjectives. Such words are tagged as DET in UD in order to annotate the same thing same way across languages.
For instance, այն/ayn “that’ is traditionally called a pronoun in the Classical Armenian grammar, regardless of context. However it can either substitute for a noun or an adjective, in which case it is tagged DET.
Types of pronouns
- Personal pronouns (PronType=Prs): ես/es “I”, դու/dow “you”, etc. The third person pronoun նա/na “(s)he, it” coincides with the demonstrative նա/na “that”.
-
Reflexive pronouns ([PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes](xcl-feat/PronType)): իւր/iwr (gen.sg.) “of himself/herself”. The emphatic pronoun ինքն/inkʽn and the word անձն/anjn “person, soul, self” can also be used as reflexive pronouns, especially in the nominative and accusative, which իւր does not have. - Demonstrative pronouns (PronType=Dem):
- սա/sa “this”, դա/da “this (yours)”, նա/na “that”;
- այս/ays “this”, այդ/ayd “this (yours)”, այն/ayn “that”;
- սոյն/soyn “this same”, դոյն/doyn “this (yours) same”, նոյն/noyn “that same”.
- Reciprocal pronouns (PronType=Rcp): միմեանք/mimeankʽ “one another”, իրեարք/irearkʽ “each other”.
- Interrogative pronouns (PronType=Int): ո՞վ/ov, ո՞/o “who?”, զի՞/zi, զի՞նչ/zinčʽ “what?”. The interrogative pronominal adjective (determiner) ո՞ր/or “which?”, traditionally counted as a pronoun, is tagged (DET).
- Indefinite pronouns: there are two animate indefinite pronouns, ոմն/omn “someone” and ոք/okʻ “anyone”, an inanimate indefinite pronoun, ինչ/inčʻ “something, anything”, and a much less frequent իմն/imn “something”. Like in the case of parallel pairs of adverbs (երբեմն/erbemn “at some time” and երբեք/erbekʻ “at any time”, ուրեմն/owremn “somewhere”, ուրեք/owrekʻ “anywhere”, as well as unpaired ուստեք/owstekʻ “from anywhere”), the difference in the use of the two animate indefinite pronouns can be described in terms of polarity. The negative polarity words, ending in -ք/-kʻ, are typically used in negative, interrogative, conditional, and relative clauses. By contrast the pronouns in -մն/-mn are typically used in affirmative main clauses and point to a specific referent (see Klein 1997). The contrast is grasped with the
Definite=Indtag for the forms in -ք/-kʻ andDefinite=Spectag for the ones in -մն/-mn. - Relative pronoun (PronType=Rel): որ/or “that, which”. When the relative pronoun substitutes a noun in the relative clause and is tagged
PRON, when it functions as a pronominal adjective, it is taggedDET. - Collective pronouns (PronType=Tot): ամենեքեան/amenekʻean “all, everybody”, եւթնեքեան/ewtʻnekʻean “all seven”, etc.
- Possessive, demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns with an adjectival function are classified as as determiners.
References
Առաքելեան, Վարագ. 2010. Գրաբարի քերականութիւն. Երևան: Վիամիր․ [Araqelian, Varag. 2010. Grammar of Grabar. Yerevan: Viamir]
Jensen, Hans. 1959. Altarmenische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Winter.
Klein, Jared S. 1997. Indefinite Pronouns, Polarity, and Related Phenomena in Classical Armenian: A Study Based on the Old Armenian Gospels. Transactions of the Philological Society 95/2: 189-245.
Meillet, Antoine. 1913. Altarmenisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: Winters (Internet Archive)
PRON in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [de] [el] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [nci] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sla] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]