Kamis, 23 April 2015

Types of Pronouns and Questions

I. Kinds of Pronouns and the Sentences


pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so that our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and over in a paragraph. Some examples of pronouns include Imeminemyselfsheherhers,herselfweusours and ourselves. You may have noticed that they tend to come in sets of four, all referring to the same person, group or thing.
  • Hehimhis and himself, for example, all refer to a male person or something belonging to him
  • Theythemtheirs and themselves all refer to a group or something belonging to a group, and so on.
The truth is that there are many different types of pronouns, each serving a different purpose in a sentence.

1. Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I, he, she, it, they, we, and you. Example: “They went to the store.”
Personal pronouns can also be objective, where they are the object of a verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase. They are: me, her, him, it, you, them, and us. Example: “David gave the gift to her.”
Possession can be shown by personal pronouns, like: mine, his, hers, ours, yours, its,and theirs. Example: “Is this mine or yours?”

2. Demonstrative Pronouns

This class of pronouns direct the reader’s attention to an implied noun:
“I’m not going to eat this.”
That was quite an experience!”
“What are these?”
“I’ve never seen those before.”
Such is my understanding of the situation.”
These sentences closely resemble the type in which the same words appear as adjectives — for example, “I’m not going to eat this food” — but in such case, they have a different identity: When they modify nouns, these words are called determiners.

3. Indefinite Pronouns

Not to be confused with indefinite relative pronouns, described below, these are pronouns that act as nouns:
All were present at the meeting.”
Each was guilty in his or her own way.”
One has to keep up appearances.”
“Good fortune comes to some.”
None of them showed up.”
“Is anybody interested?”
Somebody is going to pay for this.”
“Have you sent invitations to everybody?”
There are many more indefinite pronouns than these: any, fewer, several, most, and other related words; these also function as determiners (adjectives):
“I recognized several people at the party.”

4. Intensive Pronouns

Intensive pronouns are simply personal pronouns with -self or -selves attached, such as in the following sentences:
“I myself don’t have an opinion.”
“She would have said so herself, but he beat her to it.”
Intensive pronouns, like the otherwise identical-looking reflexive pronouns (below), are not essential to the sentence; omit the highlighted word in each of these examples, and the sentences still make sense without the intensive pronoun.

5. Interrogative Pronouns

These pronouns introduce interrogative sentences:
Who are you?”
What is the meaning of life?”
Which way should I go?”
Like some other types of pronouns, these can serve as determiners (sometimes called, in this role, interrogative adjectives).
Sentences in which interrogative pronouns appear don’t always end with question marks:
“I know who you are.”
“She told you what the meaning of life is.”
“They know which way to go.”

6. Reciprocal Pronouns

These pronouns combine ideas, hence the name:
“Have you met each other before?”
“We shared our thoughts with one another.”
The distinction in use is whether you refer to two people (“each other”) or to more than two (“one another”).

7. Reflexive Pronouns

These pronouns have the same form as intensive pronouns but differ in that they refer reflexively to the antecedent (a corresponding noun the pronoun refers to):
“I bought myself a new car.” (Myself is reflexive of I.)
“Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? (Yourself is reflexive of you.)
They are also essential to the sentence; if you omitted the highlighted word in each of these examples, the sentences would be incomplete.
The erroneous use of reflexive pronouns in sentences such as “Jane and myself were there when it happened” (instead of “Jane and I were there when it happened”) is called an untriggered reflexive, because there was no antecedent to trigger the pronoun. (“Jane and I” itself is the subject. This subject is the antecedent of we in “Jane and I were there when it happened, but we didn’t see anything,” but there’s no need for a reflexive pronoun in that sentence.)

8. Relative Pronouns

These are the type of pronouns that, as the name implies, relate words to other pronouns or to nouns:
Who were you talking to?”
“I’ll find out which one is correct.”
“The vase that was on the table is missing.”
A subgroup of relative pronouns, the indefinite relative pronouns, lack an antecedent:
What were you saying?”
Whoever said that is asking for trouble.”
“I’ll do whatever I please.”
9. Possessive Pronouns vs. Possessive Determiners
"The possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, etc.) are like possessive determiners, except that they constitute a whole noun phrase. 
1. The house will be hers you see when they are properly divorced.
2. Writers have produced extraordinary work in conditions more oppressive than mine.
Possessive pronouns are typically used when the head noun can be found in the preceding context; thus in 1, hers means 'her house,' and in 2, mine means ' my conditions.' Here the possessive pronoun is parallel to the elliptic use of the genitive.

II. Three Types of Questions and the Example

There are three basic question types:
  • Yes/No: the answer is "yes or no"
  • Question-word: the answer is "information"
  • Choice: the answer is "in the question"

1. Yes/No questions
Sometimes the only answer that we need is yes or no. Look at these examples:
auxiliary verbsubjectnotmain verb answer:
yes or no
Doyou wantdinner?Yes, I do.
Canyou drive? No, I can't.
Hasshenotfinishedher work?Yes, she has.
Didthey gohome?No, they didn't.
Exception! Main verb be in Present Simple and Past Simple:
main verb besubject 
IsAnneFrench?
WasRamat home?
2. Question-word questions
Sometimes we want more than yes or no for an answer. When asking for information, we usually place a question-word at the beginning of the sentence. The question-word indicates the information that we want, for example: where (place), when (time), why (reason), who (person). Look at these examples:
question wordauxiliary verbnotsubjectmain verb answer:
information
Wheredo youlive? In Paris.
Whenwill wehavelunch?At 1pm.
Whyhasn'tTaradoneit?Because she can't.
Who(m)did shemeet? She met Ram.
Who*has  runout?Ati has run out.
Who**   ranout?Ati ran out.
*When the question-word is who, it acts as the subject.
**In Present Simple and Past Simple tenses, there is no auxilary verb withwho.
Exception. Main verb be in Present Simple and Past Simple:
question wordmain verb besubject
WhereisBombay?
Howwasshe?
3. Choice questions
Sometimes we give our listener a choice. We ask them to choose between two possible answers. So their answer is (usually) already in the question. Look at these examples:
auxiliary verbsubjectmain verb or answer:
in question
Doyouwantteaorcoffee?Coffee, please.
WillwemeetJohnorJames?John.
Exception. Main verb be in Present Simple and Past Simple:
main verb besubject OR 
Isyour carwhiteorblack?
Werethey$15or$50?

Share

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...