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Central semantics of value pronoun

Pronouns constitute a so-called ``closed" class, i.e. given a language, the members of this class can be always enumerated. Pronouns share this feature in common with the invariable PoS's, conjunctions and prepositions, while, on the other hand, they are similar to the variable PoS's, nouns and adjectives (see below). The pronoun can, in fact, substitute the noun, carrying its syntactic and semantic properties.
However, the substitution role is not a sufficient criterion to circumscribe the pronoun category: in fact, the deictics do not substitute the noun but indicate an extralinguistic fact.

Properties shared by the members of this category can be grouped under the following criteria.

Morphological criterion:

- pronouns share with the noun and adjective the agreement in gender, egli, ella, and number, questo, questi. In Italian, personal pronouns keep the ancient case system, egli, lui, gli.

Syntactic peculiarities can be isolated that can help in distinguishing pronouns from pronominal adjectives (see below, under possessive type).

Semantic criterion:

- on the basis of semantic considerations, subclasses can be identified in the pronominal series: personal, possessive, demonstrative, indefinite, relative, interrogative, exclamative pronouns. Each series - but the personal - presents a corresponding adjectival series, the so-called ``Pronominal Adjectives" (here dealt with in the Determiner section).

pos=pron
D e s c r i p t i o nE x a m p l e s
personalio/pers   tu/pers   egli/pers   lui/pers   esso/pers  
ella/pers   lei/pers   essa/pers   noi/pers  
voi/pers   essi/pers   esse/pers   loro/pers   se/pers  
mi/pers   ti/pers   gli/pers   lo/pers   le/pers  
la/pers   ci/pers   vi/pers   loro/pers  
le/pers   li/pers   si/pers  
possessivemio/poss   tuo/poss   suo/poss   nostro/poss  
vostro/poss   loro/poss   proprio/poss  
demonstrativequesto/dem   codesto/dem   quello/dem   quel/dem  
questi/dem   quegli/dem   costui/dem  
colei/dem   cio'/dem  
indefinitequalche/indf   qualcuno/indf   uno/indf   qualcosa/indf  
qualcheduno/indf   alcuno/indf   alcunche'/indf  
certo/indf   tale/indf   taluno/indf   quale/indf  
altro/indf   altrui/indf  
qualunque/indf   qualsiasi/indf   chiunque/indf   tutto/indf  
chicchessia/indf   ciascuno/indf   ogni/indf   ognuno/indf  
nessuno/indf   niente/indf   nulla/indf  
poco/indf   alquanto/indf   parecchio/indf  
molto/indf   troppo/indf   tanto/indf   altrettanto/indf  
interrogativeche/int   chi/int   cosa/int  
quale/int   quanto/int  
relativeche/rel   cui/rel   il quale/rel  
chi/rel   la quale/rel  
exclamativeche/excl   chi/excl   cosa/excl  
quale/excl   quanto/excl  


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Next: Transcategorization phenomena with other Up: pos-value pronoun Previous: pos-value pronoun