Monday, August 28, 2006

Pronoun

I belong to one of the major form classes in any of a great many languages. I am a substitute for a noun or noun equivalent, take noun constructions, and am declined. I refer to persons or things named, asked for, or understood in context. I have little or no fixed meaning except one of relation or limitation. I take many forms: emphatic, identifying, intensive, personal, reciprocal, refexive, and relative.

I am, in fact, not a noun, but its substitute.

1 comment:

Brettanicus said...

I was reading my entry "Write Good" where I say "I am a noun", and realized that wasn't quite true. "I" is a pronoun. Out of curiosity I looked it up in Merriam Webster's Unabridged. This entry is the definition, almost verbatim, and I thought it a particularly apt description of "I".