Pro-form

A pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. They are used either to avoid repetitive expressions or in quantification (limiting the variables of a proposition).

Pro-forms are divided into several categories, according to which part of speech they substitute:

• A pronoun substitutes a noun or a noun phrase, with or without a determiner: it, this. (Compare also prop-word; this denotes a word like one in "the blue one".)
• A pro-adjective substitutes an adjective or a phrase that functions as an adjective: so as in "It is less so than we had expected."
• A pro-adverb substitutes an adverb or a phrase that functions as an adverb: how or this way.
• A pro-verb substitutes a verb or a verb phrase: do.
• A pro-sentence substitutes an entire sentence or subsentence: Yes, or that as in "That is true".^[1]

An interrogative pro-form is a pro-form that denotes the (unknown) item in question and may itself fall into any of the above categories.

One of the most salient features of many modern Indo-European languages is that relative pro-forms and interrogative pro-forms, as well as demonstrative pro-forms in some languages, have identical forms. Consider the two different functions of who in "Who's the criminal who did this?" and "Adam is the criminal who did this".

Most other language families do not have this ambiguity and neither do several ancient Indo-European languages. For example, Latin distinguishes the relative pro-forms from the interrogative pro-forms, while Ancient Greek^[2] and Sanskrit distinguish between all three: relative, interrogative and demonstrative pro-forms.

The rules governing allowable syntactic relations between certain pro-forms (notably personal and reflexive/reciprocal pronouns) and their antecedents have been studied in what is called binding theory.

Table of correlatives

L. L. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto, called a table of systematic interrogative, demonstrative, and quantifier pro-forms and determiners in a language a table of correlatives, after the relative and demonstrative proforms, which function together as correlatives. The table of correlatives for English follows.

Table of correlatives

		interrogative	demonstrative			quantifier
			proximal	medial	distal†	assertive existential	elective existential	universal	negatory	positive alternative
determiner		which what	this (sg.) these (pl.)	that (sg.) those (pl.)	yon yonder	some	any whichever whichsoever	every each all	no	another
pronoun	human	who whom	this (one) (sg.) these (ones) (pl.)	that (one) (sg.) those (ones) (pl.)	yon yonder	someone somebody	anyone anybody whoever whomever whosoever whomsoever	everyone everybody all	no one nobody	another someone else somebody else
	nonhuman	what	this (one) (sg.) these (ones) (pl.)	that (one) (sg.) those (ones) (pl.)	yon yonder	something	anything whatever whatsoever	everything all	nothing	something else else other
	out of two (dual)	which	this one (sg.) these (ones) (pl.)	that one (sg.) those (ones) (pl.)	yon yonder	one	either whichever whichsoever	both	neither	other
	out of many (plural)					some one	any whichever whichsoever	each all	none	another
pro-adverb	location	where	here	there	yonder	somewhere	anywhere wherever wheresoever	everywhere	nowhere	elsewhere
	source	whence	hence	thence		somewhence	anywhence whencever whencesoever	everywhence	nowhence	elsewhence
	goal	whither	hither	thither		somewhither	anywhither whitherever whithersoever	everywhither	nowhither	elsewhither
	time	when	now	then		sometime somewhen	anytime anywhen whenever whensoever	always everywhen	never nowhen	elsewhen another time
	manner	how whereby	hereby thus	thereby		somehow	anyhow however howsoever	everyway	no way	otherwise
	reason	why wherefore	herefore	therefore		somewhy	whyever whysoever

Some languages may have more categories. See demonstrative.

Note that some categories are regular and some are not. They may be regular or irregular also depending on languages. The following chart shows comparison between English, French (irregular) and Japanese (regular):

	interrogative	quantifier
		existential	negative
human	who qui dare	someone quelqu'un dareka	no one personne daremo
nonhuman	what que nani	something quelque chose nanika	nothing rien nanimo
location	where où doko	somewhere quelque part dokoka	nowhere nulle part dokomo

(Note that "daremo", "nanimo" and "dokomo" are universal quantifiers with positive verbs.)

Some languages do not distinguish interrogative and indefinite pro-forms. In Mandarin, "Shéi yǒu wèntí?" means either "Who has a question?" or "Does anyone have a question?", depending on context.

See also

• Anaphora (linguistics)
• Deixis
• Pro-drop language

References

1. Rödl, Sebastian (2012). Categories of the Temporal. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 22–25. ISBN 978-0-674-04775-4.
2. Herbert Weir Smyth. Greek Grammar. par. 340: Correlative Pronouns.

External links

• The dictionary definition of Category:English pro-forms at Wiktionary