CHAPTER II - CLOSED CLASS ITEMS

PRONOUNS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW???

1.       Pronounsare classified as ‘closed system’ because they are defined ‘inflectionally’ and most of them are found operating as ‘nominal’ i.e. as nouns. Little wonder, we define pronouns as words used instead of nouns.

2.       The following are the types of pronouns you must know and any not mentioned here should be disregarded with respect to this study. They include: (a) Personal (b) Possessive (c) Relative (d) Universal (e) Reflexive (f) Interrogative and (g) Demonstrative pronouns respectively.

3.       The Personal Pronouns are pronouns marked for persons. They are classified according to (a) persons and (b) Cases. According to persons, pronouns are divided into the 1^st person [I, We], 2^nd Person [You] and the 3^rd person [he, it, she, they]. While according to cases, we have: (a) the SUBJECTIVE case (b) the POSSESSIVE case and (c) the OBJECTIVE case. Consider all the tables below for better understanding:

PERSONS	SINGULAR	PLURAL
1ST	I	WE
2ND	YOU	YOU
3RD	HE, SHE, IT	THEY

We consider the 1^st person as the SPEAKER, the 2^ndperson as the ADDRESSEE/LISTENER and the 3^rd person as the TOPIC (i.e. the person or thing being spoken of/about).

SUBJECTIVE CASE	OBJECTIVE CASE	POSSESSIVE CASE
I	ME	MY, MINE
YOU	YOU	YOUR, YOURS
WE	US	OUR, OURS
THEY	THEM	THEIR, THEIRS
HE	HIM	HIS
SHE	HER	HER, HERS
IT	IT	ITS

 

4.       POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS chiefly denote possession/ownership. You can see them in the table above.

5.       RELATIVE PRONOUNS are pronouns that refer to antecedents or nouns that precede them. They are also used to introduce dependent relative or adjectival clauses. They include: Who, Whom, Whose, Which and That.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS	FUNCTIONS
WHO	It refers to people only in the subjective case
WHOM	It refers to people only in the objective case
WHOSE	It refers to people, animals and things (sometimes)
WHICH	It refers to specific animals & things
THAT	This has no ‘case contrast’

 

6.       UNIVERSAL PRONOUNS can also be called ‘INDEFINITE PRONOUNS’. They are unspecific in operation. They must take singular verbs. We learn them using a popular name/acronym SEANas shown below:

S	E	A	N
Somebody	Everybody	Anybody	Nobody
Someone	Everyone	Anyone	No one
Something	Everything	Anything	Nothing

 

NOTE: we also have members like either, neither, much, more, most, each, every. EACH denotes two or more persons while EVERY refer to three or more people/things.

7.       REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS are pronouns that reflect or refer back to the subject or object of a sentence. They usually end in SELF [singular] and SELVES [plural]. They include: myself, yourself/yourselves, ourselves, themselves, himself, herself, itself.

8.       DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS are used to point out persons/objects that are either ‘near’ or ‘afar off’. They include: This, That, These and Those. ‘THIS’ is singular and for near objects, ‘THAT’ is singular and for objects that are far, ‘these’is plural and for near objects while ‘those’is plural and for distant objects. Hope you grab?

9.       INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS are used for interrogations i.e. to ask questions. It makes use of ‘WH - words’ such as: Who, whose, whom, what, which.

PREPOSITIONS

Knowledge of prepositions brings us into the close system category of words fully. Prepositions are function words and their main function being to show the relationship between two entities, one of which is the object of the preposition. 

Example: You are lying on my bed

The two entities here are: "You" and "Bed" and the relationship is that you are on my bed. 

Now, one's choice of a preposition is usually dependent on how one perceives an object and this perception include:

1. At as a reposition refers to a place seen as a point or target e.g. I am at work 
2. On refers to a place seen as a line or surface with length and breadth e.g. my pen is on the couch. We also use on for public transport e.g. I am on a train to DC 
3. In refers to a place seen as an area [ground or territory] and enclosed by boundaries e.g. There is much traffic in Lagos.

Types of Prepositions

Prepositions are of two main types, namely The Simple and The Complex Preposition. The Simple Preposition is considered 'simple' because it is made up of just a word e.g. in, at, upon, on, of, with, by, during, between, until etc., while the Complex Preposition comprises two or more words e.g. according to, in spite of, as regards, with regard to etc. 

NOTE: Apart from all the uses mentioned above, it should be noted that prepositions can equally express relationship in time, ideas such as purpose, destination, agency, instrument etc. 

EXAMPLES:

This answer script is for Martha [purpose] 

This necklace was a gift from my grandpa [agent] 

He killed the lion with his bare hands [instrument] 

Also, for any word to be regarded as a preposition, it must govern a noun phrase, though there may be exceptions. 

CONJUNCTIONS

Conjunctions are also function words which are chiefly used to join the various parts of a sentence. There are two main types of conjunctions:

1. Coordinating Conjunctions [coordinators]: These are used to link two or more clauses of equal rank (i.e. coordinate clauses which often occur in compound sentences) together. Examples of coordinators include and, but, either or, neither nor etc. 
2. Subordinating Conjunctions [subordinators]: They are used to introduce a subordinate clause in a complex sentence and they include: that, when, because etc. 

NOTE: Coordinators can also be used to link 'phrases' and 'words'.

INTERJECTIONS

These words are employed mainly to express emotions and some of them + their functions include: 

1. Oh, what a beautiful dress! ['oh' is used to express 'surprise'] 
2. Ah, that's very good! ['ah' is used to express 'satisfaction']
3. Aha, now that's exactly what I am talking about! [aha' is used to express 'satisfaction, jubilation']. 
4. Wow! What an amazing performance. ['wow' expresses 'great surprise'] 
5. Ouch. That hurts! ['ouch' is used to express 'pain'] 
6. Ugh, what a mess! ['ugh' is used to express 'disgust/irritation'] 
7. Hey, come here! ['hey' is an impolite way of getting one's attention] 
8. Eh, what did you say? ['eh' is an impolite way of requesting repetition]

THE ENGLISH ARTICLES

The Articles are grouped under the 'determiners' in the English Language mainly because they have no function outside of the nouns they determine. They equally possess no lexical [dictionary] meaning rather they are defined in terms of their 'structural functions' and not in terms of meaning. 

Types of Articles

1. The Indefinite Article: This includes: a, an and they are considered indefinite simply because they refer to 'single unspecified members' of a class of persons, animals, places or items. They can also function generically i.e. refer to a class of things as a whole by picking an individual/thing belonging to that class. 

Examples:

My mother brought home a radio and a television 

Just yesterday, I ran into an old lover 

The indefinite article cannot be used with 'mass nouns'. It can only go with 'singular count nouns'. 

      2. The Definite Article: The determiner 'The' is referred to as the definite article and it can be used           with singular & plural count nouns & mass nouns. It refers to specific persons, places, things,           etc. It is also used for anaphoric reference i.e. reference to something already said and                           exophoric reference.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. Differentiate between 'open class words' and 'closed class words'. 
2. Using sentences, differentiate between 'coordinators' and 'subordinators'. 
3. Differentiate between 'the definite article' and 'the indefinite articles'.
4. What are 'reciprocal pronouns'? List them and their uses.