Old English Aerobics

Pronouns

According to the classic definition, a pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. However, some pronouns work like adjectives, modifying the meaning of a noun. But while an adjective may modify or limit the meaning of a noun in a novel way, creating, just possibly, a subset of the class of nouns that has never been spoken of before (e.g. "a transcendental cow," "a nuclear teapot"), the adjectival pronoun modifies the sense of the noun by widening or narrowing its reference in a very limited and stereotyped way: "this cow" (the one here with me), "each teapot" (all of them, but considered one by one). The adjectival pronoun can quite generally be used as a "classic" pronoun, standing in for a noun rather than modifying one ("Have you seen this?" "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each").

Whether pronouns like this, that and each should be called adjectives when used with nouns is a matter best left to the theoreticians. Old English scholars generally call them pronouns to avoid getting knotted up over one very large class of them, namely the demonstrative pronouns which in Old English are used where Modern English uses the adjective-like "article," the. In Modern English the "article" can hardly be confused with the demonstrative pronoun that, though their functions are similar; but Old English made no formal distinction between them. Thus you may translate se cyning as "the king" or as "that king," depending on the context.

Pronouns are of seven types: personal, demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite, relative, reflexive, and reciprocal. Some classify as pronouns the possessives which are inflected like adjectives, but Old English Aerobics (perhaps rather arbitrarily) classifies these as adjectives. Here is a rundown of the types:

Personal. The personal pronouns (Modern English I, you, she, he, it, etc.) refer to specific objects and are marked for person--the first person referring to the speaker, the second person to someone or something the speaker is addressing, and the third person to any other thing. The Old English personal pronouns are ic, þu, he, heo, hit.
Demonstrative. These pronouns point out specific things (Modern English this, that). The Modern English definite article is in origin a demonstrative pronoun, and Old English used a demonstrative where we now use the definite article. The Old English demonstratives are se (seo, þæt) "that" and þes "this."
Interrogative. Interrogative pronouns introduce questions, either direct (e.g. "Who are you?") or indirect (e.g. "He asked who you were"). The most common Old English interrogatives are hwa, hwæt "who, what" and hwelc "which, what kind of."
Indefinite. This is a relatively large group of pronouns that indicate that we are speaking about one or more members of some category of things but do not specify exactly which. Modern examples are all, any, anyone, each, few, many, none, one, and something. Old English also had a large number of indefinites, of which the most important are man "one," ænig "any," nan "none," hwa "anyone, someone," sum "some, a certain," eall "all," ælc "each," and swelc "such."
Relative. A relative pronoun introduces an adjective clause (also called a relative clause). In Modern English the most common relatives are that and who; Old English used the particle þe, the demonstrative pronoun se, or a combination, se þe.
Reflexive. A reflexive pronoun is used in the complement of a clause or sentence to refer to the same thing as the subject. It can be a direct object ("The cat grooms himself"), an indirect object ("The president gave himself a raise"), or the object of a preposition ("Look within yourself"). Old English commonly uses the accusative or dative of a personal pronoun as a reflexive, or it uses the word self.
Reciprocal. These pronouns refer individually to the things that make up a plural antecedent and indicate that each of those things is in the position of object of the others as subjects. That sounds complicated, and it is; but the idea is well known to speakers of Modern English, who use the phrases each other and one another to express it. Old English uses the plural of a personal pronoun, sometimes with self, e.g. Hie hie selfe ofslogon "They killed each other." Old English may also use constructions that resemble the modern ones: ægðer . . . oðer or æghwylc . . . oðer.

When a pronoun has an antecedent (a noun it refers back to), it must agree with that antecedent in gender and number. This rule can produce some disconcerting effects for the modern reader. For example, when we read of the sun, æfre heo tyrnð onbutan us, the pronoun heo looks to us as if it should be translated "she." But heo is referring to feminine sunne and must be translated "it": "it is always turning around us."