Pronouns in Romanian Grammar - Vocabulary Flashcards

Pronouns: a lexico-grammatical class of words with no semantic autonomy; function is to represent entities present (implicitly or explicitly) in the discourse universe.

Traditional Romanian grammar groups pronouns by person into sub-classes:
- Personal pronouns: personal pronouns proper, courtesy pronouns, reflexive, intensifier, possessive.
- Non-personal pronouns: non-determined (indefinite), demonstrative, relative, negative, interogative (relative-interrogative), semiindependent.
Unaccented forms are clitics.

Accentued and unaccentued forms exist only for the cases Ac (accusative) and D (dative); other cases use only accentuated forms.
For 1st and 2nd person, pronouns proper have no genitive forms.
Direct or indirect objects must be doubled by a clitic pronoun (unaccented):
- example: ditto rule for doubling objects.
Dânsul, dânsa, dânșii, dânsele (honorific usage) are personal pronouns proper in GALR (2005/2008) but considered polite in others (GBLR 2010).
Additional variable forms exist: însul, însa, înșii, însele; occur only in the accusative and with prepositions dintru, întru, printru (e.g., dintr-însul, dintr-însa, într-înșii, printr-însele).
Do not confuse însele (pronoun) with the homonymous adjective form; disambiguation relies on the prepositions that precede (dintru/intru/printru).
Special usage notes:
- Dativul posesiv: adnominal (near a noun): haina-mi, păru-i (pronominal attribute);
- adverbal (near a verb): Ți-am citit lucrarea (possessive complement).
- Dativul etic: Pe unde mi-ai umblat? (no syntactic position).
- Dativul neutru: Dă-i bice! Zi-i din strună, lăutare! (no syntactic position).
- Accusativ neutru: A luat-o la fugă. (no syntactic position).

Highest politeness is expressed by ceremonial locutions: Domnia Voastră, Domnia Sa, Maiestatea Sa.
Courtesy pronoun forms do not have 1st person forms.
Mata, matale, mătălică, tălică are polite forms that tend to go out of use and sound ironic.

True reflexive forms exist for 3rd person in Acc and D:
- accentuated: Ac: (pe) sine; D: sie(și)
- unaccentuated: Ac: (-)se(-), (-)s-; D: își, (-)și(-)
For 1st and 2nd person, reflexive pronouns borrow forms from personal pronouns:
- Acc: m(ă) (I sg), ne (I pl), te (II sg), v(ă) (II pl)
- Dat: (î)mi (I sg), ne, ni (I pl), (î)ți (II sg), v(ă), vi (II pl)
Disambiguation relies on context; reflexive may be syntactically reflexive or non-syntactic (asintactic) depending on verb semantics.
Note: Reflexive pronouns cannot become adjectival pronominals and cannot occupy the syntactic subject position.

Traditional split: possessive pronoun (Ai mei) vs adjectival possessive (mei).
Recent analyses treat al meu/al tău/etc. as semi-independent pronouns plus a possessive adjective (ai/mei) as distinct constituents.
Following GBLR (2010): al meu/tău/sa etc. are semiindependent pronouns + possessive adjective; forms lui, ei, lor are not possessive but personal pronouns.
Possessive forms have no 3rd person plural forms (a 6-a).

Simple: tot, altul, unul, mult, destul, cutare, puțin, atât.
Compound: oricât, câtva, vreunul, oricine, oricare, orice, fiecare, fiecine, careva, ceva, cineva, altcineva, altceva.
Not all indefinite pronouns can function as adjectives; forms: alde, niscai, niscaiva, fiece, anumit/anume, niște function only as adjectives or as morphemes of indefiniteness.
Niște may function as adjective/pronominal determiner or as morpheme; examples illustrate adjectives vs morphemes.
Grammar focus: gender, number, case; indefinite pronouns do not belong to the PERSON category.

Simple: nimeni, nimic; Composite: niciunul, niciuna, niciunii, niciunele.
nimeni, nimic are always pronouns.
Compound forms can be used as pronouns or as demonstrative adjectives (niciun, nicio).
Some negative pronouns have gender/number/case categories; they do not have the PERSON category.

Link a subordinate clause to its governing clause; act as double substitute.
Forms: simple: care, cine, ce, cât(ă/i/e); compuse: ceea ce.
Syntactic position of the pronoun/adjective as relative is determined exclusively in the subordinate clause it introduces.
When occupying direct object position, care takes the marker pe: ex. Băiatul pe care l-am chemat este Dan.

Forms: care, ce, cine, cât(ă/i/e), al câtelea, a câta.
Occur only in partial interrogatives (ex. Cine vine la noi?).
Interrogative cine never becomes an adjectival pronoun.
When utterances are transferred to indirect discourse, interrogative pronouns can acquire features of relatives, hence sometimes called relative-interrogative.
Examples: Cine vine la noi? (interrogative) / Am întrebat cine vine la noi. (relative-interrogative)

Three primary uses: 1) As semi-independent pronouns: al (from possessive pronoun) and cel (distant demonstrative) substitute for nouns and require a syntactic complement/determinant:
- Pe bancă sunt două caiete. Cel albastru este mai frumos. -> Al meu este mai frumos.
  2) As morfosyntactic connectors: al marks possessive-genitive (articulated), cel marks adjectival (articulated): carte a elevului; Mircea cel Bătrân.
  3) As formative elements: al participates in forming ordinal numerals (al doilea); cel participates in superlative relativ (cel mai frumos).
Remember: As semi-independent pronouns, al and cel can occupy multiple syntactic positions.
In contemporary Romanian, forms called pronume de întărire (insumi, însămi, însăți, însuși, înseși, etc.) are used exclusively as adjectival pronouns and always function as attributive adjectives.

Unit 5 covers the lexico-grammatical class of pronouns in Romanian.
Emphasizes pronoun types and modern grammar modifications, with arguments and examples.
Introduces a new type: semiindependent pronouns.