Pronouns are noun phrases that refer to other, usually previously mentioned, noun phrases. There are many types of pronouns. The following are discussed below.
Even though the conjunctive pronouns are the most frequently encountered type of pronoun, since their appearance is contingent on other words, I will discuss them when I discuss these other words. Please see the following links for subject clitics, object affixes, and possessors.
The disjunctive pronouns (also called the independent pronouns) are essentially the set of personal pronouns used when a conjunctive pronoun is not available: when a pronoun is used outside the verbal complex or outside the nominal possessor paradigm. The forms for the disjunctive pronouns are:
| singular | plural | |
| 1st | hen | wen |
| 2nd | nen | ren |
| 3rd | ten | teken |
In terms of different constructions they can appear in, these forms do have a wide distribution. That distribution includes focusing and topicalization constructions, the objects of case markers (usually just the oblique ones), and in isolation (such as in response to questions).
An important feature of all third person forms is that they can only refer to animate antecendents: people, anthropomorphized non-persons, and other entities typically viewed as animate by the Skerre. All others must be pronominalized by the demonstrative pronouns.
Reflexive pronouns identify the subject with another participant. The forms of the reflexive pronoun are built on the root, kari, and the possessive pronouns. Thus, the paradigm has the following forms:
| singular | plural | |
| 1st | kari-he | kari-we |
| 2nd | kari-ne | kari-re |
| 3rd | kari-se | kari-te |
Reflexives (and in fact all the remaining pronouns in this section) are not inflected in any way and take syntactic markers just like other nouns.
Reflexives in Skerre must be bound by the logical subject (either the ergative-marked phrase or a nominative cltic). They must be bound in the clause — there are no long-distance reflexives in Skerre. Such binding is restricted to co-arguments of a verb; there are no reflexive possessors.
The following are some examples of reflexives:
Etsatin tsa Tsotar a kari-se. PFV-hit-TR ERG (name) ABS self=3SG.POSS Tsotar hit himself.
Etirak-ha ya kari-he. PFV-look=1SG.NOM DAT self=1SG.POSS I looked at myself.
Reflexives are somewhat uncommon and the above forms are generally used when the co-reference is very important. Often when an event is viewed from a more internal perspective, a verb with a ke- prefix is chosen instead. The reflexives also can serve as reciprocals (= each other, one another).
There are several other kinds of pronouns in Skerre. Like the reflexives, they are morphologically invariable and take the syntactic markers. In addition, these below have no plural forms.
For the pronouns that aren't explicitly discussed here, a pointer is given to the relevant part of the grammar where they are discussed.
The demonstrative pronouns are identical to the demonstrative adjectives and so have the same three way constrast: tir, this; ter, that; tar, that yonder.
Demonstratives pronouns have two uses. First, instead of just being a pure means of referring back to a previously mention entity, they refer back and point to the object's salience, positioning them literally or figuratively (this function is also true of their corresponding demonstrative adjectives). Beyond spatial closeness, the demonstratives can also be used for temporal closeness (e.g. tir for this thing that I was most recently was talking about) and even occasionally speaker identification (e.g. ter for that thing the addressee really cares about).
The second use, mentioned above, is for the pronominalization of inanimates, who cannot be pronominalized by any of the personal pronouns. However, in this use, they still follow the above deictic rules.
The next two classes of pronouns are similar, semantically and the forms are built on the interrogative roots, sin, who and ser, what.
The indefinite pronouns are wisin, someone; wiser, something. They are used for unknown referents, as in the following:
Sats-ha saa e’okin-ha a wiser. think=1SG.NOM COMP PFV-see-TR=1SG.NOM ABS something I think I saw something.
Koni-ha etsatin a kosin. NEG=1SG.NOM PFV-hit-TR ABS no.one I hit no one. or I didn't hit anyone.
All quantifiers can be used pronominally. See the previous page for more on them.
The interrogative pronouns are discussed in the section on questions. Unlike in English, these do not double as relative pronouns, since Skerre uses an invariant relativizer, as discussed here.
Forward to Section 13: Kinship Terms
Back to Section 11: Quantifiers and Modifiers
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