Talk:Pro-form

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What about "one"? For example in "I like the blue one". Isn't it a pro-form? If so, it should be mentioned in the article... -- Adam78 22:56, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

>For example in "I like the blue one". Isn't it a pro-form?

Yes, it is a demonstrative pronoun. Note that it is cognate to Middle English yon < Old English geon, while the numeral one < Middle English on < Old English ān (and Latin unus.) This merger is rather uncharacterisctic of modern IE languages, on top of my head cf. Russian odin = the numeral one, onyj (rather archaic) = the pronominal one.

>If so, it should be mentioned in the article...

Why? Its kin got their own article. :)

— kkm@pobox.com 01:21, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you! Adam78 16:43, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spanish 3-way distinction

Hi there!

I've just read this: "Spanish and other Romance languages show this same three-way distinction, which dates back to Latin."

That last assertion sounds pretty wrong. In modern Spanish, there are indeed 3 forms of demonstratives:

(in singular)

[proximal] este,aquí [medial] ese,ahí [distal] aquel, allí/allá

However, they don't work the way that those in Japanese are described in the article. [note: I know almost nothing about Japanese, I base my comment on the very content of this article. On the other hand, I'm a native speaker of Spanish (from Spain).]

Firstly, the "medial" ones don't imply closeness to the _addressee_, and never have. Secondly, nowadays the distinction between medial and distal has largely disappeared. Both forms are still in use, but do not convey a meaning of such strong difference in distance. Medial ones are by far the most frequently used. Distal forms are kept in idioms and figures of speech.

So I intend to change the phrase to: "Spanish and other Romance languages show a similar three-way distinction, which dates back to Latin."

Any problem, let me know. Greets :) MasterMan 23:58, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] L. L. Zamenhof's Table

Shouldn't the word "both" go in the space for "Pronoun - Out of two" and "Universal"? It seems to me that "both" accurately fits those specifications. Also, is this Zamenhof's entire table? Is it even proper to edit a work of someone else's to add accuracy?

Thanks. mattmpg23 23:53, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] pro-adjectives

Are determiners pro-adjectives? Are numerals pro-adjectives? Greg-si (talk) 17:23, 12 June 2008 (UTC)