Pronouns and Quantifiers

Personal Pronouns

Accented and Non-Accented Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are used only pronominally (→26.22-3). They are either accented (stressed and emphatic) or non-accented (for details, →7.1-2): to an extent, this distinction corresponds to a contrastive and a non-contrastive function. When describing the subject, and no (contrastive) emphasis is needed, the personal endings of the verb suffice. The unaccented pronouns are then only used in oblique cases.

1. cé tulis, tanome nauvan [VT49/19]. If he comes, I will be there. No emphasis on the subject.
2. nai lye hiruva airea Amanar [AUCT-LET/1963-12-18]. May thee find a blessed Yule. Unaccented pronoun in oblique case.

Contrast signals to a listener that the utterance should be taken as one of several alternatives. Depending on their importance, contrast might be exhaustive or uncertain.

Exhaustive is contrast where all relevant alternatives are covered, either explicitly in several clauses, or implicitly with entity present in the context:

1. inye túle, apa isse úne [—]. I came, but HE didn’t. All other alternatives (e.g. me not coming, or him coming) are explicitly dismissed.
2. nai elye hiruva [LotR/378]. Maybe THOU shalt find it. Galadriel implicitly contrasts herself to Frodo, expecting never to come back to Valimar herself.

Alternatives of exhaustive contrast are generally mutually exclusive.

With an uncertain contrast the speaker is only making a claim about the referent of the pronoun and leaves it open whether this claim should or should not apply to the other referents relevant in the discourse:

1. cé tulis, ní nauva tanome [VT49/19]. If he comes, I will be there. Whether anyone else will be there is left on the table.

Unlike alternatives of exhaustive contrast, here they don’t need to be exclusive.

Another factor is focality. Some of the typical cases include clefts, answers to wh-questions, comparative constructions, focus constructions, etc:

1. melinye sé apa lá hé [VT49/15]. I love HIM, but not HIM. The answer to a question: 'Whom do you love?'

Main purpose of an accented pronoun in such position is to identify a referent as one of several alternatives, or to exhaust the set by dismissing all other alternatives:

1. aistana elye imíca nísi [VT43/28]. Blessed art THOU amongst women. Exhaustive pronoun implies that only Mary is considered.

First and Second Person

First-person pronoun refers to a speaker, and in addition to number and accent distinguishes clusivity: listener can be either involved (inclusive 'we') or specifically excepted (exclusive 'we') from the context.

	unaccented	stressed	emphatic
sg.	ni	ní	inye
pl. incl.	we	wé	elwe
pl. excl.	me	mé	elme
d. incl.	wet	wét	inque
d. excl.	met	mét	emme

Second-person pronoun refers to a listener, and has different levels of formality:

	unaccented	stressed	emphatic
sg. familiar	tye	tyé	itye
sg. formal	lye	lyé	elye
pl.	le	lé	elde
d.	lyet	lyét	este

Third and Fourth Person

Third- and fourth-person pronouns refer to an entity other than a speaker or a listener. To alleviate the ambiguity between several actors within the same phrase, first actor is marked as third-person, and the following as fourth:

1. sé ringane hé, ar hé runce [modified VT49/15]. He struck him, and he fled. There is no ambiguity, as there would be in English.

Third and fourth person distinguish animate and inanimate gender. Distinction is semantic: animates are noun capable to act on their own volition (including trees and plants), and inanimates are the rest (including abstract concepts).

• third-person pronouns:

	unaccented	stressed	emphatic
sg. anim.	se	sé	isse
pl. anim.	te	té	inte
sg. inanim.	sa	sá	issa
pl. inanim.	ta(i)	tá	inta
d.	tu	tú	itte

• fourth-person pronouns (only singular):

	unaccented	stressed	emphatic
sg. anim.	hye	hé	ecse
sg. inanim.	hya	há	ecsa

Reflexive Pronouns and Other Reflexive Expressions

Introduction; Pronouns Used as Reflexives; Direct and Indirect Reflexives

Reflexivity is the phenomenon whereby a pronoun is used to 'reflect' (i.e. refer back or forwards to) another constituent of the sentence or clause, nearly always the subject:

1. an cé mo querne immo númenna [draft VT49/6]. For if one turned oneself westward.

A distinction is made between:

• direct reflexivity: pronouns which refer back to an element within the same clause/construction;

• indirect reflexivity: pronouns in a subordinate construction (subordinate clauses, infinitive or participle constructions), which refer back to an element in the main/matrix clause (for subordination, →39.2, 39.5):

• Elerondo quente insen Elrond said to himself. Direct reflexive: inse is the indirect object of quente, and refers to its subject.

• Elerondo hlasse sa Elessar quente sen Elrond heard what Aragorn told him. Indirect reflexive: sen refers back to the subject of hlasse, but syntactically is a part of the dependent clause.

The following pronouns are used in reflexive constructions:

• the reflexive pronoun (imne, imule, inse, etc., →7.3);
• (oblique cases of) the personal pronoun (ni, lye, se, etc., →7.2);
• reflexive inflection.

Pronouns Used as Direct and Indirect Reflexives

Obviation

In many (or perhaps most) languages, nonsubject anaphoric personal pronouns are obviative, i.e. they cannot be coreferential with a coargument:

1. The dogs₁ bit them_2/*1.

Quenya, however, has three types of third person anaphoric pronouns: an obviative nonreflexive pronoun hye, a nonobviative nonreflexive pronun se, and a reflexive pronoun inse:³

1. Zindacollo₁ tatalla hye₂/se_1/2/inse₁. Thingol admires him₂/him(self)_1/2/himself₁.

Note how the use of se can be ambiguous.

Direct Reflexivity

In the direct reflexive use, the reflexive pronoun is normally required, particularly for emphasis (→29.2-5) or to distinguish from reciprocal use of personal pronoun (→29.14).

1. Arwen cenne inse i·cilintilasse Arwen saw herself in the mirror.

However, personal pronouns can be used as direct reflexives, especially in the first and second person, and in poetry much more freely than in prose.

1. ni·cúven I hid myself.

If the third person is implicit, verb receives a reflexive ending:

1. melisse/melitte [VT49/21]. He loves himself/they love themselves.

Indirect Reflexivity

In indirect reflexive context, the nonobviative nonrelexive pronouns are used (reflexive pronoun is bound locally):

1. Arcimbelenna leltaniéla h·oraneltet roccor téna ta rimba ve cárima tulta They₁ sent to Rivendell and asked that they₂ send them_1/3 as many horses as possible. téna refers back to the subject of h·oraneltet (1), though obviative interpretation (3) is possible. inte could only refer to the subject of infinitive clause (2).

Possessive Pronouns and Other Expressions of Possession

Quenya uses the following pronominal constructions to express possession, belonging, descent, origin, etc.:

• possessive suffixes, →7.7;
• possessive pronouns (ninya, lelya, séva, etc., →7.8).

Separate possessive pronouns may be used pronominally or adnominally. In the latter case, they are normally used for emphasis (→29.2-5), and in poetry much more freely than in prose:

1. nan úye sére indo-ninya símen, ullume [LR/72]. But my heart resteth not here for ever.
2. ávatyara mello menye roctar [draft; VT43/11]. Forgive us our trespasses.

Reciprocal Pronouns

The reciprocal construction expresses the idea that two or more persons are simultaneously involved in one and the same action, like English each other, one another.

Reciprocal actions can be expressed in Quenya by the preverb o· with (e.g. o·mennente they met each other), by the personal pronoun (te palpanente they hit each other) and by the repetition of cognates:

1. má sove má Hands wash each other.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Pointing Outside or Inside the Text

Demonstratives have a pointing or deictic function. They may either point to someone/thing in the world outside the text, or to a single word or larger segment of the text itself.

1. Telperinquar Erciandello tence sine tenguar [translated; LotR/305]. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs. sine refers to the signs actually present on the door, → we might imagine Celebrimbor pointing at them.
2. lende tanna Nieliccelis, sana wende nieninquea [PE16/96]. Thither came little Niéle, that maiden like a snowdrop. The pronoun refers to element in the text, anaphorically to Niéle.

When pointing outside of the text, demonstratives distinguish between proximal sina this by me, medial tana that by you, and distal enta yonder:

• sina refers to something immediately near to the speaker (physically or mentally);
• tana refers to something within the reach of the speaker and/or addressee (physically or mentally), but not specifically near to the speaker;
• enta refers to something beyond the reach of the speaker and addressee (physically or mentally).

When a demonstrative refers to an element in the text itself it may refer backward to something introduced before (anaphoric use) or point forward in the text to something about to be introduced (cataphoric use):

• sina or enta normally serve to announce something that will follow immediately, or refer to something prominent in the speaker's mind;
• sana is used most often to refer to something mentioned previously;
• to refer to something which has not been mentioned for a while (or to pick up something which was mentioned before a form of sana or sina 'intervened') a form of yana former must be used instead.

Further Particulars

Forms of demonstrative pronouns, adjectives or adverbs usually have short and long forms (→7.18). The long demonstrative nearly always carries heavier stress:

1. sinome maruvan ar hildinyar tenn' Ambarmetta [LotR/967]. In this place will I abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world.
2. umbe nin i hríve nauva urra si loa [PE22/168]. I have a feeling that winter will be bad this year.

Sentential Pronouns

While personal pronouns refer to specific words or noun phrases (or constructions operating as noun phrases), sometimes we might need to mention a larger segment of a conversation instead, a clause or a sequence of clauses. Alongside demonstrative pronouns, Quenya has two additional sentential pronouns for this case — subjective ha and objective sa (similar to sana, →29.14):

1. yára Túro mante ilqua masta, ha mé·ne úmactale [PE22/119]. Old Turo ate all the bread, that was a nuisance to us. Pronoun ha means 'the fact that old Turo ate all the bread'.
2. yára Túro mante ilqua masta. Mé·láner fasta sa [modified; PE22/119]. Old Turo ate all the bread. We were not pleased with that. Pronoun sa means 'the fact that old Turo ate all the bread'.

Indefinite Pronouns

The indefinite pronouns refer to someone or something that is not immediately identifiable. They can appear in the varying contexts, some of which include:

• When the speaker does not wish to reveal, or pay attention to, the identity of a specific individual:

  • námo tule, intya man Someone came, guess who.

• When referring to individuals whose specific identity is unknown or irrelevant:

  • hlassen ma, mal ú istan manima I heard something, but I don't know of what sort.

• When referring to something non-specific or non-existing:

  • neve ma h·ecsa, mecin Please, try something else⁴.

• In comparison, condition and possibility:

  • náse halda lá aiquen He is taller than anyone;
  • cé cenil aiquen, quetá nin Shall you see anyone, tell me;
  • lertal mique aiquen You may kiss anyone.

• In negation and polar question:

  • ú cennen úquen I haven't seen anyone;
  • ú novin i úquen tuluva I don't think anyone will come;
  • ma úquen quente lyen úqua pá·sa? Has anyone told you anything about that?

The summary of these functions is shown on the chart:

Figure 29.1: Implication map: indefinite pronouns of Quenya

There are also groups of indefinite adjectives and adverbs which form related series with indefinite pronouns (→7.14). Their functions are crudely summarized in the table:

	na-series	bare	m-series	ai/qui-series	ú-series
person	námo5	quen	mo	aiquen	úquen
thing	nat	qua	ma	aiqua	úqua
location	nanome	nome	—	quinome	únome
time	nalume	lume	—	quie	úlume

Generic Pronouns

The pronoun mo is used as a generic pronoun in:

• generalized statements of speaker’s experiences and expectations:

  • matie telumbi sine cé nace mo One can die from eating these mushrooms.

• advises and instructions which should affect the listener's practical reasoning:

  • alasaila ná lá care tai mo nave mára [PE22/154]. It is unwise not to do what one judges good.

• putting a speaker into the other person's situation in conditional statement:

  • cé mo querne cendele númenna, i·hyarma tentane Melcorello [VT49/8]. If one turned the face westward, the left hand pointed away from Melkor.

• in sayings and aphorisms:

  • mo ú coita rie massenen You cannot live on bread alone.

Interrogative Pronouns

For the use of interrogative pronouns man who?, mana what? in direct and indirect questions, →38.11-14 and 42.5-6.

Relative Pronouns

For the use of relative pronouns, →50.8-16.

Quantifiers

ilya

The quantifier ilya in the singular means each, every. In the plural, it means all:

1. ilya osto each/every city (sometimes: an entire city)
2. ilye ostor all the cities

The corresponding universal pronouns are ilquen everyone and illi all.

quana

The quantifier quana⁶ means whole, entire:

1. tirá quana tama Look at the entire matter.

er

er means by itself, alone, the only:

1. er hinyan na anta i·ríe To my only child shall be given a crown.

enta and hyana

The basic meaning of enta is other (out of many), stressing similarity. The basic meaning of hyana is other (than something else), stressing difference:

1. ólamar ar ente lámar consonants and other sounds;
2. ólamar hyane lámar lá ómar consonants are different sounds than vowels.

Indefinite Marker as Quantifier

In many cases the indefinite marker (→4.7) can be translated to English with quantifier some. When it stands with the article it means many:

1. i·falmalinnar imbe met [LotR/377]. Upon the many foaming waves between us two.

When modified by a quantifier nótima it means (a) few:

1. cennen nótime eldali [PE22/155]. I saw a few Elves.

---

Sources:

• "Contrastive Pronouns in Null Subject Romance Languages" by Laia Mayol.
• "Comparing reflexive constructions in the world's languages" by Martin Haspelmath.
• "A Frequentist Explanation of Some Universals of Reflexive Marking" by Martin Haspelmath
• "Local and long-distance reflexives in Turkish" by Jaklin Kornfilt.
• "Indefinite Pronouns" by Martin Haspelmath.