Johanna,

I suspect the term "possessive pronoun" arises out of the Western
grammatical tradition, going back to Varro, Dionysus Thrax, etc.  I
don't object to the term as long as it's clear that they are a subclass
of determiners.

Herb

These pronominal forms are actually what linguists call  
"determiners", along with such traditional classes as articles. They  
have particular restrictions; for instance, only one can appear per  
noun phrase. One can have multiple adjectives in a noun phrase ("my  
brand-new, big, red balloon") but only one determiner ("my the  
balloon" is impossible).

In any case, they are not pronouns; they cannot stand in place of a  
noun phrase. The possessive pronouns are the forms "mine, ours,  
yours, his, hers", which _can_ take the place of noun phrases.

For instance:

A: My car has broken down.
B: Take mine. (Take _my car_.)

A: You have a power drill; use it.
B: But yours has better torque. (But _your power drill_)

"Possessive adjectives" was the better traditional term, as these do  
occupy a slot in which they modify a noun. But by modern linguistic  
definitions, they are not adjectives. I don't know why anyone ever  
called them possessive pronouns. It's odd that any formal grammarian  
would, since, even though they resemble the actual possessive  
pronouns, they behave quite differently. (I mean "formal" here in the  
sense of a traditional grammarian who is punctilious about such  
distinctions.) Also, one would never confuse a possessive pronoun  
with a possessive adjective: no one would imagine phrases like "yours  
book" or "mine power drill".

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Dept.
Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184
Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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