Johanna, I think a number of linguists/grammarians would consider both the determiner ("my") and "possessive subject complement" ("mine") forms to be pronouns. It's one of those standard definitional issues that hinges on what "counts" as a major defining feature of "pronoun." A tradition semantic-ish approach locates "pronoun-ness" in the way the word refers, and the referentiality (sp?) of "my" and "mine" is similar. On the other hand, if pronouns are defined as substituting for nouns, then "my" isn't one (unless you'd like an extremely abstract workaround in which the determiner form *is* considered to be substituting for a noun, but with the added proviso that the possessive-determiner-marker {-s} is present as well -- in other words, "my" has a possessive {'s} in it in the same way that "women" has a plural {s} in it). I'm *not* writing this to argue with your take on the situation -- definitional issues are famous for being unresolvable -- it's just that the presence of different definitions raises the possibility of confusion unless it's highlighted. Bill Spruiell Dept. of English Central Michigan University -----Original Message----- From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Johanna Rubba Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:30 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: possessive adjective/determiner/pronoun I feel that possessive determiners (better than adjective as a designation) and possessive pronouns should be taught separately from the first, as their forms and functions are different. The determiner forms cannot occupy noun phrase slots like subject or direct object, and the possessive pronoun forms cannot modify nouns (expressions like "mine eyes" are archaisms). Det. Pronoun my mine your yours her hers his his its its? our ours your yours their theirs 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 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/