Weak pronouns in Catalan
Encyclopedia
This article discusses the forms and functions of the personal pronoun
s in Catalan grammar
.
These forms are used as subject
pronouns (with the exception of si), and also as disjunctive pronouns, for example, after a preposition.
The first person singular pronoun has a special form mi after most prepositions.
However, the form jo is used with some prepositions, for example, in segons jo ("according to me"), and in coordinated structures with another noun or pronoun: contra tu i jo ("against you and me").
The reflexive pronoun si cannot be used as a subject. It most commonly appears after a preposition, often reinforced by mateix:
The 2nd person polite pronouns are vostè (singular) and vostès (plural). They combine with 3rd person verbs.
The older form vós (with 2nd person plural verb agreement) can be found in some varieties of Catalan, and in contexts like administrative texts.
The 1st person majestic plural is expressed with the pronoun Nós (in place of nosaltres).
. All are monosyllabic clitic
s, and all must always appear immediately before or after a verb
: they cannot be used on their own or attached to a different element of the sentence. The combination of the verb plus the weak pronoun or pronouns always has a single stressed vowel, that of the verb.
The form of a given pronoun is determined by its position with respect to the verb
, and whether it is adjacent to a vowel
or a consonant
in the verb. There are four possible configurations:
Not all pronouns have four distinct forms. The following table shows the complete inventory.
1 The unelided form la is used before verbs beginning in unstressed i- ou u- (or hi-, hu-).
s of the verb.
Enclitic pronouns are used with infinitives, gerunds, and positive imperatives.
With all other forms of the verb, the weak pronouns are proclitic. This includes, in particular, conjugated (finite
) verbs and negative imperatives:
In complex verbal constructions consisting of a conjugated verb and an infinitive or gerund, the pronoun can appear either before the first verb or after the second verb.
Northern Catalan (particularly as spoken in North Catalonia) and Balearic Islands
does not generally use the reinforced forms (e.g.: te veig, instead of et veig).
In the imperative mood
in Northern Catalan, the reduced form of the pronoun is replaced by a tonic form (thus, not strictly being a weak pronoun anymore). For example, mira'm! (en: look at me!) in Northern Catalan is rendered as mira-mé.
The two pronouns must be selected from different columns, and furthermore ho cannot combine with en or hi.
All of the combinations allowed in the standard language are given in the following table, which also shows the necessary morpho-phonological and orthographic adjustments. In each cell of the table, the forms are listed in the following order, with the same contextual conditions as explained above for the simple pronouns:
In combinations like es + en, the resulting form, pronounced [sən], could be analyzed either as s' + en or as se + ' n. The orthographic convention in such cases is to place the apostrophe as far to the right as possible: "se'n", and not "s'en", and similarly for "se'ls", "me'n", "te'm", "te'ns", etc. The combination of el/la with en, however, is written "l'en", because there is no form le that would justify the spelling "le'n".
In the second case, it is also possible to replace the pronoun en with hi:
This substitution of hi for en is also used to express the combination of en (ablative) + en (genitive), since the form *ne'n is not allowed:
Se t'ofereix cervesa (You are offered beer) → Se te n' ofereix (You are offered some)
Combinations of four pronouns are very rare:
For example, alongside the transparently derived forms of li + direct object pronoun (el, la, els, les) given in the table above, central Catalan varieties replace li with hi:
Furthermore, the feminine forms can merge phonetically with the masculine forms, i.e. la hi is pronounced like l'hi and les hi like els hi.
Combinations of li with en and ho can also undergo modification:
In more colloquial registers, the plural indirect object pronoun els is realized as els hi, and this extended form is used instead of all combinations of els followed by a 3rd person direct object pronoun:
The elided proclitic forms ens n' and us n' are regularly replaced by the unelided forms ens en and us en before a verb starting with a vowel. For example:
Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s in Catalan grammar
Catalan grammar
Catalan grammar is the grammar of the Catalan language.-Noun phrases:In Catalan, all nouns have either masculine or feminine grammatical gender: e.g...
.
Strong pronouns
The "strong" pronouns in Catalan have the following forms:| Catalan pronoun | English equivalent |
|---|---|
| jo | I |
| tu | you (singular, familiar) |
| vostè | you (singular, formal) |
| ell | he/it (masculine) |
| ella | she/it (feminine) |
| nosaltres | we |
| vosaltres | you (plural, familiar) |
| vostès | you (plural, formal) |
| ells | they (masculine) |
| elles | they (feminine) |
| si | himself/herself/itself/themselves |
These forms are used as subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
pronouns (with the exception of si), and also as disjunctive pronouns, for example, after a preposition.
- Jo encara no en sé gaire. ("I still don't know much about it.")
- Ell, no crec que vingui. ("Him, I don't think he's coming.")
- Han preguntat per vosaltres. ("They asked about you.")
The first person singular pronoun has a special form mi after most prepositions.
- Queda't amb mi. ("Stay with me.")
However, the form jo is used with some prepositions, for example, in segons jo ("according to me"), and in coordinated structures with another noun or pronoun: contra tu i jo ("against you and me").
The reflexive pronoun si cannot be used as a subject. It most commonly appears after a preposition, often reinforced by mateix:
- Ho va comprar per a si mateix. ("He bought it for himself.")
The 2nd person polite pronouns are vostè (singular) and vostès (plural). They combine with 3rd person verbs.
- Vostè em faria un favor? ("Would you do me a favor?")
The older form vós (with 2nd person plural verb agreement) can be found in some varieties of Catalan, and in contexts like administrative texts.
The 1st person majestic plural is expressed with the pronoun Nós (in place of nosaltres).
Weak pronouns
The weak pronouns are proforms that, as the name indicates, do not carry stressStress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
. All are monosyllabic clitic
Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
s, and all must always appear immediately before or after a verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
: they cannot be used on their own or attached to a different element of the sentence. The combination of the verb plus the weak pronoun or pronouns always has a single stressed vowel, that of the verb.
Forms
Weak pronouns in Catalan vary according to:- the personGrammatical personGrammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
, numberGrammatical numberIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, and genderGrammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
of the antecedentAntecedent (grammar)In grammar, an antecedent is a noun, noun phrase, or clause to which an anaphor refers in a coreference. For example, in the passage "I did not see John because he wasn't there", "John" is the antecedent of the anaphor "he"; together "John" and "he" are called a coreference because they both refer... - its syntactic function (direct or indirect objectObject (grammar)An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
or adverbAdverbAn adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
ial complement).
The form of a given pronoun is determined by its position with respect to the verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
, and whether it is adjacent to a vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
or a consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
in the verb. There are four possible configurations:
- reinforced form (forma reforçada): used before a verb that begins with a consonant, separated from the verb by a space
- Em veieu. ("You see me.")
- elided form (forma elidida): used before a verb that begins with a vowel (or h-), and separated from it by an apostrophe
- Això m'agrada ("I like that."; lit. "That pleases me")
- full form (forma plena): used after a verb that ends in a consonant (or a diphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ending in -u), connected to the verb with a hyphen
- full form (forma plena): used after a verb that ends in a consonant (or a diphthong
- En Joan no vol seguir-me. ("John doesn't want to follow me.")
- reduced form (forma reduïda): used after a verb that ends in a vowel, separated from it by an apostrophe (except in the case of -us)
- Dóna'm un llibre. ("Give me a book.")
Not all pronouns have four distinct forms. The following table shows the complete inventory.
| number | person | syntactic function | before the verb | after the verb | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| before a consonant | before a vowel | after a consonant | after a vowel | |||
| singular | 1st | direct/indirect object or reflexive (m. or f.) | em | m' | -me | 'm |
| 2nd | et | t' | -te | 't | ||
| 3rd | direct object (m.) | el | l' | -lo | 'l | |
| direct object (f.) | la | l' 1 | -la | |||
| neuter object | ho | -ho | ||||
| indirect object (m. or f.) | li | -li | ||||
| plural | 1st | direct/indirect object or reflexive (m. or f.) | ens | -nos | 'ns | |
| 2nd | us | -vos | -us | |||
| 3rd | direct object (m.) | els | -los | 'ls | ||
| direct object (f.) | les | -les | ||||
| indirect object (m. or f.) | els | -los | 'ls | |||
| 3rd (sg. & pl.) | reflexive (m. or f.) | es | s' | -se | 's | |
| adverbial | ablative/genitive | en | n' | -ne | 'n | |
| locative | hi | -hi | ||||
1 The unelided form la is used before verbs beginning in unstressed i- ou u- (or hi-, hu-).
Uses
The weak pronouns primarily express complementComplement (linguistics)
In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements that function as an argument and complements that exist within arguments.Both complements and modifiers add...
s of the verb.
- Direct objects
- Ahir el vaig veure. ("Yesterday I saw him.")
- Ahir la vaig veure. ("Yesterday I saw her.")
- Indirect objects
- Li donaràs el llibre? ("Will you give him/her the book?")
- Reflexive pronouns
- Reflexive - La nena es renta. ("The girl is washing herself.")
- Pronominal - Tots es van penedir d'això. ("Everyone is sorry about that.")
- The neuter proform ho replaces pronouns such as açò ("this"),això i allò ("that"), or tot ("everything"), or even an entire clauseClauseIn grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
.
- No ho sé. ("I don't know [the thing you just asked about].")
- -T'agrada mirar la televisió? -No, ho trobo avorrit. ("Do you like to watch TV?" "No, I think it's boring.")
- Cal netejar-ho tot. ("We have to clean it all up.")
- The proform hi replaces adverbial complements such as:
- Locative expressions: Sempre he tingut ganes d'anar-hi. ("I've always wanted to go [there].")
- Prepositional phrases denoting manner or instrument, or starting with the pronouns a, amb, en, per, etc.: Hi estic d'accord. ("I agree [with that, with you, etc].)."
- Adverbs and adjectives used with verbs other than ser, ésser, estar, semblar, esdevenir: -Que t'has llevat alegre? -Sí, m'hi he llevat. (-"Did you get up in a good mood?" -"Yes, I did.")
- Intransitive verbs of perception: L'home no hi sent. ("The man can't hear.")
- The adverbial proform en replaces
- Prepositional phrases starting with de: Tothom en parla. ("Everyone is talking about it."); En vinc. ("I'm from there.")
- Unmodified nouns or nouns preceded by numbers, quantifying adverbs or an indefinite article: -Quantes cases teniu? -En tenim dues/moltes. (-"How many houses do you have?" -"We have two/many [of them].");-Tens adreça de correu electrònic? -Sí, en tinc. (-"Have you got an email address?" -"Yes, I do.")
Position
The weak pronouns are either proclitic (appearing immediately before the verb) or enclitic (immediately after).Enclitic pronouns are used with infinitives, gerunds, and positive imperatives.
- Pots fer-nos mandonguilles? ("Can you make us meatballs?")
- Veient-ho des de fora, analitzant-ho objectivament ("Seeing it from an outsider's point of view, analyzing it objectively")
- Vés-hi i espera
' m. ("Go there and wait for me.")
With all other forms of the verb, the weak pronouns are proclitic. This includes, in particular, conjugated (finite
Finite verb
A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand on their own as complete sentences....
) verbs and negative imperatives:
- Ens faràs encara mandonguilles? ("Will you make us meatballs again?")
- No m
' esperis. ("Don't wait for me.")
In complex verbal constructions consisting of a conjugated verb and an infinitive or gerund, the pronoun can appear either before the first verb or after the second verb.
- Els volien atacar. or Volien atacar-los. ("They wanted to attack them.")
- L
' estem escoltant. or Estem escoltant-lo. ("We are listening to him.")
Dialectal variation
Use of weak pronouns varies significantly across the Catalan linguistic area.Northern Catalan (particularly as spoken in North Catalonia) and Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
does not generally use the reinforced forms (e.g.: te veig, instead of et veig).
In the imperative mood
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
in Northern Catalan, the reduced form of the pronoun is replaced by a tonic form (thus, not strictly being a weak pronoun anymore). For example, mira'm! (en: look at me!) in Northern Catalan is rendered as mira-mé.
Combinations of weak pronouns
When two weak pronouns appear with the same verb, they must appear in a fixed order, as illustrated in the following table:| 3rd pers. reflexive | 2nd pers. | 1st pers. | 3rd pers. | adverbial | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indirect obj. | direct obj. | |||||
| es | et us | em ens | li els | el la els les ho | en | hi |
The two pronouns must be selected from different columns, and furthermore ho cannot combine with en or hi.
All of the combinations allowed in the standard language are given in the following table, which also shows the necessary morpho-phonological and orthographic adjustments. In each cell of the table, the forms are listed in the following order, with the same contextual conditions as explained above for the simple pronouns:
- proclitic form used before a verb that begins with a vowel
- proclitic form used before a verb that begins with a consonant
- enclitic form used after a verb that ends with a vowel (except "u")
- enclitic form used after a verb that ends with a consonant (or "u")
| HI | EN | HO | EL | LA | ELS | LES | LI | EM | ET | ENS | US | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES | s'hi s'hi -s'hi -s'hi |
se n' se'n -se'n -se'n |
s'ho s'ho -s'ho -s'ho |
se l' se'l -se'l -se'l |
se l' se la -se-la -se-la |
se'ls se'ls -se'ls -se'ls |
se les se les -se-les -se-les |
se li se li -se-li -se-li |
se m' se'm -se'm -se'm |
se t' se't -se't -se't |
se'ns se'ns -se'ns -se'ns |
se us se us -se-us -se-us |
| ET | t'hi t'hi -t'hi -t'hi |
te n' te'n -te'n -te'n |
t'ho t'ho -t'ho -t'ho |
te l' te'l -te'l -te'l |
te l' te la -te-la -te-la |
te'ls te'ls -te'ls -te'ls |
te les te les -te-les -te-les |
te li te li -te-li -te-li |
te m' te'm -te'm -te'm |
te'ns te'ns -te'ns -te'ns |
||
| US | us hi us hi -us-hi -vos-hi |
us n' us en -us-en -vos-en |
us ho us ho -us-ho -vos-ho |
us l' us el -us-el -vos-el |
us l' us la -us-la -vos-la |
us els us els -us-els -vos-els |
us les us les -us-les -vos-les |
us li us li -us-li -vos-li |
us m' us em -us-em -vos-em |
us ens us ens -us-ens -vos-ens |
||
| EM | m'hi m'hi -m'hi -m'hi |
me n' me'n -me'n -me'n |
m'ho m'ho -m'ho -m'ho |
me l' me'l -me'l -me'l |
me l' me la -me-la -me-la |
me'ls me'ls -me'ls -me'ls |
me les me les -me-les -me-les |
me li me li -me-li -me-li |
||||
| ENS | ens hi ens hi -nos-hi |
ens n' ens en -nos-en |
ens ho ens ho -nos-ho |
ens l' ens el -nos-el |
ens l' ens la -nos-la |
ens els ens els -nos-els |
ens les ens les -nos-les |
ens li ens li -nos-li |
||||
| LI | li hi li hi -li-hi -li-hi |
li n' li'n -li'n -li'n |
li ho li ho -li-ho -li-ho |
li l' li'l -li'l -li'l |
li l' li la -li-la -li-la |
li'ls li'ls -li'ls -li'ls |
li les li les -li-les -li-les |
|||||
| ELSind. obj. | els hi els hi -los-hi |
els n' els en -los-en |
els ho els ho -los-ho |
els l' els el -los-el |
els l' els la -los-la |
els els els els -los-els |
els les els les -los-les |
|||||
| EL | l'hi l'hi -l'hi -l'hi |
el n' l'en -l'en -l'en |
||||||||||
| LA | la hi la hi -la-hi -la-hi |
la n' la'n -la'n -la'n |
||||||||||
| ELSdir. obj. | els hi els hi -los-hi |
els n' els en -los-en |
||||||||||
| LES | les hi les hi -les-hi -les-hi |
les n' les en -les-en -les-en |
||||||||||
| EN | n'hi n'hi -n'hi -n'hi |
In combinations like es + en, the resulting form, pronounced [sən], could be analyzed either as s
Impossible combinations
As mentioned above, the combinations ho + hi and ho + en are not allowed in the standard language, and must be avoided, for example by keeping only ho and leaving the other pronoun unexpressed. In some contexts, it is also acceptable to replace ho with el, giving rise to the following combinations:In the second case, it is also possible to replace the pronoun en with hi:
This substitution of hi for en is also used to express the combination of en (ablative) + en (genitive), since the form *ne'n is not allowed:
Longer combinations
Sequences of three pronouns are possible, and generally consist of one of the two-pronoun combinations from the table above, preceded by em, et, ens, us, and most commonly es (the added pronoun must not already appear in the original two-pronoun cluster).Combinations of four pronouns are very rare:
- Se'm posa pols a les sabates (They put powder on my shoes) → Se me n'hi posa (They put some there for me)
Variants
Combinations of weak pronouns are subject to wide regional and stylistic variation, and in several cases the normative rules presented above do not reflect actual usage.For example, alongside the transparently derived forms of li + direct object pronoun (el, la, els, les) given in the table above, central Catalan varieties replace li with hi:
- li + el → el + hi → l'hi (instead of li'l)
- li + la → la + hi → la hi (instead of li la)
- li + els → els + hi → els hi (instead of li'ls)
- li + les → les + hi → les hi (instead of li les)
Furthermore, the feminine forms can merge phonetically with the masculine forms, i.e. la hi is pronounced like l'hi and les hi like els hi.
Combinations of li with en and ho can also undergo modification:
- li + en → en + hi → n'hi (instead of li'n)
- li + ho → el + hi → l'hi (instead of li ho)
In more colloquial registers, the plural indirect object pronoun els is realized as els hi, and this extended form is used instead of all combinations of els followed by a 3rd person direct object pronoun:
- els + el/la/els/les/ho → els hi
The elided proclitic forms ens n
- Ens en anem, instead of Ens n'anem
- Us en alegreu, instead of Us n'alegreu