Pro-form

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title: "Pro-form" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["parts-of-speech"] description: "Word or form that substitutes for another word" topic_path: "general/parts-of-speech" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-form" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Word or form that substitutes for another word ::

In linguistics, a pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. They are used either to avoid repetitive expressions or in quantification (limiting the variables of a proposition).

Pro-forms are divided into several categories, according to which part of speech they substitute:

• A pronoun substitutes a noun or a noun phrase, with or without a determiner: it, this.
• A prop-word: one, as in "the blue one"
• A pro-adjective substitutes an adjective or a phrase that functions as an adjective: so as in "It is less so than we had expected."
• A pro-adverb substitutes an adverb or a phrase that functions as an adverb: how or this way.
• A pro-verb substitutes a verb or a verb phrase: do, as in: "I will go to the party if you do".
• A pro-sentence substitutes an entire sentence or subsentence: Yes, or that as in "That is true".

An interrogative pro-form is a pro-form that denotes the (unknown) item in question and may itself fall into any of the above categories.

The rules governing allowable syntactic relations between certain pro-forms (notably personal and reflexive/reciprocal pronouns) and their antecedents have been studied in what is called binding theory.

Table of correlatives

Some 19th-century grammars of Latin, such as Raphael Kühner's 1844 grammar, organized non-personal pronouns (interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite/quantifier, relative) in a table of "correlative" pronouns due to their similarities in morphological derivation and their syntactic relationships (as correlative pairs) in that language. Later that century, L. L. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto, made use of the concept to systematically create the pro-forms and determiners of Esperanto in a regular table of correlatives. The table of correlatives for English follows.

::data[format=table title="'''Table of correlatives'''"] | interrogative | demonstrative | quantifier | proximal | medial | distal | assertive existential | elective/dubitative existential | universal | negatory | positive alternative | determiner | pronoun | human | nonhuman | out of two (dual) | out of many (plural) | pro-adverb | location | source | goal | time | manner | reason | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | which what | this (sg.) these (pl.) | that (sg.) those (pl.) | yon yonder | some | any whichever whichsoever | every each all | no | another | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | who whom (obj.) | this (one) (sg.) these (ones) (pl.) | that (one) (sg.) those (ones) (pl.) | yon yonder | someone somebody | anyone anybody whoever whomever (obj.) whosoever whomsoever (obj.) | everyone everybody all | no one nobody | another someone else somebody else | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | what | this (one) (sg.) these (ones) (pl.) | that (one) (sg.) those (ones) (pl.) | yon yonder | something | anything whatever whatsoever | everything all | nothing | something else else other | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | which | this one (sg.) these (ones) (pl.) | that one (sg.) those (ones) (pl.) | yon yonder | one | either whichever whichsoever | both | neither | other | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | some (pl.) one (sg.) | any whichever whichsoever | each all | none | another | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | where | here | there | yonder | somewhere | anywhere wherever wheresoever | everywhere | nowhere | elsewhere | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | whence | hence | thence | | somewhence | anywhence whencever whencesoever | everywhence | nowhence | elsewhence | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | whither | hither | thither | | somewhither | anywhither whitherever whithersoever | everywhither | nowhither | elsewhither | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | when | now | then | | sometime somewhen | anytime anywhen whenever whensoever | ever always everywhen | never nowhen | another time elsewhen | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | how whereby | so hereby | thus thereby | | somehow | anyhow however howsoever | everyway | no way | otherwise | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | why wherefore | herefore | therefore | | for some reason somewhy | whyever whysoever | for every reason | for no reason nowhy | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

Some languages may have more categories. See demonstrative.

Note that some categories are regular and some are not. They may be regular or irregular also depending on languages. The following chart shows comparison between English, French (irregular) and Japanese (regular):

::data[format=table]

	interrogative	quantifier	existential	negative	human	nonhuman	location
who
qui
dare	someone
quelqu'un
dareka	no one
(neg. +) personne
daremo + neg.
what
que
nani	something
quelque chose
nanika	nothing
rien
nanimo + neg.
where
où
doko	somewhere
quelque part
dokoka	nowhere
nulle part
dokomo + neg.
::

(Note that "daremo", "nanimo" and "dokomo" are universal quantifiers with positive verbs.)

Some languages do not distinguish interrogative and indefinite pro-forms. In Mandarin, "Shéi yǒu wèntí?" means either "Who has a question?" or "Does anyone have a question?", depending on context.

References

References

1. (1985). "A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics". Basil Blackwell.
2. Rödl, Sebastian. (2012). "Categories of the Temporal". Harvard University Press.
3. (1844). "Elementargrammatik der lateinischen Sprache mit eingereihten lateinischen und deutschen Übersetzungsaufgaben und einer Sammlung lateinischer Lesestücke nebst den dazu gehörigen Wörterverzeichnissen".

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