Indefinite

An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun which does not have a specific familiar referent. Indefinite pronouns are in contrast to definite pronouns.
Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or noncount nouns. They often have related forms across these categories: universal (such as everyone, everything), assertive existential (such as somebody, something), elective existential (such as anyone, anything), and negative (such as nobody, nothing).Many languages distinguish forms of indefinites used in affirmative contexts from those used in non-affirmative contexts. For instance, English "something" can only be used in affirmative contexts while "anything" is used otherwise.Indefinite pronouns are associated with indefinite determiners of a similar or identical form (such as every, any, all, some). A pronoun can be thought of as replacing a noun phrase, while a determiner introduces a noun phrase and precedes any adjectives that modify the noun. Thus all is an indefinite determiner in "all good boys deserve favour" but a pronoun in "all are happy".

View More On Wikipedia.org
  • 297

    Greg Bernhardt

    A PF Singularity From USA
    • Messages
      19,443
    • Media
      227
    • Reaction score
      10,021
    • Points
      1,237
  • 1

    The Subject

    A PF Atom
    • Messages
      32
    • Reaction score
      0
    • Points
      31
  • 1

    Aaron Bex

    A PF Quark
    • Messages
      313
    • Reaction score
      0
    • Points
      1
  • Back
    Top