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Pronouns in Romanian and English. A Brief Comparison. Reflexive Pronoun
Conf. univ.dr. Monica PONTA
Universitatea „Aurel Vlaicu” din Arad
Pronouns represent a lexico grammatical class of words which have no semantic autonomy and
form entities present in the discourse. Etymologically the word pronoun means a word used instead of
a noun.
Most pronouns replace specified noun phrases and are regarded as economy devices. Pronouns
are used where the reference is unknown or, very general, and for specific clause binding functions.
They are present in lexico grammatical patterns representing flexions specific to nouns (gender,
number, case).
Out of the pronouns, we have selected only one – the reflexive pronoun which we intend to
analyze in the two languages, Romanian and English, which are so different in structure and form.
Pronouns represent a lexico grammatical class of words, which have no semantic autonomy
and form entities present in the discourse. Etymologically, the word pronoun means a word used
instead of a noun. Most pronouns replace specified noun phrases and are regarded as economy devices.
They serve as pointers to the surrounding text or the speech situation. In addition, pronouns are used
where the reference is unknown or very general and for specific clause binding functions. They are
present in lexico grammatical patterns representing flexions, specific to nouns (oppositions of persons,
gender, number, case).
They may replace parts of sentences:
“A venit Radu. L-am vazut.”/ “Radu has come. I have seen him”
or add some elements:
“Eu nu am nimic de spus.”/ “I have nothing to say.”
In Romanian, the pronouns get marks of gender and number from the element that offers
them references:
“Baietii au intarziat, fetele nu. Pe ei i-am pedepsit, pe ele nu.”/ The boys came later, the girls did
not. I punished the former/them/ not the latter.”
The pronouns ask for an agreement:
“Aceea galbena e o lalea. Aceia rosii sunt trandafiri.”/That yellow is a tulip. Those red are roses.”
The Romanian pronouns have a flexion similar to that of a noun; the English ones do not
have so many affixes. The former change their form in accordance with gender, number and case. The
latter have only a few forms for gender and some more for case and number.
According to the Romanian grammars, the pronouns are classified into personal and non
personal ones. The same classification can be extended to the English pronouns. Out of them, we have
selected, as topic of the paper, the Reflexive pronouns.
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Taking into account their form, the English reflexive pronouns are formed of possessive
pronouns which get the
–self/-selves suffixes for Singular/Plural forms. The third person Singular and Plural use as
background the objective case form of the personal pronouns.
Singular
myself
yourself
Plural
ourselves
yourselves
himself/herself
itself
themselves
Only the third person Singular has forms for the three genders (Masculine, Feminine,
Neuter). There is an indefinite reflexive pronoun – oneself –which is formed of the indefinite
pronoun one and the suffix –self. In the case of the self pronouns, the stress is always placed on the
first letter of the suffixes –‘self/-‘selves. There are variants of pronunciation, for example myself
may be pronounced /mai’self/; /mi’self/; /ma’self/.
Speaking about the Romanian variant of the reflexive pronouns, we have to mention that
their forms are identical with the personal ones, for the first and second persons The ambiguity is
eliminated by the text they are used in; the reflexive pronouns are present in reflexive contexts.
“Eu ma intreb ce voi face.”(reflexive pronoun)/” I ask myself what will I do.”
“ El ma intreaba ce voi face.”(personal pronoun) /”He asks me what will I do.”
The reflexive pronoun has specific forms only for the third person:
“Ea se intreaba ce s-a intamplat.”(reflexive pronoun)”She asks herself what has happened.”
“ El o intreaba ce s-a intamplat.”( personal pronoun)”He asks her what has happened.”
It has specific forms for person, number and case; here they are:
Case
Forms
Nom.
Ac.
G.
D.
1 st person
Sing.M/F
mine/ma
mie/
(i)mi
Pl.M/F
noi/ne
noua
ne/ni
2 nd person
Sing.M/F
tine/te
tie,(i)ti
Pl.M/F
voi/va
voua
va/vi
3 rd person
Sing.M/F
sine/se
siesi,sie
(i)si
Pl.M/F
sine/se
siesi,sie
(i)si
The unstressed forms of the reflexive pronouns are used:
1) for optional doubling of the unstressed reflexive forms, in emphatic patterns:
“Se lauda pe sine insusi.”/”He bouts himself.”
2) after a preposition, in texts which contain personal pronouns:
“ Petre este stapan pe sine.”/ “He is master of himself.”
The unstressed forms of the reflexive pronoun are placed by the verb they determine; -s is
present before an auxiliary verb: s-ar duce; s-a intrebat and se is present in all other circumstances,
both in front of the verb and after it: se aude; se vede; auzindu-se; vazandu-se.
As far as the English reflexive pronouns are concerned, their forms do not raise so many
structural problems. Having in view the function they play in the English sentence, we have to
mention that these may become direct objects, after some transitive verbs, imparting to them the
reflexive meaning: to dress oneself; to warm oneself; to wash oneself. The present day tendency is
to omit reflexive pronouns in all the cases where the omission does not give rise to ambiguity. The
number of the reflexive verbs is very insignificant, here are some examples: to hide oneself; to
defend oneself. Most of the verbs whose actions return to the subject are used without the reflexive
pronouns.
“I wash with cold water.” instead of “I wash myself with cold water.”
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The reflexive pronouns may be used as prepositional objects without imparting reflexive
meaning to the verb: to think too much of oneself; to look after oneself. The use of reflexive
pronouns instead of personal ones is archaic but they are recommended to be used only when it is
necessary to avoid misunderstanding and in some special patterns, for example after but, in
comparative sentences, after like, than, as.
“His son is as capable as himself.” (…as himself means somebody else, not the person whose
son is spoken about).When there is no danger of misunderstanding (the pronoun is the subject of the
sentence, there are adverbial modifiers of place) the personal pronouns are used:
“We invited her (not herself)and her daughter.”
“Peter gave me (not myself) some flowers.”
“My husband and I (not myself) went on the trip.”
The collocquial speech prefers to use the self pronouns as synonyms of personal ones,
maybe because they are felt to carry more weight than unstressed personal pronouns.
“My wife and myself were in the mountains.”
Reflexive pronouns may be used as attributes (a picture of oneself), adverbial modifiers (I was
sitting by myself.)
In association with different prepositions and verbs, the reflexive pronouns are used in set
expressions:
- by oneself (alone) “I work by myself in the garden.”
- of oneself (without any interference) “The glass cracked of itself.”
- to come to oneself (become conscious after fainting) “Soon after Mary fainted, she came to
herself.”
- to do smth. with oneself (to occupy one’s time)”What is Sue doing with herself today?”
- to keep oneself to oneself (to avoid meeting people)” I always keep myself to myself.”
- to speak for oneself (to express only personal ideas)”Speak for yourself, please.”
As far as the Romanian language is concerned, the problem of the reflexive pronouns is
more complex. It is present in reflexive texts which satisfy, simultaneously, two conditions, a
syntactical one and a semantical one:
“Ioana se spala.”(it is a connection between the subject Ioana and the direct object se) /”Ioana
washes herself.”
“ Ioana isi cumpara ciocolata.”(the connection is between subject Ioana and indirect object
isi)/” Ioana buys hersef chocolate.”
“Ioana are grija de sine.”(a connection between subject Ioana and prepositional object
se)/”She takes care only of herself.”
“Ioana si-a pierdut cartea de engleza.” (the connection between subject Ioana and the owner
isi)/ “Ioana has lost her own English book.”
The unstressed reflexive pronoun forms may form syntactical structures having different
meanings. These can be specific situations; under these circumstances, the reflexive pronouns act
as: 1) reflexive proper
2) possessive reflexive
3) reciprocal reflexive
4) causative reflexive
But there are special situations, different from the typical ones. Here, we may mention the
case when the morpheme is in the structure of the reflexive verbs (a); the morpheme is in the
passive structures and patterns of the verbs (b); the morpheme is in the structures of the impersonal
verbs (c).Let’s analyze them one by one. The first group is formed of reflexive proper elements. In
this case, it is a perfect identity between subject- direct object and subject- indirect object and it
plays the role of the doer whose place it takes:
“Ioana se spala.”/” Ioana washes herself.”(the reflexive pattern stands for an unstressed form
of Accusative)
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“Mary buys tulips for herself.”/ “Maria isi cumpara lalele.”(the reflexive pattern stands for
indirect object which is rendered by Dative unstressed form).
The possessive reflexive marks an identity between subject and an attribute of the direct
object; the attribute changes its place and is situated in front of the verb.
“Ana si-a cumparat o poseta noua.”/ “Ann has bought a new bag for herself.”/ Ana bought a
bag for Ana./
The reciprocal reflexives makes reference to verbs, that part of the patterns which have
reflexive meaning; they may be part of the patterns whose reflexive pronouns get a reciprocal value.
In well established syntactical conditions, the subject is changed into a multiple subject; the subject is
formed of the Plural Nominative form. The reciprocal meaning establishes a symmetrical connection
between the actors involved in the action:
“Mihai si Radu se intalnesc des.”/”Mihai and Radu often meet each other.”( It means that
Mihai often meets Radu and Radu often meets Mihai.)
Causative reflexive is present in texts whose reflexive verbs are part of the causative
patterns; these have grammatical subjects which are not the agents of the actions expressed by the
verbs. The doer who does what an agent should do(he/she is not present in the pattern) does the
action expressed by the verb.
“Mihaela se spala pe cap.(At beauty parlor she determines somebody do this action for her)”/
She washes her hair at the beauty parlor”.
It is a reflexive pronoun form which has no syntactical function, but it is present in the
structure of the reflexive verbs. Here, the following groups are to be considered:
1) verbs that have a reflexive morpheme in their structure: a se bosumfla; a se codi; a se
crampona; a se preta la; a se mandri cu
2) verbs which may have/ may have not a reflexive morpheme; the syntactical difference is
correlated with a semantic one: a se astepta// a astepta; a-si aminti// a aminti
3) verbs which, optionally, use the reflexive morpheme; the reflexive verbs are not accepted by
the literary language which accepts only the non reflexive verbs:
“Ea se rade de mine.”/” Ea isi rade de mine.” These are not accepted forms by the standard
language which accepts only :”Ea rade de mine.”
Romanian language has patterns which have a passive meaning. They may be built either
by the auxiliary verb to be or by the reflexive morpheme which underlines the opposition between
active and passive voice:
“In studiul acesta se subliniaza diferenta existenta intre A si B…”/”In this report it is
underlined the difference existing between A and B…” (This reflexive pronoun se stands for the
author who writes about that topic).
Impersonal reflexive pronouns may be present in twopatterns:
1)
patterns with impersonal verbs: se cuvine; the reflexive pronoun does not condition
the impersonal value of the verb: “Trebuie sa mergi acolo.”/”you must go there.”
2)
impersonal patterns; they form an opposition between personal and non personal
verbs:
“Maria vorbeste mult.”/ “Mary speaks a lot.”
“Se vorbeste mult in acest birou.”/”One speaks a lot in this office.”
Ambiguity is a problem that appears in Romanian language as there are a lot of
syntactical and semantical values the reflexive structures have. It is the result of different syntactical
mechanisms the verbal phrase is involved in. There are structures that contain a reflexive pronoun/
have a multiple subject which is expressed by means of a Plural in Nominative, and it is in a coreference position with direct object, indirect object, possessive object.
“Ei se lauda./Ei se lauda pe sine/ pe ei insisi/ Ei se lauda unul pe altul./They praise./ They
praise themselves.
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They praise each other.The second form is preferred. For avoiding ambiguity, in reciprocal
structures, the following patterns may be used: unul…altul (when two or more persons are
involved); unul…celalalt (when two persons are involved).
The prepositions cu/with; pentru/for; despre/about may be included in the patterns: unul cu altul/one
with the other one; unul pentru altul/ one for another; unul despre altul/ one about the other.
“Noi ne ajutam unul pe altul/ unii pe altii./una pe alta/ unele pe altele./ We help each other/
one another”
Ambiguity is eliminated by means of the text or meaning when the reflexive proper and
the causative reflexive are involved in patterns.
Ea se spala pe cap./
She washes her hair Se spala pe cap singura.
She washes her hair by herself. Se spala pe cap la coafor
She washes her hair at the beauty parlor, smb. is doing this for her.
Romanian language has the possibility of building sentences without a subject, this being
included in the verb suffix or its meaning is understood in the context.
Se crede ca este nevinovat./ It is believed he is innocent.
El crede ca el este nevinovat./He believes he is innocent.(reflexive structure)
Se crede nevinovat./ Smb. believes he is innocent(it is a passive reflexive structure and an
impersonal one, in the same time, the verb being accompanied by se).
Patterns that have reflexive pronouns proper and possessive reflexive contain a Dative
that may be either a possessive or the target doer:
Ei si-au facut bagajele pentru excursie/ They made their luggage ready for the trip. The
reflexive structure means that They themselves did their own luggage/Ei a facut bagajele lor.
They made their luggage not somebody else’s luggage. It is a possessive structure.
Romanian reflexive pronouns may be direct objects, indirect objects, possessive objects or
may have no syntactical function as they are part of a verb or verbal patterns (passive, impersonal,
causative ones).
Bibliography
xxx Gramatica Limbii Romane I Cuvantul, Editura Academiei Romane, Bucuresti, 2005.
BIBER, David.,s.s.Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English,Longman, Harlow, 2000
GALATEANU FARNOAGA, Georgiana, s.a.,Gramatica Limbii Engleze, Lucman, Bucuresti,f.a.
IONESCU, Viorica, s.a. Focus on English Grammar and Exams, Polirom, Bucuresti, 2004.
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