Contents Introduction The development of personal pronouns in English

Demonstrative pronouns in the New English period
New English develops a modern system of demonstrative pronouns. In Middle English, demonstrative pronouns had different forms: singular. h. this - pl. h. thise, thes(e) this and singular. h. that - pl. h. thǒ - that one. In New English, the Middle English plural form thǒ, by analogy with the plural form of nouns, is appended with -s, apparently to express the meaning of the plural more clearly. Thus, a system of demonstrative pronouns is formed: singular. h. this, that - pl. h. these, those.
As already mentioned, the accusative case of the Old English personal pronoun (first and second person) had two parallel forms, one of which coincided with the form of the dative case. It was this form that was the most frequent, which made the dative and accusative cases of the first and second person merge into one (which today is called object). In the Middle English period, this phenomenon extended to the third person. Thus, the differences between the dative and accusative cases of all forms of personal pronouns were reduced to zero.
The genitive case of personal pronouns began to develop as a special type of pronoun. Even in the Old English period, the forms of the genitive of the first and second person received their own declension system, similar to that of adjectives. In fact, this meant the emergence of a new type of pronouns. During the Middle English period, these forms lost all but one function (the designation of belonging), and established themselves in the language as a class of possessive pronouns. Thus, by the XIV century, the system of personal pronouns retained only two cases: general and objective, which are preserved in the language of modernity.
The Great Vowel Shift¹⁰ also affected the vowel [e:] in the pronouns wē, mē, hē. In accordance with this phenomenon, the long [e:] has changed to [i:].
The modern you developed from the Old English ēow, the dative case of the pronoun gē.


Demonstrative pronouns
In the course of its development in the Middle and New English periods, the demonstrative pronoun has undergone significant changes. Its case system was completely destroyed, and the only differences that have survived to the present state of the language are differences in number: that - those; this - these. (near/long range). A row formed.
That probably comes from Old English þæt. The origin of the pronoun those is debatable. Scientists consider two sources of its appearance. It could be the result of the development of the plural form þā (OE þā > ME tho > NE those), where the ending -s appeared by analogy with the plural of nouns. It could also have developed from the plural form þās (OE þās > ME those > NE those).
The pronoun this developed from the Old English neuter pronoun þis; the plural form these most likely emerged as a result of the evolution of the Old English feminine pronoun þēos.
This observation has led some linguists, such as Paul Postal, to regard pronouns as determiners that have had their following noun or noun phrase deleted.(Such patterning can even be claimed for certain personal pronouns; for example, we and you might be analyzed as determiners in phrases like we Brits and you tennis players.) Other linguists have taken a similar view, uniting pronouns and determiners into a single class, sometimes called "determiner-pronoun", or regarding determiners as a subclass of pronouns or vice versa. The distinction may be considered to be one of subcategorization or valency, rather like the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs – determiners take a noun phrase complement like transitive verbs do, while pronouns do not. This is consistent with the determiner phrase viewpoint, whereby a determiner, rather than the noun that follows it, is taken to be the head of the phrase. Cross-linguistically, it seems as though pronouns share 3 distinct categories: point of view, person, and number. The breadth of each subcategory however tends to differ among languages
The use of pronouns often involves anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on another referential element. The referent of the pronoun is often the same as that of a preceding (or sometimes following) noun phrase, called the antecedent of the pronoun. The grammatical behavior of certain types of pronouns, and in particular their possible relationship with their antecedents, has been the focus of studies in binding, notably in the Chomskyan government and binding theory. In this binding context, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns in English (such as himself and each other) are referred to as anaphors (in a specialized restricted sense) rather than as pronominal elements. Under binding theory, specific principles apply to different sets of pronouns.
In English, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns must adhere to Principle A: an anaphor (reflexive or reciprocal, such as "each other") must be bound in its governing category (roughly, the clause). Therefore, in syntactic structure it must be lower in structure (it must have an antecedent) and have a direct relationship with its referent. This is called a C-command relationship. For instance, we see that John cut himself is grammatical, but Himself cut John is not, despite having identical arguments, since himself, the reflexive, must be lower in structure to John, its referent. Additionally, we see examples like John said that Mary cut himself are not grammatical because there is an intermediary noun, Mary, that disallows the two referents from having a direct relationship.
On the other hand, personal pronouns (such as him or them) must adhere to Principle B: a pronoun must be free (i.e., not bound) within its governing category (roughly, the clause). This means that although the pronouns can have a referent, they cannot have a direct relationship with the referent where the referent selects the pronoun. For instance, John said Mary cut him is grammatical because the two co-referents, John and him are separated structurally by Mary. This is why a sentence like John cut him where him refers to John is ungrammatical.
Personal pronouns are those that participate in the grammatical and semantic systems of person (1st, 2nd, & 3rd person). It's not that they refer to people. They typically form definite NPs. The personal pronouns of modern standard English are presented in the table above. They are I, you, she, he, it, we, and they, and their inflected forms. The second-person you forms are used with both singular and plural reference. In the Southern United States, y'all (you all) is used as a plural form, and various other phrases such as you guys are used in other places. An archaic set of second-person pronouns used for singular reference is thou, thee, thyself, thy, thine, which are still used in religious services and can be seen in older works, such as Shakespeare's—in such texts, the you set of pronouns are used for plural reference, or with singular reference as a formal V-form. You can also be used as an indefinite pronoun, referring to a person in general (see generic you), compared to the more formal alternative, one (reflexive oneself, possessive one's). The third-person singular forms are differentiated according to the gender of the referent. For example, she is used to refer to a female person, sometimes a female animal, and sometimes an object to which female characteristics are attributed, such as a ship or a country. A male person, and sometimes a male animal, is referred to using he. In other cases it can be used. (See Gender in English.) The third-person form they is used with both plural and singular referents. Historically, singular they was restricted to quantificational constructions such as Each employee should clean their desk and referential cases where the referent's gender was unknown.
However, it is increasingly used when the referent's gender is irrelevant or when the referent is neither male nor female. The dependent genitive pronouns, such as my, are used as determinatives together with nouns, as in my old man, some of his friends. The independent genitive forms like mine are used as full noun phrases (e.g., mine is bigger than yours; this one is mine). Note also the construction a friend of mine (meaning "someone who is my friend"). See English possessive for more details.