A distributive pronoun considers members of a group separately, rather than collectively.
They include either, neither and others.
- "to each his own" — 'each2,(pronoun)' Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (2007)
- "Men take each other's measure when they react." — Ralph Waldo Emerson[1]
Besides distributive pronouns, there are also distributive determiners (also called distributive adjectives). The pronouns and determiners often have the same form:
- Each went his own way (each used as a pronoun, without an accompanying noun)
- Each man went his own way (each used as a determiner, accompanying the noun man)
- Each of the answers is correct (each used as a pronoun, with an accompanying prepositional phrase of the answers)
Languages other than English
editBiblical Hebrew
editA common distributive idiom in Biblical Hebrew used an ordinary word for man, 'ish (איש). Brown Driver Briggs only provides four representative examples—Gn 9:5; 10:5; 40:5; Ex 12:3.[2] Of the many other examples of the idiom in the Hebrew Bible, the best known is a common phrase used to describe everyone returning to their own homes. It is found in 1 Samuel 10:25 among other places.[3]
- איש לביתו
- ... 'ish l'beyto.
- ... a man to his house. [literal]
- ... each went home. [sense]
This word, 'ish, was often used to distinguish men from women. "She shall be called Woman (אשה) because she was taken out of Man (איש)," is well known,[4] but the distinction is also clear in Gn 19:8; 24:16 and 38:25 (see note for further references).[5] However, it could also be used generically in this distributive idiom (Jb 42:11; I Ch 16:3).[6]
Greek
editThe most common distributive pronoun in classical Greek was hekastos (ἕκαστος, each).
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ William Malone Baskervill and James Witt Sewell, An English Grammar Archived 2005-09-19 at the Wayback Machine, 1896.
- ^ Brown Driver Briggs: 36.
- ^ Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
- ^ King James Version of the Bible
- ^ Also Ex 22:15; Lv 15:16, 18; 20:10f; Nu 5:13f; Dt 22:22f; Is 4:1; and others. Brown Driver Briggs:35.
- ^ Brown Driver Briggs:36.
External links
edit
- Jeffrey T. Runner and Elsi Kaiser. 'Binding in Picture Noun Phrases: Archived 2006-09-18 at the Wayback Machine Implications for Binding Theory'. In Proceedings of the HPSG05 Conference. Edited by Stefan Müller. Lisbon: CSLI Publications, 2005.
- Glossary of English Grammar Terms UsingEnglish.com