Bulgarian pronouns

Bulgarian pronouns vary in gender, number, definiteness and case. They, more than any other part of speech, have preserved the proto-Slavic case system. Pronouns are classified as: personal, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, reflexive, summative, negative, indefinite and relative.

Personal pronouns

In Bulgarian, there are two types of personal pronouns (лични местоимения): full (stressed, free) and short (unstressed, clitic). The full are used with both verbs and prepositions (only the direct object forms), whereas the clitic only with verbs. As in English, personal pronouns change depending on their function within the sentence (as a subject or an object, in other words they have cases: Nominative (Именителен), Accusative (Винителен) and Dative (Дателен). The dative clitic forms can also be used to indicate possession (most Bulgarian grammar books refer to them as short forms of the possessive pronouns). The subject forms are always strong and are used as subjects only when special emphasis is intended, since unstressed subjects recoverable from context are not overtly expressed anyway. In some special cases the full and the short forms of the object pronouns can be used together.

†The full forms are rather archaic and are usually substituted by accusative constructions: на мен/на мене, на теб/на тебе, на него, на нея, на нас, на Bас, на тях.

Possessive pronouns

There are two types of possessive pronouns: full (stressed, free) and short (unstressed, clitic). The full pronouns agree in gender and number with the modified noun and are usually put before it, the short forms (they are identical to the short dative forms of the personal pronouns) are invariable and are put after the noun ("мъжът ми"). The stressed forms can be definite or indefinite, depending on whether the noun they modify is definite or indefinite, but only the first constituent of the definite noun phrase is used with an article ("моят мъж" or rarely "мъжът мой"). The full pronouns can also be used alone (without a noun) when its clear from the context which is the noun they refer to.

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns (въпросителни местоимения) refer to an unknown person, object, quality or quantity and agree with the noun they denote in gender and number. Personal interrogative pronouns have two cases Nominative and Genitive (кой, when it refers to a person and is used without a noun, also has Accusative and Dative forms - кого and кому respectively). They are also used with nonhuman beings (animals and objects). Quality interrogative pronouns are used for asking one to specify the word in question. They are translated in English as what/what kind of/what sort of.

There is only one interrogative pronoun for quantity—колко—and it doesn't have any gender or number forms. It is used before plural nouns to ask about their quantity (then it is translated as how much/how many), and before an adjective or adverb to ask about the extent, degree, age, etc. of something or somebody (translated as how).

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns (показателни местоимения) agree in number and gender with the noun they refer to (except for this for quantity). There are three types of demonstrative pronouns: for persons and objects, for quality and for quantity. Each demonstrative can not only modify a noun, but also be used on its own. Personal demonstrative pronouns have two forms: for nouns that are close to the speaker or writer and for far nouns. Quality pronouns also have two forms: positive, that specifies that the noun has a particular quality (this kind of/this sort of/of that type) and negative, that specifies that the noun doesn't have a particular quality or has a different one (not this kind of/not this sort of/not of that type).

The demonstrative pronoun for quantity толкова is used with nouns and adjectives. It both specifies the exact quantity of something - this many/this much, and indicates the large extent or degree of something - so(many/much).

Reflexive pronouns

There are two kinds of reflexive pronouns (възвратни местоимения): personal and possessive. Both have two forms: full (stressed, free) and short (unstressed, clitic). Reflexive pronouns do not have grammatical person. Personal reflexive pronouns have accusative and dative forms. Possessive reflexive pronouns agree in gender, number and definiteness only with the owned noun, not with the possessor. They are used when the subject of the verb owns the object. For example: "Аз виждам своя брат" (I see my brother).

Summative pronouns

There are three types of summative pronouns (обобщителни местоимения): personal, for quality and for quantity. They all agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Personal summative pronouns are used with both singular and plural nouns or on their own and mean all the things or people belonging to a group of one or more - each/every(body). When the personal summative pronoun всеки/всякой refers to a person and is used without a noun, it has accusative and dative forms - всекиго/всякого and всекиму/всякиму respectively. Quality summative nouns are used for specifying that the noun they refer to possesses all kinds of qualities - all kinds/sorts/types of. Quantity summative pronouns are always definite (except for the plural and the neuter form which can also be indefinite, when they are not used with a noun but on their own) and mean the whole number/amount of something - all (the). The indefinte neuter form also means everything.

Negative pronouns

There are three kinds of negative pronouns (отрицателни местоимения): personal (no(body)/none), for quality (no/none/no kind of/no type of) and for quantity (none/not any). The personal negative pronouns have Nominative and Genitive forms (the masculine form, when it is used on its own and refers to a person, has also Accusative and Dative forms - никого and никому respectively). Unlike in English, in Bulgarian the word for nothing is not a negative pronoun, but a neuter noun - нищо, and is closer in meaning to nothingness.

Indefinite pronouns

There are three types of indefinite pronouns (неопределителни местоимения): personal (some(one)), for quality (some(kind of)) and for quantity. (several/a few/some). The personal indefinite pronouns have Nominative and Genitive forms (again the masculine form has also Accusative - някого and Dative - някому forms). Unlike in English, in Bulgarian the word for something is not an indefinite pronoun, but a neuter noun -нещо.

Relative pronouns

The relative pronouns (относителни местоимения) are formed from the corresponding interrogative pronouns by adding -то to the end of the word. They are used for introducing a relative clause.

Notes

Bibliography

• Илиев, И. Теория на относителността. Българските относителни местоимения - произход и развой. Пловдив. Весела. 2012.

Теория на относителността ...