INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

• Indefinite object pronouns
• Indefinite place pronouns
• Indefinite person pronouns
• Indefinite Quantity

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.

1. Distributive pronouns
2. Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things. (Nobody thinks that.)
3. Impersonal pronouns normally refer to a person, but are not specific as to first, second or third person in the way that the personal pronouns are. (One does not clean one's own windows.)

DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS:

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

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”.

Identical Form Quantifiers

all
both
another , other , others
any , anybody , anyone , anything
either
each,everybody , everyone , everything
neither , nobody , none , no one , nothing
one
some ,somebody ,someone , something
such
every