shadow pronoun

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shadow pronoun (plural shadow pronouns)

1. (linguistics) A pronoun that is inserted into a subordinate clause to refer to the antecedent of the relative pronoun, often converting the subordinate clause into a clause that can stand on its own as a sentence. For example, in the sentence "That is the shirt that she sewed a button onto it", "it" is a shadow pronoun.
   • 1980, Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 11, Issues 2-4, page 367:

     Perlmutter proposes that all chopping rules are rules that leave a shadow pronoun subsequently deleted.

   • 1980, Saadun Ismail Suaieh, Aspects of Arabic Relative Clauses, page 231:

     Perlmutter (1972) proposes that all rules which move constituents over variables be considered "copying " rules. He further argues that if there is a rule which deletes the "shadow pronoun", i.e., the pronoun left behind by the copying rule, this Shadow Deletion rule will be sensitive to island constraints.

   • 1989, James Milroy, Regional Variation in British English Syntax, page 46:

     Shadow pronouns are very frequent in spoken Scottish English but are also found in many varieties of informal English, for example in Ireland, England and the United States.

   • 2004, Reineke Bok-Bennema, Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2002, page 164:

     The crucial distinction is not subject clitic versus object clitic, but shadow pronoun versus free anaphor.

   Synonyms: copy pronoun, resumptive pronoun

Most English native speakers consider shadow pronouns incorrect usage, but they are often used, even by speakers who consider them incorrect, especially when a subordinate clause is very complicated.

• shadow deletion
• shadow pronoun hypothesis