Interrogative and relative pronouns

English interrogative pronouns are united by the meaning of an inquiry about some object (what, who), its properties (whose, which, what), place of some event (where), its time (when), cause (why), manner of existence (how).

Ukrainian i nterrogative pronouns include: хто, що, який, чий, котрий, скільки. They contain the question about a person, an object, some quality, possession and quantity of objects.

Following is the contrastive analysis of interrogative pronouns in both languages. In both languages interrogative pronouns express the question concerning the object (who, what, хто, що), its quality (what, який), belonging (whose, чий), the place it takes among similar to it objects (which, який, котрий). Part of these pronouns correlates with nouns (who, what, хто, що), and others – with adjectives (what, whose, which, який, чий, котрий). From them who is used regarding living beings (first of all human beings), which – regarding inanimate objects. The pronoun whose can sometimes be used regarding inanimate objects.

In English only one of these pronouns have forms of the nominative and objective cases (who – whom). But in a conversational language there is a tendency to use the nominative case instead of the objective one (Who (whom) did you ask about it?). So this pronoun also becomes indeclinable similar to other interrogative pronouns.

In Ukrainian all interrogative pronouns are declinable. Pronouns чий, який, котрий have the forms of gender, number and are declinable similar to adjectives.

The peculiarity of English what are its different meanings. This pronoun can be used as a noun (What has happened? “Що трапилось?”) and as an adjective (What books did you buy? “Які книжки ви купили?”); it can refer to objects (What have you brought?) and to persons (What is he? – What is his occupation); this pronoun is used in interrogative and in exclamatory sentences (What a fine weather!).

English pronouns who, what, which, whose, that, where, when, why, how are called “connective” when they serve to connect clauses in complex sentences. In accordance with their meaning and the types of clauses they introduce they fall into two groups: conjunctive and relative pronouns [24; 108–109].

Ukrainian relative pronouns. If the mentioned above interrogative pronouns join the subordinate clause to the main one, that is perform the function of linking words and correlate with nouns or pronouns of the main clause then they become relative pronouns. They have certain peculiarities concerning their sphere of usage.

The pronoun який is used in all styles of a language when it is necessary to point towards the qualitative character of some characteristic, e.g.: Природнo, яка позиція – такі й результати (журн.).

The pronoun котрий is used in the case when it is necessary to underline the choice of some persons, objects or qualities in a row of homogeneous persons, objects or qualities, e.g.: Полювання з крякухою дуже добутливе, спокійне полювання, особливо для мисливців, котрі вже в літах, котрим уже бродити по болотах та лазити по очеретах, сказать би, важкувато (О. Вишня).

The relative pronoun чий points towards the object belonging and is used mainly in a bookish style. Pronouns хто, що correlate with nouns: хто with the person, що – either with a person or with some object; скільки correlates with the numeral [15; 165].

Following is the contrastive analysis of relative pronouns in both languages. In English the role of relative pronouns that are used as a means of joining complex sentences is performed by interrogative pronouns who, which, whose, what and pronouns that, as; in Ukrainian – only interrogative pronouns хто, який, котрий, що. Being used in the function of the connecting word they at the same time perform the function of the subjective member of the sentence (the subject or the attribute).

Relative sentences similar to interrogative sentences differentiate the person and the non-person (особу і не особу). In English this differentiation is revealed in contrasting of who and which (and by interrogative who – what), in Ukrainian хто – що. Who (Ukr. хто) is used regarding persons, and which – regarding inanimate objects and animals.

The pronoun whose is usually placed before the noun, whereas the corresponding Ukrainian pronoun is mainly put after the noun:

That is the girl whose brother works at out institute. –

Це дівчина, брат якої працює в нашому інституті.

The pronoun that can refer both to living beings and to inanimate objects. In this respect it remains of the Ukrainian relative pronoun що:

The article that I translated … – Стаття, що я переклав ….

The doctor that I visited … – Лікар, що його я відвідав …
[5; 65–66].