nounpronoun

Nounpronoun is a proposed linguistic label for lexical items that regularly function as both nouns and pronouns within a single language, sharing an identical surface form. The concept highlights blurred boundaries between word classes in some languages and can arise in polysynthetic or contact-induced grammars, or in languages with compact pronoun inventories.

A nounpronoun can behave like a noun in some syntactic environments—occurring with possessives, numerals, or classifiers and allowing determiner agreement or case marking—while also serving as a pronoun in other contexts, replacing a noun phrase in subject or object position without additional nominal morphology.

The status and analysis of nounpronouns vary. Some theories treat such items as fully dual-category words that require no separate pronoun inflection; others analyze them as pronouns that bear nominal properties in certain contexts due to discourse-pragmatic demands. They are often discussed in relation to demonstratives and nominal pronouns or to pronominal nouns in typology.

Examples cited in theoretical works are typically constructed; natural-language attestations are limited and debated. The term nounpronoun remains descriptive rather than universally accepted, and researchers may prefer terms like nominal pronoun, pronominal noun, or mixed-category item depending on the framework.

See also: noun, pronoun, determiner, demonstrative, anaphora, clitic, mixed-category word.