'Your' is a pronoun

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I was using the writing tool ‘linguistic focus’ and choose ‘pronouns’. I noticed that the word ‘your’ was not properly highlighting as a pronoun.

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See attached.[attachment=0]Screen Shot 2021-03-26 at 7.25.39 AM.png[/attachment] and note ‘Your uncle…’

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For that matter, looking at that screenshot, it isn’t highliting ‘our’ either.

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They’re possessive determiners. The possessive pronouns are ‘yours’ ‘ours’

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/pronouns-possessive-my-mine-your-yours-etc

5

… which are a subeset of pronouns. From that site:
“We use pronouns to refer to possession and ‘belonging’. There are two types: possessive pronouns and possessive determiners.”

There are two types of pronouns we use to refer to possession…

There certainly are no other categories in the tool that would hilite these.

6

Debate on the grammar aside (I would agree that in an umbrella sense, they are pronouns), the code that makes this determination is Apple’s and should probably be reported to their feedback system rather than ours. We just provide these tools to you with an interface to control it.

7

Wow. Ok. Would it make sense to move this to a request for a feature… assuming that there is some code that will be able to seize these kinds of words? Cause right now I can’t see how to hilite them at all.

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Sorry, no it’s exactly like I said before: this list of words is coming from the Mac. If the list is wrong, then that error needs to be reported to Apple. We’re only highlighting or not highlighting in the editor based on the contents of that list.

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Sorry I wasn’t clear. What I meant was is there a list that comes from apple that does include ‘his’ and the like? That we could then key off.

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I see what you mean! Sure, I’ve put it on the list to double-check on it. I think we’re going to have to look into it shortly anyway, as Apple has replaced the old kit with a newer one.

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I put a question into stack exchange to see if I can alter the list on my own computer

12

My son did some reserach, and he found out that Apple lists possesive pronouns as ‘determiners’. Would it be possible to either add that category to what ‘pronoun’ searches for, or to make it its own class? That covers not only ‘your’ but also ‘that’ etc.

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It does have a tagging class for that, but that’s no good for what you want here as not all determiners are pronouns—most aren’t and those that could be considered that are in a grey area. Many of the words tagged that way are situational as a matter of usage rather than being more along the lines of a vocabulary list. So we’d just end up with bug reports on how stuff like “half”, “another” and “those” lighting up when pronouns are enabled.

14

Well, its good for what I need :slight_smile:
But the option would be to make it its own class, no? Right now there are a class of words that can’t be chosen.
(Those is a pronoun, btw)

15

I’ve always heard that referred to as a demonstrative, or locator for a noun, rather than a word that replaces a noun.

Oh I see, you mean having that whole category as a separate button? Probably a bit too specific and rarely used as a proofing tool for that. There are quite a few lexical categories we don’t expose in the UI, because they aren’t often needed when looking for weak spots in your text.

By the way, you can make your own word highlight lists fairly easily:

First, with some initial setup:

  1. Use the Edit ▸ Find ▸ Search in Project menu command, or click the magnifying glass in the toolbar.
  2. In the search bar that will appear above the binder, type in the word you wish to highlight. You might want to also click on the magnifying glass button to the left of the typing area and hone the options here.

To highlight multiple words at once, change the operator to “Any Word” and paste in a list of space-separated words, as many as you want.

Now you’ve got a concise list of all documents that contain the word in the sidebar, and each instance of the word highlighted for you in the main editors. You can either have Scrivener retain those highlights as you edit the text or remove them. The option for that is, Typing clears search highlights in the Editing: Options preference pane (and by the way the search highlight colour and underscore decoration can be customised in Appearance: Textual Marks: Colors).

Lastly, save this as a collection via that same magnifying glass menu, for easy access in the future.

16

Wow, thanks, this was super helpful. I hadn’t thought of doing this, and now I can search for exactly what I have to check!!