Infinite pronoun---ONE

What's infinite pronoun. The principle of indefinite pronoun is that something has not been specified. That's why we call it indefinite pronoun.
For example: The box is too small; we need a larger one(FOR) or I have no dictionary; no money to buy one(for)
But:
-There are three umbrellas. Which one is yours. This one or that one or the one on the table(against)

-I want to read this book when I have finished the one I am reading(against)

-The TV I brought this morning is a very nice one(against)

It seems that three of the sentences above marked (against) have been specified by something, which is against the principle of indefinite pronoun. I do not know if it is right. The first one has been specified by this or that or on the table and the second one I am reading, as well as the third one the TV I brought this morning.

I just wonder why one is called infinited pronoun even if it has been specified. Please correct.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by kenryuakuma

What's <strike>infinite</strike> indefinite pronoun. The principle of indefinite pronoun is that something has not been specified. That's why we call it indefinite pronoun.
For example: The box is too small; we need a larger one(FOR) or I have no dictionary; no money to buy one(for)
But:
-There are three umbrellas. Which one is yours. This one or that one or the one on the table(against)

-I want to read this book when I have finished the one I am reading(against)

-The TV I brought this morning is a very nice one(against)

It seems that three of the sentences above marked (against) have been specified by something, which is against the principle of indefinite pronoun. I do not know if it is right. The first one has been specified by this or that or on the table and the second one I am reading, as well as the third one the TV I brought this morning.

I just wonder why one is called <strike>infinited</strike> indefinite pronoun even if it has been specified. Please correct.

One definition of an indefinite pronoun is that it is a pronoun that does not always have to have a noun serving as an antecedent. The pronoun one fits that definition.

You have given examples where there does seem to be an antecedent. I think the definition doesn't say that there can never be an antecedent, simply that the pronoun doesn't always need one. I imagine that to simplify grammar, they didn't make up a new type of pronoun with its own name to use for one when it has an antecedent.

Your examples are good illustrations of a common use of the pronoun one: to avoid using a noun multiple times in a way that would sound repetitive.

Yes. English grammar does sometimes seems a bit odds esp. the names to grammar. However, if ONE has an antecedent, it is far away from the use of indefinite pronoun. It functions as a pronoun instead, as you said Pete earlier, to avoid using a noun multiple times in a way that would sound repetitive. Would you agree with that?

I quoted this from the grammar book named COBUILD COLLIN: THE BANK OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. That was what the author said.

[Pete]

What you say sounds correct.

About the way English grammar is described and the names used for grammatical features: I think what happened is that for a long time, scholars concerned themselves with the classical languages Latin and Greek, and they had grammatical systems that described those languages well. English was "just there", the language that common people spoke. When scholars finally decided to describe the grammar of English, they used the terms and descriptions that they had used for Latin and Greek, even in cases where English didn't fit the model very well. This makes some aspects of traditional English grammar both more complicated and less useful than it might have been otherwise.

happy to talk to you and discuss English with you together. Thanks for your unlimited help. Well, As known to everyone that you are a native English speaker, so do you really know who ever invented or created the English language? I read a book about the invention of English language a long time ago, but I don't remember now. Actually learning English is easy, but mastering it is very hard. I like English. However, the most dreadful thing about English is its grammar, and the numerous meanings of vocabularies as well as the phrase verbs and prepositions. You can never be able to master them all.