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# *who, whom, whose*: case and the lemma *who* (English)

**Gist.** After 2.18 the English `PRON.md` closed two TODOs. *Who* pronouns got the `Case` feature: *who* — `Nom` or `Acc` by context, *whom* — `Acc` with lemma *who*, dependent *whose* — `Case=Gen|Poss=Yes`, standalone *whose* — only `Poss=Yes`. Likewise *whoever*, *whomever* (lemma *whoever*) and the new form *whosever*.

**Level.** English, `_en/pos/PRON.md`. A guideline, not the validator: the feature registry for en did not change.

**Before (2.18).** `2.18:docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:48` — «[PronType](https://github.com/ElamurAI/mova-free/blob/main/dialects/ud-next/seeds) is the only feature except where shown below». TODO at `:66` (*whom(ever)*: case and lemma *who*) and `:68` (*whose*: `Poss=Yes`, possibly `Case=Gen`). Details — [The pronouns who, whom, whose in 2.18: TODO in the guideline](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/dialects/ud-2.18/seeds/wh-pronouns/).

**Now (snapshot 24.09.2026).**

- `docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:48`: «`Case` is marked only for *who* and variants»;
- `:50–54` — a table: `Case=Nom` `Case=Acc` dependent possessive: `Case=Gen`, `Poss=Yes` independent possessive: `Poss=Yes``PronType=Int` or `Rel` who whom [who], who whose whose `PronType=Int` or `Rel` whoever, *whosoever* whomever [whoever], whoever whosever — XPOS WP WP WP$ WP$
- `:56`: «*who* and *whoever* may bear either value of `Case`, depending on context. The variant *whosoever* receives `Style=Form`»;
- the TODOs about *whom* and *whose* were removed; TODOs remain about *whatsoever*, *whatever* as DET and exclamative *what* (`:68–72`).

**Evidence.** `diff` `2.18:docs/_en/pos/PRON.md` ↔ `docs/_en/pos/PRON.md`: lines 48–69. Context — #517 «Lemmas of English personal pronouns» (closed 19.11.2025, milestone v2.18): «I am not sure why *whom*, *whomever* … aren't normalized to nominative». There is no separate issue about the change itself in the dump. Treebank branches are not in the snapshot, so whether EWT `dev` has already reworked this is unknown.

**What it means for English annotation.**

- lemma *who* for all forms, as in GUM, GENTLE, LinES and ParTUT. EWT 2.18 has lemma *whom* (23);
- case in FEATS for 447 EWT tokens: *who* 422 (one of them a typo with lemma *whoever*), *whom* 23, *whoever* 1, *whomever* 1;
- on *whose* (13) — `Case=Gen`: all 13 in EWT are `nmod:poss`, i.e. dependent;
- `Case` for *who* is taken from the syntactic function. This agrees with the 2.19 clarification on features from context ([Features from context and Exponence in MISC (universal, 2.19)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/dialects/ud-next/seeds/features-context/)). The form *whom* gives `Acc` even in subject position, because the form weighs more.

**Registry.** No new pairs needed: `feat PRON Case=Nom|Acc|Gen` and `feat PRON Poss=Yes` are already in `en/data/ud-registry-en.tsv`. Only `Style=Form` for *whosoever* is missing, but that was so in 2.18 too, and EWT has no such form.

**Sources.** `docs/_en/pos/PRON.md`, `2.18:docs/_en/pos/PRON.md`; #517, #1009 (independent possessives); seed [Interrogative and relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, what, that](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/en/seeds/morph/pron-wh/) (`en.morph.whom-acc` is already written according to this guideline).

EWT 2.18 does not conform to these rules, and that is the negative control: the error rules give 24 (*whom*) + 423 (*who* without `Case`) + 13 (*whose*) violations, the warn rules 7 + 6 + 396. After the `mova → ud-next` converter ([Converter mova ⇄ ud-next](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/dialects/ud-next/convert/)) — 0, checked with the engine on 26.09.

```
rule: udnext.whom-who-acc
what: whom/whomever — lemma who/whoever and Case=Acc
match: w[upos=PRON, form=whom|whomever]
require: w[lemma=who|whoever, feats.Case=Acc]
severity: error
source: UD docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:52–53 (snapshot 24.09.2026)
```

```
rule: udnext.who-case
what: who/whoever always has Case — Nom or Acc by context
match: w[upos=PRON, form=who|whoever]
require: w[feats.Case=Nom|Acc]
severity: error
source: UD docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:48, :56 (snapshot 24.09.2026)
```

```
rule: udnext.who-object-acc
what: who/whoever as an object — Case=Acc
match: w[upos=PRON, form=who|whoever, rel=obj|iobj]
require: w[feats.Case=Acc]
severity: warn
source: UD docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:52, :56 (snapshot 24.09.2026)
```

```
rule: udnext.who-oblique-acc
what: who/whoever as a prepositional object (who … to, who … with) — Case=Acc; the head of a free relative is left alone
match: w[upos=PRON, form=who|whoever, rel=obl|obl:agent|nmod]
require: w[feats.Case=Acc]
unless: exists r[rel=acl:relcl, head=w]
severity: warn
source: UD docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:52, :56 (snapshot 24.09.2026)
```

```
rule: udnext.who-subject-nom
what: who/whoever as a subject — Case=Nom
match: w[upos=PRON, form=who|whoever, rel~nsubj]
require: w[feats.Case=Nom]
severity: warn
source: UD docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:52, :56 (snapshot 24.09.2026)
```

```
rule: udnext.whose-dependent
what: whose with a noun — Case=Gen and Poss=Yes
match: w[upos=PRON, form=whose, rel=nmod:poss]
require: w[feats.Case=Gen, feats.Poss=Yes]
severity: error
source: UD docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:52 (snapshot 24.09.2026)
```

```
rule: udnext.whose-independent
what: standalone whose — Poss=Yes without Case
match: w[upos=PRON, form=whose, rel!=nmod:poss]
require: w[feats.Poss=Yes, !feats.Case]
severity: warn
source: UD docs/_en/pos/PRON.md:52 (snapshot 24.09.2026)
```

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