In this sentence:
Its shape resembles that of a kangaroo’s hind foot.
What part of speech would that be?
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Why is this community?– Mou某May 21, 2014 at 0:53
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3In this case, that means 'the shape', as in Its shape resembles the shape of a kangaroo's hind foot. Demonstratives, like any other pronoun, often refer to an entire noun phrase. The problem here is distinguishing the pronoun that from the complementizer that. Luckily, this that is modified by a prepositional phrase, so it pretty much hasta be a noun phrase.– John LawlerMay 21, 2014 at 1:13
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What part of speech would what be? ;)– augurarMay 21, 2014 at 1:17
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In what sentence? Like that -- and all other grammar words -- what has a number or uses.– John LawlerMay 21, 2014 at 1:40
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2 Answers
Here "that" stands for "the shape" (of a kangaroo's hind foot). Here the demonstratve adjective is used as a pronoun (without a following noun) and it has the sense of a determinative pronoun. English has no special words for determinatives, it uses as substitute the demonstratives or that which /what, the one who, people who, anyone who, he who, they who, whoever, whatever.
In that sentence, that would be a relative pronoun.
