This is the first comprehensive book-length analysis of personal pronouns in present-day English. Drawing on the Survey of English (SEU) corpus and the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB), Katie Wales examines a wide range of discourse, types and texts, and of varieties of English around the world. Her approach is pragmatic and functional, rather than formal, and her concern is with speakers and writers and their uses of language in social, cultural and rhetorical contexts. The discussion is illustrated with numerous examples of the usage of personal pronouns and also of reflexives and possessives.