To begin with, there is (i) the class of autonomous personal pronouns: ‘moi, toi, lui/elle, nous, vous, eux/elles’ (me, you, he/she, we, you, they).
There is also (ii) the class of personal pronouns as direct object complements: ‘me te le/la nous vous les’ (me you him/her us you them; mi ti u/a ci vi i/e), as in ‘il me comprend, elle te comprend, je le comprends, nous nous comprenons, ils vous comprennent, je les comprends’: (he understands me, she understands you, I understand him, we understand us, they understand you, I understand them; mi capisci, ti capisci, u capiscu, ci capimu, vi capiscini, i capiscu).
There are also (iii) the so-called ‘tonic personal pronouns’: ‘moi toi lui/elle nous vous eux/elles’ (me you him/her we you them), used after a preposition: ‘de moi, à toi, devant lui, après elle, par nous, chez vous, à eux, à elles’ (of me, to you, in front of him, after her, by us, at your place, to them, to them; di mè, à tè, davanti ad eddu, dopu ad edda, da no, ind’è vo, ad eddi, ad eddi).
Finally, there is the class of person pronouns as indirect object complement: ‘me te lui nous vous leur’ (not applicable to english; mi ti li ci vi li). For example: ‘il me parle, elle te parle, je lui parle, il nous parle, elle vous parle, je leur parle’ (he talks to me, she talks to you, I talk to her, he talks to us, she talks to you, I talk to them; mi parla, ti parla, li parlu, ci parla, vi parla, li parlu). If we now analyse the personal pronouns as indirect object complements, it turns out that each of them is equivalent to the preposition followed by the tonic personal pronoun: ‘il me parle = il parle à moi, elle te parle = elle parle à toi, je lui parle = je parle à lui/elle, il nous parle = il parle à nous, elle vous parle = elle parle à vous, je leur parle = je parle à eux/elles’ (mi parla = parla à mè, ti parla = parla à tè, li parlu = parlu ad eddu/edda, ci parla = parla à no, vi parla = parla à vo, li parlu = parla ad eddi). Therefore: ‘me = à moi, te = à toi, lui = à lui/elle, nous = à nous, vous = à vous, leur = eux/elles’ (mi = à mè, ti = à tè, li = ad eddu/edda, ci = à no, vi = à vo, li = ad eddi). Thus, in the so-called ‘tonic personal pronoun’, the preposition placed before the personal pronoun is included. It is therefore a preposition+personal pronoun group. In the present context, ‘tonic personal pronouns’ cannot be considered as a category of personal pronouns: in the present model, it is it is a contraction, i.e. a group consisting of a preposition followed by a personal pronoun: PS+PRPERS.