My first response to reading this was "dude isn't a pronoun", but after thinking about it, I realize it is being used more and more as a pronoun and not just as a noun.
I wonder what other words can be used as a pronoun?
A name for the male segment of this class of words is "bronoun," which includes things like bro, man, guy, etc.
Basically anything you can use in place of a name, so long as the grammatical usage is namelike.
"That guy doesn't have a clue." -- guy is a noun
"Guy doesn't have a clue." -- guy is a pronoun (you can tell because "he" also works grammatically)
However, I think these would need to be in the initial position(s) when slash-delimiting one's pronouns, because the final position is for a possessive form. That is, they're analogous to "he" but not analogous to "his" (and using them like "him" would be a stretch, as far as I can figure...), which might be what got GP in hot water.
> "Guy doesn't have a clue." -- guy is a pronoun (you can tell because "he" also works grammatically)
You don't think that's merely people being lazy and leaving off a word that can be inferred ('That')? This is something I often do in casual conversation, particularly vocal conversations:
"I am wondering what you mean" - 'I' is a pronoun
"Wondering what you mean" - 'Wondering' is now the pronoun??? Clearly not. It's just a way that people are lazy and sloppy with grammar when correct grammar isn't important.
It really isn't a pronoun, but goes into the implicit versus explicit thing. If your pronouns are "He/Him" you want to be called "Man", implicitly. If I don't say "Dude", explicitly, how are they to know?... Plus, I've met several people who chafe at being called "Dude", and I prefer it TBH. "Hey, dude" or "Dude's got good coding practices" are perfectly fine by me, but I'm also in my 40's and it shows =/
I wonder what other words can be used as a pronoun?