8 p
3 r
. onouns he and she are often used in poetry, and sometimes in ordinary speech, to
Use of the pronouns in
personify objects (Sec. 34).
personification.
CASES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
I The Nominative.
The
8n
4o
. minative forms of personal pronouns have the same uses as the nominative of nouns
Nominative forms.
(see Sec. 58). The case of most of these pronouns can be determined more easily than the
case of nouns, for, besides a nominative use, they have a nominative form. The words I, thou, he, she, we, ye, they, are
very rarely anything but nominative in literary English, though ye is occasionally used as objective.
In sp
8o
5k
. en English, however, there are some others that are added to the list of nominatives:
Additional nominatives in spoken
they are, me, him, her, us, them, when they occur in the predicate position. That is, in such a
English.
sentence as, "I am sure it was him," the literary language would require he after was; but
colloquial English regularly uses as predicate nominatives the forms me, him, her, us, them, though those named in Sec.
84 are always subjects. Yet careful speakers avoid this, and follow the usage of literary English.
II. The Possessive.
The
8 f
6 o
. rms my, thy, his, her, its, our, your, their, are sometimes grouped separately as
Not a separate class.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS, but it is better to speak of them as the possessive case of
personal pronouns, just as we speak of the possessive case of nouns, and not make more classes.
The forms mine, thine, yours, hers, theirs, sometimes his and its, have a peculiar use,
Absolute personal pronouns.
standing apart from the words they modify instead of immediately before them. From this use
they are called ABSOLUTE PERSONAL PRONOUNS, or, some say, ABSOLUTE POSSESSIVES.
As instances of the use of absolute pronouns, note the following:—
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands. —Shakespeare.
And since thou own'st that praise, I spare thee mine.—Cowper.
My arm better than theirs can ward it off.—Landor.
Thine are the city and the people of Granada.—Bulwer.
Formerly mine and thine stood before their nouns, if the nouns began with a vowel or h
Old use of mine and thine.
silent; thus,—
Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?—Shakespeare.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.—Id.
If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.—Bible.
My greatest apprehension was for mine eyes.—Swift.
This usage is still preserved in poetry.
The
8 f
7 o
. rms hers, ours, yours, theirs, are really double possessives, since they add the
Double and triple possessives.
possessive s to what is already a regular possessive inflection.
Besides this, we have, as in nouns, a possessive phrase made up of the preposition of with these double possessives,
hers, ours, yours, theirs, and with mine, thine, his, sometimes its.
Like the noun possessives, they have several uses:—
Their uses.
(1) To prevent ambiguity, as in the following:—
I have often contrasted the habitual qualities of that gloomy friend of theirs with the astounding spirits
of Thackeray and Dickens.—J. T. Fields.
No words of ours can describe the fury of the conflict.—J. F. Cooper.
(2) To bring emphasis, as in these sentences:—
This thing of yours that you call a Pardon of Sins, it is a bit of rag-paper with ink.—Carlyle.
This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times. —Holmes.
(3) To express contempt, anger, or satire; for example,—
"Do you know the charges that unhappy sister of mine and her family have put me to already?" says
the Master.—Thackeray.
He [John Knox] had his pipe of Bordeaux too, we find, in that old Edinburgh house of his.—Carlyle.
"Hold thy peace, Long Allen," said Henry Woodstall, "I tell thee that tongue of thine is not the shortest
limb about thee."—Scott.
(4) To make a noun less limited in application; thus,—
A favorite liar and servant of mine was a man I once had to drive a brougham.—Thackeray.
In New York I read a newspaper criticism one day, commenting upon a letter of mine.—Id.
What would the last two sentences mean if the word my were written instead of of mine, and preceded the nouns?
In th
8 e
8 i.r function, or use in a sentence, the absolute possessive forms of the personal
About the case of absolute
pronouns are very much like adjectives used as nouns.
pronouns.
In such sentences as, "The good alone are great," "None but the brave deserves the fair," the words italicized have an
adjective force and also a noun force, as shown in Sec. 20.
So in the sentences illustrating absolute pronouns in Sec. 86: mine stands for my property, his for his property, in the
first sentence; mine stands for my praise in the second. But the first two have a nominative use, and mine in the second
has an objective use.
They may be spoken of as possessive in form, but nominative or objective in use, according as the modified word is in
the nominative or the objective.
III. The Objective.
In Ol
8d
9 .English there was one case which survives in use, but not in form. In such a sentence
The old dative case.
as this one from Thackeray, "Pick me out a whip-cord thong with some dainty knots in it," the
word me is evidently not the direct object of the verb, but expresses for whom, for whose benefit, the thing is done. In
pronouns, this dative use, as it is called, was marked by a separate case.
In Modern English the same use is frequently seen, but the form is the same as the objective.
Now the objective.
For this reason a word thus used is called a dative-objective.
The following are examples of the dative-objective:—
Give me neither poverty nor riches.—Bible.
Curse me this people.—Id.
Both joined in making him a present.—Macaulay
Is it not enough that you have burnt me down three houses with your dog's tricks, and be hanged to
you!—Lamb
I give thee this to wear at the collar.—Scott
Besid
9 e
0. s this use of the objective, there are others:—
Other uses of the objective.
(1) As the direct object of a verb.
They all handled it.—Lamb
(2) As the object of a preposition.
Time is behind them and before them.—Carlyle.
(3) In apposition.
She sate all last summer by the bedside of the blind beggar, him that so often and so gladly I talked
with.—De Quincey.
SPECIAL USES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
The
9 w
1. ord you, and its possessive case yours are sometimes used without reference to a
Indefinite use of you and your.
particular person spoken to. They approach the indefinite pronoun in use.
Your mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, was passed by with indulgence.—
Irving
To empty here, you must condense there.—Emerson.
The peasants take off their hats as you pass; you sneeze, and they cry, "God bless you!" The thrifty
housewife shows you into her best chamber. You have oaten cakes baked some months before.—
Longfellow
The p
9 r
2.onoun it has a number of uses:—
Uses of it.
(1) To refer to some single word preceding; as,—
Ferdinand ordered the army to recommence its march.—Bulwer.
Society, in this century, has not made its progress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness of
ingenuity in trifles.—D. Webster.
(2) To refer to a preceding word group; thus,—
If any man should do wrong merely out of ill nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or brier, which prick
and scratch because they can do no other.—Bacon.
Here it refers back to the whole sentence before it, or to the idea, "any man's doing wrong merely out of ill nature."
(3) As a grammatical subject, to stand for the real, logical subject, which follows the verb; as in the sentences,—
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion. —Emerson.
It is this haziness of intellectual vision which is the malady of all classes of men by nature.—Newman.
It is a pity that he has so much learning, or that he has not a great deal more.—Addison.
(4) As an impersonal subject in certain expressions which need no other subject; as,—
It is finger-cold, and prudent farmers get in their barreled apples.—Thoreau.
And when I awoke, it rained.—Coleridge.
For when it dawned, they dropped their arms.—Id.
It was late and after midnight.—De Quincey.
(5) As an impersonal or indefinite object of a verb or a preposition; as in the following sentences:—
(a) Michael Paw, who lorded it over the fair regions of ancient Pavonia.—Irving.
I made up my mind to foot it.—Hawthorne.
A sturdy lad ... who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles it, keeps a
school.—Emerson.
(b) "Thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it."—Irving.
There was nothing for it but to return.—Scott.
An editor has only to say "respectfully declined," and there is an end of it.—Holmes.
Poor Christian was hard put to it.—Bunyan.
The
9p
3e
. rsonal pronouns in the objective case are often used reflexively; that is, referring to
Reflexive use of the personal
the same person as the subject of the accompanying verb. For example, we use such
pronouns.
expressions as, "I found me a good book," "He bought him a horse," etc. This reflexive use of
the dative-objective is very common in spoken and in literary English.
The personal pronouns are not often used reflexively, however, when they are direct objects. This occurs in poetry, but
seldom in prose; as,—
Now I lay me down to sleep.—Anon.
I set me down and sigh.—Burns.
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep.
—Bryant.
REFLEXIVE OR COMPOUND PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
The
9 R
4.EFLEXIVE PRONOUNS, or COMPOUND PERSONAL, as they are also called, are
Composed of the personal
formed from the personal pronouns by adding the word self, and its plural selves.
pronouns with -self, -selves.
They are myself, (ourself), ourselves, yourself, (thyself), yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves.
Of the two forms in parentheses, the second is the old form of the second person, used in poetry.
Ourself is used to follow the word we when this represents a single person, especially in the speech of rulers; as,—
Methinks he seems no better than a girl;
As girls were once, as we ourself have been.
—Tennyson.
The
9q
5u
. estion might arise, Why are himself and themselves not hisself and theirselves, as in
Origin of these reflexives.
vulgar English, after the analogy of myself, ourselves, etc.?
The history of these words shows they are made up of the dative-objective forms, not the possessive forms, with self. In
Middle English the forms meself, theself, were changed into the possessive myself, thyself, and the others were formed
by analogy with these. Himself and themselves are the only ones retaining a distinct objective form.
In the forms yourself and yourselves we have the possessive your marked as singular as well as plural.
Ther
9e
6 .are three uses of reflexive pronouns:—
Use of the reflexives.
(1) As object of a verb or preposition, and referring to the same person or thing as the
subject; as in these sentences from Emerson:—
He who offers himself a candidate for that covenant comes up like an Olympian.
I should hate myself if then I made my other friends my asylum.
We fill ourselves with ancient learning.
What do we know of nature or of ourselves?
(2) To emphasize a noun or pronoun; for example,—
The great globe itself ... shall dissolve.—Shakespeare.
Threats to all;
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
—Id.
Who would not sing for Lycidas! he knew
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
—Milton.
NOTE.—In such sentences the pronoun is sometimes omitted, and the reflexive modifies the pronoun understood; for
example,—
Only itself can inspire whom it will.—Emerson.
My hands are full of blossoms plucked before, Held dead within them till myself shall die.—E. B.
Browning.
As if it were thyself that's here, I shrink with pain.—Wordsworth.
(3) As the precise equivalent of a personal pronoun; as,—
Lord Altamont designed to take his son and myself.—De Quincey.
Victories that neither myself nor my cause always deserved.—B. Franklin.
For what else have our forefathers and ourselves been taxed?—Landor.
Years ago, Arcturus and myself met a gentleman from China who knew the language.—Thackeray.
Exercises on Personal Pronouns.
(a) Bring up sentences containing ten personal pronouns, some each of masculine, feminine, and neuter.
(b) Bring up sentences containing five personal pronouns in the possessive, some of them being double possessives.
(c) Tell which use each it has in the following sentences:—
1.
Come and trip it as we go,
On the light fantastic toe.
2. Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it.
3. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.
4. Courage, father, fight it out.
5. And it grew wondrous cold.
6. To know what is best to do, and how to do it, is wisdom.
7. If any phenomenon remains brute and dark, it is because the corresponding faculty in the observer is not yet
active.
8. But if a man do not speak from within the veil, where the word is one with that it tells of, let him lowly confess it.
9. It behooved him to keep on good terms with his pupils.
10. Biscuit is about the best thing I know; but it is the soonest spoiled; and one would like to hear counsel on one
point, why it is that a touch of water utterly ruins it.
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.
The
9 in
7.terrogative pronouns now in use are who (with the forms whose and whom) , which,
Three now in use.
and what.
There is an old word, whether, used formerly to mean which of two, but now obsolete.
One obsolete.
Examples from the Bible:—
Whether of them twain did the will of his father?
Whether is greater, the gold, or the temple?
From Steele (eighteenth century):—
It may be a question whether of these unfortunate persons had the greater soul.
The u
9 s
8. e of who, with its possessive and objective, is seen in these sentences:—
Use of who and its forms.
Who is she in bloody coronation robes from Rheims?—De Quincey.
Whose was that gentle voice, that, whispering sweet,
Promised, methought, long days of bliss sincere?
—Bowles.
What doth she look on? Whom doth she behold?—Wordsworth.
From these sentences it will be seen that interrogative who refers to persons only; that it is not inflected for gender or
number, but for case alone, having three forms; it is always third person, as it always asks about somebody.
Exam
9 p
9. les of the use of interrogative which:—
Use of which.
Which of these had speed enough to sweep between the question and the answer,
and divide the one from the other?—De Quincey.
Which of you, shall we say, doth love us most?—Shakespeare.
Which of them [the sisters] shall I take?—Id.
As shown here, which is not inflected for gender, number, or case; it refers to either persons or things; it is selective, that
is, picks out one or more from a number of known persons or objects.
Sen
1 te
0 n
0. ces showing the use of interrogative what:—
Use of what.
Since I from Smaylho'me tower have been,
What did thy lady do?
—Scott.
What is so rare as a day in June?—Lowell.
What wouldst thou do, old man?—Shakespeare.
These show that what is not inflected for case; that it is always singular and neuter, referring to things, ideas, actions,
etc., not to persons.
DECLENSION OF INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.
The
1 f
0 o
1 l
. lowing are all the interrogative forms:—
SING. AND PLUR. SING. AND PLUR. SINGULAR
Nom. who?
which?
what?
Poss. whose?
—
—
Obj. whom?
which?
what?
In spoken English, who is used as objective instead of whom; as, "Who did you see?" "Who did he speak to?"
The
1
0in
2 t
. errogative who has a separate form for each case, consequently the case can be told
To tell the case of interrogatives.
by the form of the word; but the case of which and what must be determined exactly as in
nouns,—by the use of the words.
For instance, in Sec. 99, which is nominative in the first sentence, since it is subject of the verb had; nominative in the
second also, subject of doth love; objective in the last, being the direct object of the verb shall take.
Who
1 ,
0 w
3. hich, and what are also relative pronouns; which and what are sometimes adjectives;
Further treatment of who, which
what may be an adverb in some expressions.
and what.
They will be spoken of again in the proper places, especially in the treatment of indirect questions (Sec. 127).
RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
Rel
1a
0ti
4 v
. e pronouns differ from both personal and interrogative pronouns in referring to an
Function of the relative pronoun.
antecedent, and also in having a conjunctive use. The advantage in using them is to unite
short statements into longer sentences, and so to make smoother discourse. Thus we may say, "The last of all the Bards
was he. These bards sang of Border chivalry." Or, it may be shortened into,—
"The last of all the Bards was he,
Who sung of Border chivalry."
In the latter sentence, who evidently refers to Bards, which is called the antecedent of the relative.
The
1
0a
5n
. tecedent of a pronoun is the noun, pronoun, or other word or expression, for which
The antecedent.
the pronoun stands. It usually precedes the pronoun.
Personal pronouns of the third person may have antecedents also, as they take the place usually of a word already
used; as,—
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us.—Lowell
In this, both his and who have the antecedent priest.
The pronoun which may have its antecedent following, and the antecedent may be a word or a group of words, as will be
shown in the remarks on which below.
Rela
1 t
0 iv
6. es may be SIMPLE or INDEFINITE.
Two kinds.
When the word relative is used, a simple relative is meant. Indefinite relatives, and the
indefinite use of simple relatives, will be discussed further on.
The SIMPLE RELATIVES are who, which, that, what.
Exa
1 m
0 p
7. les of the relative who and its forms:—
Who and its forms.
1. Has a man gained anything who has received a hundred favors and rendered
none?—Emerson.
2. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon.—Dr Johnson.
3.
For her enchanting son,
Whom universal nature did lament.
—Milton.
4. The nurse came to us, who were sitting in an adjoining apartment.—Thackeray.
5.
Ye mariners of England,
That guard our native seas;
Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze!
—Campbell.
6. The men whom men respect, the women whom women approve, are the men and women who bless their
species.—Parton
Exa
1 m
0 p
8. les of the relative which and its forms:—
Which and its forms.
1. They had not their own luster, but the look which is not of the earth.—Byron.
2.
The embattled portal arch he pass'd,
Whose ponderous grate and massy bar
Had oft roll'd back the tide of war.
—Scott.
3. Generally speaking, the dogs which stray around the butcher shops restrain their appetites.—Cox.
4. The origin of language is divine, in the same sense in which man's nature, with all its capabilities ..., is a divine
creation.—W. D. Whitney.
5.
(a) This gradation ... ought to be kept in view; else this description will seem exaggerated, which it certainly is
not.—Burke.
(b) The snow was three inches deep and still falling, which prevented him from taking his usual ride.—Irving.
Exa
1 m
0 p
9. les of the relative that:—
That.
1.
The man that hath no music in himself,...
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
—Shakespeare
2. The judge ... bought up all the pigs that could be had.—Lamb
3. Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.—Emerson.
4. For the sake of country a man is told to yield everything that makes the land honorable.—H. W. Beecher
5. Reader, that do not pretend to have leisure for very much scholarship, you will not be angry with me for telling
you.—De Quincey.
6. The Tree Igdrasil, that has its roots down in the kingdoms of Hela and Death, and whose boughs overspread the
highest heaven!—Carlyle.
Exa
1 m
1 p
0. les of the use of the relative what:—
What.
1. Its net to entangle the enemy seems to be what it chiefly trusts to, and what it takes
most pains to render as complete as possible.—Goldsmith.
2. For what he sought below is passed above, Already done is all that he would do.—Margaret Fuller.
3. Some of our readers may have seen in India a crowd of crows picking a sick vulture to death, no
bad type of what often happens in that country.—Macaulay
[To the Teacher. —If pupils work over the above sentences carefully, and test every remark in the following paragraphs,
they will get a much better understanding of the relatives.]
REMARKS ON THE RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
By
1re
1 a
1.ding carefully the sentences in Sec. 107, the following facts will be noticed about the
Who.
relative who:—
(1) It usually refers to persons: thus, in the first sentence, Sec. 107, a man...who; in the second, that man...whose; in the
third, son, whom; and so on.
(2) It has three case forms,—who, whose, whom.
(3) The forms do not change for person or number of the antecedent. In sentence 4, who is first person; in 5, whose is
second person; the others are all third person. In 1, 2, and 3, the relatives are singular; in 4, 5, and 6, they are plural.
Tho
1 u
1 g
2 h
. in most cases who refers to persons there are instances found where it refers to
Who referring to animal