129 Pronouns are divided into two classes, Substantive Pronouns and Adjective Pronouns. Strictly speaking, no word should be called a Pronoun unless it is a substantive. But it is usual to include under this head certain demonstrative adjectives which are very often used substantively. These bear the somewhat contradictory name of Adjective Pronouns. When they are attached to substantives which are expressed, as this man, each time, they should be called Demonstrative Adjectives. Table of the Pronouns. SUBSTANTIVE. 130 I. Personal { I, thou, we, you or ye. ADJECTIVE. II. Demonstrative it, they. this, those; that, those. III. Relative-that. IV. Interrogative) who and Relative which, what, whether, any, other, some. mine and my, thine and thy, I.-Personal Pronouns. 131 Personal Pronouns are of two kinds. 1. Those of the First Person. 2. Those of the Second Person. 132 The Pronoun which is used when a person speaks of himself singly, or of himself in conjunction with one or more others, without mentioning any names, is called the Personal Pronoun of the First Person. It is declinable, and has the following forms: The Nominative Case I is always written with a Capital letter. 183 The Pronoun which is used when we speak of the person or persons spoken to, is called the Personal Pronoun of the Second Person. It is declinable, and has the following forms: 134 135 136 Singular. [Thine or Thy] Thee Plural. Ye or You You or Ye* Nominative Case [Possessive Case] Objective Case In Anglo-Saxon only the singular forms of this pronoun were used in addressing a single person. In Shakspere's time the singular was also used as the pronoun of affection towards children✦ or friends, of good-natured superiority to servants, and of contempt or anger to strangers. (Abbott, Sh. Gr. p. 153). At a very early period the plural came to be used in speaking to a single person. It was at first employed as a mark of special respect (as when a subject speaks to a king, or a son to his father), as though the person addressed were as good as two or more ordinary people. course of time the nominative ye (as thus employed) was superseded by you, and became exclusively plural in sense. It is now employed only in elevated or poetic style. You and your are now the ordinary pronouns of address, whether we are speaking to one person, or to more than one. In The Personal Pronouns have, properly speaking, no Possessive Case, that is to say, no Possessive Case with the force of a substantive. In Anglo-Saxon, when the genitives ¶ of these pronouns were used in the possessive sense, they were regarded as adjectives and inflected accordingly. As the possessive sense is the only one in which we have retained these forms, and as, when used in this sense, these forms were always regarded as adjectives, they should be regarded as such now; that is, mine and my are the equivalents not of mei but of meus, thine and thy of tuus, &c. The plural forms of the pronouns of the first and second persons are not etymologically derived from the singular forms. In fact, the notion involved (for example) in we is not related to that expressed by I in the same way that the idea expressed by men is related to that expressed by man. We does not imply a simple repetition of I. The notion involved in the word I does not admit of plurality.* ** Several grammarians maintain that ye is exclusively nominative. It was so once, but the best writers in the language use ye as an objective case. As, "His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both" (Milton). "The more shame for ye, holy men I thought ye" (Shakspere). It is true, however, that ye is derived from the Anglo-Saxon nominative ge, and you from the accusative or dative eow. the English Bible ye is nominative and you objective. In + In Shakspere fathers almost always address their sons with thou, sons their fathers with you (Abbott). "If thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss" (Twelfth N. iii. 2). "Prithee don't thee and thou me; I believe I am as good a man as yourself" (Miller of Mansfield). See Robert of Gloucester, &c. The use of the first person plural by royal personages may be accounted for in a similar manner. In Anglo-Saxon these genitives were also used as substantives, and were governed by verbs, &c., or used in the partitive sense, as e.g. gemun þu min, remember thou me' (memineris mei). The substantive use of min and pin did not last beyond the Anglo-Saxon stage of our language. The substantive use of our (ure) and your (eower) lasted till a later period. The abbreviated forms my and thy were not employed till the substantive use of min and þín had disappeared. ** It appears in fact that the earliest known form of the plural we (in Sanscrit} was equivalent to I and these, and that of ye to thou and these (Koch, i. p. 463). 137 The pronouns of the first and second persons do not mark distinctions of gender, because when a person speaks of himself or to another person, the sex, being evident, does not need to be marked in language by differences of gender, and the plural forms must of necessity be ambiguous, as we and you may include persons of different sexes. II.-Demonstrative Pronouns. 138 The pronoun which is used when a person speaks of one or more other persons or things, without describing them by a noun, is often called the Personal Pronoun of the Third Person. It is, however, more correct to call it the Demonstrative Pronoun of the Third Person. It admits of the distinctions of number, case, and gender. It has the following forms:— 139 140 The plural forms must be ambiguous as to gender, because they may be used when speaking of persons of different sexes, or of persons and things together. For the old forms of this pronoun see Appendix A. She (sche or scho) was probably a collateral form of heo from very early times. It is connected with the feminine demonstrative seo.t It was in Anglo-Saxon hit. The t is a neuter suffix, like d in the Latin i-d, quo-d, &c. The regular genitive or possessive case of hit was his, as: "If the salt have lost his savour," &c. The possessive case its is of comparatively modern origin. It is found in Shakspere, but even there his is more common. There is only one example of it in the English Bible (Lev. xxv. 5). 141 The modern plural forms of this pronoun are borrowed from the demonstrative se, seo, pat. (App. A). The genitive plural her, hir or hire, and the dative plural him or hem were in use for some • Him was originally a dative case. It will be seen that the datives him, her and them, like me, thee, us and you, have supplanted the accusative forms (See § 83, note). + The characteristics appears in Gothic (si) and Old Saxon (siu), as well as in modern German (sie). Ho or hoo is still heard for she in Lancashire and Craven. Some old writers have an uninflected possessive it (for his or its); as "Go to it grandam, child, and it grandam will give it a plum " (Shaksp., K. J. ii. 1). Koch, ii. p. 233. See 142 time after thai, thei, or they was adopted for the nominative. They are found in Chaucer.* The genitive cases of this pronoun were not declined as adjectives in Anglo-Saxon.+ Their retained a, substantive force after the other possessives had become pronominal adjectives. Traces of their substantive force still exist in their use as antecedents to relatives; as, "whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation." "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God." They may now, however, be classed with the other possessives. The Demonstrative Adjectives THIS and THAT. 143 This has a plural, viz., these. That has a plural, viz., those. This refers to what is near the speaker (near me) in position; that refers to what is at a distance from the speaker. As "This apple is ripe, that is not." In this sense this and that are called real demonstratives, or words that point to things (Latin res). 144 This and that are also used to point, not to things themselves, but to some description of what we are speaking about, as, "The general was in command of a large force. This force consisted of infantry and artillery." They remained one day at Rome. That day passed without any remarkable event." When thus used, this and that are called logical demonstratives. They often refer to whole sentences or to the general idea conveyed by a preceding phrase, as, "I know that he is innocent, and this is my chief consolation"; "Lend me a shilling, that's a good fellow." Here that = a person who will lend a shilling.' When two things which have been already mentioned are referred to, this refers to what has been mentioned last, that refers to what was mentioned before it; as "Virtue and vice offer themselves for your choice: this leads to misery, that to happiness." This is also used to refer to something which is going to be mentioned, as, "This is my hope and prayer, that my children may grow up in the fear of the Lord." * The colloquial abbreviation a for the pronoun of the third person occurs in old writers. "A brushes his hat o' mornings. A rubs himself with civet" (Shaksp., Much Ado, iii. 2). It is still a provincial idiom (See Tennyson's Northern Farmer.) It is even used as a plural (Koch, i. 469). Traces of declension, however, appear at a somewhat later period (See Koch, ii. p. 234). Etymologically, however, those is not the plural of that (A.S. pæt). These and those are only various forms of pas, the plural of pes or pis (See Appendix A, 1, 2). In Middle English that had a plural tho, a variety of pa. Koch is probably in error when (ii. p. 242) he derives the plural those from tho by the addition of the plural suffix 8. This was used as a plural even up to the sixteenth century. The proper plural of that was transferred to it or hit. 145 146 This and that (in the singular) are not used substantively to stand That is properly the neuter of the Anglo-Saxon demonstrative pronoun (App. A), t being a neuter suffix (§ 140). Like hit, that was used substantively in Anglo-Saxon as a general demonstrative without regard to gender or number, as "is pæt mîn broder"; "þæt were Brut and hys" (Rob. Gl). Ultimately it superseded the masculine and feminine. This is in like manner the neuter of the Anglo-Saxon pes, peos, pis (App. A). Like that it was used substantively without regard to number or gender, as 'pis sindon pâ dômas" (this are the decrees). Like that, this superseded the masculine and feminine forms. 66 147 The adverbs there and here, combined with another adverb (see §271), form compounds which are often substituted for that and this preceded by prepositions; thus therein in that; hereby by this. The usage is getting antiquated; but therefor (therefore) is in common use. 1476 The demonstrative adjective yonder or yon is sometimes classed among the pronouns, though it is now never used in place of a noun. The root yon is the same as in the German jener. In Anglo-Saxon geond was an adverb. Yonder is also an adverb in English. III. The Relative Pronoun THAT. 148 A Relative* Pronoun is a word which refers to some noun or pronoun which has been already used to mark the person or thing spoken about, and which is called the antecedent of the relative. Thus, in the sentence, "He is reading about the battle that was fought at Hastings," that refers to the noun battle, and battle is called the antecedent to the relative that. The pronouns who and which are also used as relatives. In "I have found the sheep which I had lost," the pronoun which refers to sheep, and sheep is the antecedent to the relative which. In This is the man whose house we saw,' whose refers to man, and man is the antecedent to whose. The antecedent noun is often replaced by a pronoun, as: * Relative is a bad term, because it is insufficient. He, she, it, this, that, they are also (literally) relative pronouns, because they refer to some preceding substantive or antecedent. The relative pronoun, however, differs from the definite article and the demonstrative adjectives this and that by having at the same time a grammatically connective force, and attaching subordinate adjective clauses to some word in the principal sentence. |