PART III

Relative Pronouns Defined and Illustrated

The relative pronouns are who, which, what, that, and as, with the inflections of who, viz.: the objective whom and the possessive whose, and the compounds in -ever, -so, and -soever, as, whoever, whoso, whosoever, whomever, whomsoever, whosesoever, whichever, whichsoever, whatever, and whatsoever.

[NOTE. In the list as given above, the words are placed in the order commonly adopted by grammarians, which is probably due to the fact that who is used of persons, giving it the place of dignity, while which and what are naturally associated with who. In the separate treatment of the words, however, the alphabetical order, used elsewhere throughout this book, will be followed.]

Who, which, and what are used also as interrogative pronouns, and that as a demonstrative pronoun; but as when so used they are not properly connectives, those uses will not be here considered.

AS

As is most frequently used as an adverb or as a conjunction. (See under CONJUNCTIONS.) It is, however, also used with the force of a pronoun. In some such uses in the older writers it would be possible to substitute that without appreciable change of meaning; as:

I have not from your eyes that gentleness,
And show of love, as I was wont to have.
SHAKESPEARE Julius Cæsar act i, sc.

2, 1. 33.

And show of love, that I was wont to have."

In the Tatler (conducted by Addison and Steele, 1709) we read of "a body of men as [that] lay in wait."

This usage would now be considered incorrect or inelegant. But after the correlatives as (adv.), same, so, and such, as is used with pronominal force. In many such cases it would be very difficult to treat it either as an adverb or as a conjunction. Its meaning as a pronoun can not be directly defined, because no other word or set of words will take its place with the same correlative force. But its pronominal import will appear from the fact that who, which, or that might in many cases be substituted by a slight change in the form of the sentence, especially of the verb. Thus :

By breadth is meant such a massing of the quantities, . . as shall enable the eye to pass without obstruction . . . from one to another, so that it shall appear to take in the whole at a glance.

W. ALLSTON Lectures on Art, Composition p. 154.

Here we might substitute that, except that the latter word lacks the correlative force. By omitting "such" from the first clause, that may be readily substituted in the second; thus, “a massing of the quantities that shall enable the eye," etc.

Again :

On the sides of the cave were fan-like ivory tracings, such as the frost leaves upon a pane.

..

HAGGARD King Solomon's Mines ch. 16, p. 225.

The reference here is not to manner or mere sequence of thought. It is not "as the frost leaves a pane." The reference is to something traced upon the pane, and we might give the meaning precisely by substituting for "such as" the words "like those which," like those" carrying the meaning of "such" and "which" of "as"; thus, "fan-like ivory tracings like those which the frost leaves upon a pane." There are many cases in which the exact part of speech represented by as is admittedly difficult to assign, and as to which grammarians would not agree. A safe rule would be, that where as can not be readily explained as a

conjunction or as an adverb, it should be classed as a relative pronoun. The very untranslatableness of as makes it one of the closest of all connectives. It seems to have a meaning belonging in part to the clause preceding, and in part to the clause containing it, while the two references are so indissolubly entwined that it is impossible to separate them; and of the two clauses so connected neither is complete without the other.

For in those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the creation. Mark xiii, 19.

Those as sleep and think not on their sins.

SHAKESPEARE Merry Wives of Windsor act v, sc. 5, 1. 57. [NOTE. Such usage as in the quotation from Shakespeare given above would now be classed as illiterate and incorrect.] If thou tak'st more,

Or less, than a just pound,—be it but so much

As makes it light or heavy in the substance,

Or the division of the twentieth part

Of one poor scruple .

Thou diest.

SHAKESPEARE Merchant of Venice act iv, sc. 1, 1. 328.

It eats and sleeps, and hath such senses

As we have, such.

SHAKESPEARE Tempest act i, sc. 2, 1. 413. His coursers are of such immortal strain as were the coursers of Achilles. A. B. EDWARDS Up the Nile ch. 16, p. 298.

The viceroy still further enlarged his resources by the sequestration of the revenues belonging to such ecclesiastics as resided in Rome. PRESCOTT Philip II. vol. i, bk. i, ch. 6, p. 171.

There was no class of human beings so low as to be beneath his sympathy. CHANNING Works, Char. of Christ p. 309.

THAT

For its etymology, see THAT in place under CONJUNCTIONS. That is the most general of the relative pronouns, being used indiscriminately for persons or things. Like as, that is almost insusceptible of definition; it may be imperfectly rendered as

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"the one"; thus, "the man that I saw" may be converted into "the man; the one I saw"; the latter phrase retains the general sense, but loses the connective force of the phrase employing "that." In the expression "the man that I saw," "that” is the object of the following verb, "saw," while at the same time it points back to the preceding noun man as its antecedent, thus welding the preceding and following words into a single whole. That, though older than who or which, was at one time almost displaced by these last-cited relatives. It has recovered its position, but an attempt is now being made to assign it separate territory from who and which. See DISTINCTIONS under WHO.

[That came in during the twelfth century to supply the place of the indeclinable relative the, and in the fourteenth century it is the ordinary relative. In the sixteenth century, which often supplies its place; in the seventeenth century, who replaces it. About Addison's time, that had again come into fashion, and had almost driven which and who out of use. Century Dictionary.]

[Steele, in the Spectator, with the ignorance of English philology so common in that age, presents the " Humble Petition of Who and Which against the upstart Jack Sprat, That, now trying to supplant them." The truth was, they were supplanting That. Perhaps he was not acquainted with the English Psalter of 1380:

"Blesse thou, my soule, to the Lord! and wile thou not forzete all the zeldingus of him.

That hath mercy to alle thi wickednessis; that helith alle thin infirmyties.

That azen-bieth fro deth thi lif; that crowneth thee in mercy and mercy-doingis.

That fulfilleth in goode thingus thy deseyr."

In all ages of the English tongue that has been the standard relative of the body of the people, and to this day which is stiff and formal, suggestive of the student's lamp or the pedagogue's birch. Here is an excellent example :

"This is the cock that crew in the morn,

Unto the farmer sowing his corn,

That met the priest with his pen and ink-horn,

That married the man so tattered and torn,

That kissed the maiden all forlorn,

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,

That tossed the dog, that worried the cat,

That killed the rat, that ate the malt,

That lay in the house, that Jack built."

This familiar word occurs here eleven times; and to replace it by which and who would destroy the rippling rhythm that has delighted the young ears of so many generations.

RAMSEY English Language pt. ii, ch. 4, p. 332.]

That is subject to certain differences in grammatical construction from who or which. See DISTINCTIONS under WHO.

[That in this use [as a relative pronoun] is never used with a preposition preceding it, but may be so used when the preposition is transposed to the end of the clause; thus, the man of whom I spoke, the book from which I read, the spot near which he stood, the pay for which he works; but not the man of that I spoke, etc., though one may say, the man that I spoke of, the book that I read from, the place that he stood near, the pay that he works for, and so on. Century Dictionary.]

[The relatives that and as have this peculiarity; that, unlike whom and which, they never follow the word on which their case depends: nor indeed can any simple relative be so placed, except it be governed by a preposition or an infinitive. Thus, it is said (John, xiii, 29th), "Buy those things that we have need of;" so we may say, "Buy such things as we have need of." But we cannot say, "Buy those things of that we have need;" or, "Buy such things of as we have need." Though we may say, "Buy those things of which we have need," as well as, "Buy those things which we have need of;" or, "Admit those persons of whom we have need," as well as, "Admit those persons whom we have need of." By this it appears that that and as have a closer connexion with their antecedents than the other relatives require: a circumstance worthy to have been better remembered by some critics. GOOLD BROWN Grammar of English Grammars pt. ii, ch. 5, p. 304.]

He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.

SHAKESPEARE Romeo and Juliet act i, sc. 1, 1. 238.