PERSONAL PRONOUNS..
Person in grammar.
74. Since pronouns stand
for persons as well as names, they must represent the person talking, the
person or thing spoken to, and the person or thing talked about.
This gives rise to a new term, "the distinction of
person."
Person of nouns.
75. This distinction was
not needed in discussing nouns, as nouns have the same form, whether
representing persons and things spoken to or spoken of. It is evident that a
noun could not represent the person speaking, even if it had a special
form.
From analogy to
pronouns, which have forms for person, nouns are sometimes spoken of as
first or second person by their use; that is, if they are in apposition
with a pronoun of the first or second person, they are said to have person by
agreement.
But usually nouns represent something spoken of.
Three persons of pronouns.
76. Pronouns naturally are
of three persons:—
(1) First person, representing the person speaking.
(2) Second person, representing a person or thing spoken
to.
(3) Third person, standing for a person or thing spoken
of.
FORMS OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
77. Personal pronouns are
inflected thus:—
|
FIRST PERSON. |
|
Singular. |
Plural. |
|
| Nom. |
I |
we |
|
| Poss. |
mine, my |
our, ours |
|
| Obj. |
me |
us |
|
|
SECOND PERSON. |
|
Singular. |
|
Old Form |
Common Form. |
|
| Nom. |
thou |
you |
|
| Poss. |
thine, thy |
your, yours |
|
| Obj. |
thee |
you |
|
|
Plural. |
| Nom. |
ye |
you |
|
| Poss. |
your, yours |
your, yours |
|
| Obj. |
you |
you |
|
|
THIRD PERSON. |
|
Singular. |
|
Masc. |
Fem. |
Neut.. |
| Nom. |
he |
she |
it |
| Poss. |
his |
her, hers |
its |
| Obj. |
him |
her |
it |
|
Plur. of all
Three. |
| Nom. |
they |
| Poss. |
their, theirs |
| Obj. |
them |
Remarks on These Forms.
First and second persons without
gender.
78. It will be noticed that
the pronouns of the first and second persons have no forms to distinguish
gender. The speaker may be either male or female, or, by personification,
neuter; so also with the person or thing spoken to.
Third person singular has
gender.
But the third person has, in the singular, a separate form
for each gender, and also for the neuter.
In Old English these three were formed from the same root;
namely, masculine hē, feminine hēo, neuter
hit.
The form hit (for it) is still heard in
vulgar English, and hoo (for hēo) in some dialects of
England.
The plurals were hī, heora,
heom, in Old English; the forms they, their, them,
perhaps being from the English demonstrative, though influenced by the cognate
Norse forms.
Second person always plural in
ordinary English.
79. Thou,
thee, etc., are old forms which are now out of use in ordinary speech.
The consequence is, that we have no singular pronoun of the second person in
ordinary speech or prose, but make the plural you do duty for the
singular. We use it with a plural verb always, even when referring to a single
object.
Two uses of the old
singulars.
80. There are, however, two
modern uses of thou, thy, etc.:—
(1) In elevated style, especially in poetry;
as,—
With thy clear
keen joyance
Languor cannot be;
Shadow of annoyance
Never came
near thee;
Thou lovest; but ne'er knew love's
sad satiety.
—Shelley.
(2) In addressing the Deity, as in prayers, etc.;
for example,—
Oh, thou Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort
thy people of old, to thy care we commit the helpless.—Beecher.
The form its.
81. It is worth while to
consider the possessive its. This is of comparatively recent growth. The
old form was his (from the nominative hit), and
this continued in use till the sixteenth
century. The transition from the old his to the modern its is
shown in these sentences:—
1 He anointed the altar and all his
vessels.—Bible
Here his refers to altar, which is a neuter
noun. The quotation represents the usage of the early sixteenth century.
2 It's had it head bit off by it
young—Shakespeare
Shakespeare uses his, it, and sometimes
its, as possessive of it.
In Milton's poetry (seventeenth century) its occurs
only three times.
3 See heaven its sparkling portals wide
display—Pope
A relic of the olden time.
82. We have an interesting
relic in such sentences as this from Thackeray: "One of the ways to know
'em is to watch the scared looks of the ogres' wives and children."
As shown above, the Old English objective was hem
(or heom), which was often sounded with the h silent, just as we
now say, "I saw 'im yesterday" when the word him is not emphatic.
In spoken English, this form 'em has survived side by side with the
literary them.
Use of the pronouns in
personification.
83. The pronouns he
and she are often used in poetry, and sometimes in ordinary speech, to
personify objects (Sec. 34).
CASES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
I The Nominative.
Nominative forms.
84. The nominative forms of
personal pronouns have the same uses as the nominative of nouns
(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.
Additional nominatives in spoken
English.
85. In spoken English,
however, there are some others that are added to the list of nominatives: they
are, me, him, her, us, them, when they occur
in the predicate position. That is, in such a 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.
Not a separate class.
86. The forms my,
thy, his, her, its, our, your,
their, are sometimes grouped separately as 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.
Absolute personal
pronouns.
The forms mine, thine, yours,
hers, theirs, sometimes his and its, have a
peculiar use, 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.
Old use of mine and
thine.
Formerly mine and thine stood before their
nouns, if the nouns began with a vowel or h 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.
Double and triple
possessives.
87. The forms hers,
ours, yours, theirs, are really double possessives, since
they add the 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.
Their uses.
Like the noun possessives, they have several
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?
About the case of absolute
pronouns.
88. In their function, or
use in a sentence, the absolute possessive forms of the personal pronouns are
very much like adjectives used as nouns.
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.
The old dative
case.
89. In Old English there
was one case which survives in use, but not in form. In such a sentence 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.
Now the objective.
In Modern English the same use is frequently seen,
but the form is the same as 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
Other uses of the
objective.
90. Besides this use of the
objective, there are others:—
(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.
Indefinite use of you and
your.
91. The word you,
and its possessive case yours are sometimes used without reference to a
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
Uses of it.
92. The pronoun it
has a number of uses:—
(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.
Reflexive use of the personal
pronouns.
93. The personal pronouns
in the objective case are often used reflexively; that is, referring to
the same person as the subject of the accompanying verb. For example, we use
such 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.
Composed of the personal pronouns
with -self, -selves.
94. The REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS,
or COMPOUND PERSONAL, as they are also called, are formed from the personal
pronouns by adding the word self, and its plural 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.
Origin of these
reflexives.
95. The question might
arise, Why are himself and themselves not hisself and
theirselves, as in 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.
Use of the reflexives.
96. There are three uses of
reflexive pronouns:—
(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. |
