Please note that this is not, strictly speaking, a chapter on Pronouns. It also includes instruction on “words allied to the Pronoun”.
62. Pronouns cannot be so precisely defined in theory, as not to admit many words which may also be considered as adjectives.
63. All words may be considered pronouns, or at least to have a pronominal character, which are capable of being used as nouns, but carry with them a simply relational notion; or, in other words, which, instead of naming or describing an object, enable us to recognize it by some relation, of definiteness or indefiniteness, of place, of kind, etc.
Thus a pronoun denotes whether the thing spoken of is or belongs to the speaker himself; whether it is or belongs to the person he is addressing; whether it is or belongs to some third person or thing, of which he is speaking; whether it is some object near him, or near another, and so on. In classing pronouns, the speaker is called the first person (I, we); the person spoken to, the second person (thou, you); the person or thing spoken of, the third person (he, she, it: they).
There are five principal classes of pronouns: Personal pronouns, Demonstrative pronouns, Relative pronouns, Indefinite pronouns, and Interrogative pronouns.
I. Personal Pronouns
64. Personal Pronouns (which are all Substantive pronouns)
- I, plural we, is called the pronoun of the first person.
- Thou, plural you, is called the pronoun of the second person.
- He, she, it, plural they, are the pronouns of the third person.
65. Pronouns are declined as follows:
Personal Pronouns:
First Person Singular: Nominative I; Genitive my or mine; Accusative me.
First Person Plural: Nom. we; Gen. our or ours; Acc. us.
Second Person Singular: Nom. thou; Gen. thy or thine; Acc. thee.
Second Person Plural: Nom. ye or you; Gen. your or yours; Acc. you.
Third Person Singular:
Masculine: Nom. he; Gen. his; Acc. him.
Feminine: Nom. she; Gen. her or hers; Acc. her.
Neuter: Nom. it; Gen. their or theirs; Acc. it.
Third Person Plural: Nom. they; Gen. their or theirs; Acc. them.
Relative and Interrogative Pronouns:
Nom. who; Gen. whose; Acc. whom.
Nom. which; Gen. of which or whose; Acc. which.
Demonstrative Pronouns:
Nom. this; Gen. of this; Acc. this.
Nom. that; Gen. of that; Acc. that.
1. Of the two forms of the genitive, the first is used when it is to stand before its substantive; the second, when it stands alone. “This hat is mine.” “This is my hat.”
2. Formerly, mine was used before a substantive beginning with a vowel or silent H.
3. The forms set down for the genitive case are sometimes called possessive pronouns, and considered as adjectives. As the genitive denotes possession, there is no determining whether they are genitives, or possessive (adjective) pronouns.
4. Since other languages express possession by adjective pronouns, as well as by genitive cases, in translating from English into other language into another language, we must consider whether the word to be used is, or is not, an adjective, equivalent in all its forms to our genitive case. When it is, it must of course agree with its substantive. “Suus liber” (his own book); because suus is an adjective meaning his own: “ejus liber” (his book), because ejus is not an adjective.
66. Personal pronouns are reflexive, when the thing or person denoted by the pronoun is the same as the subject; that is, with the thing or person spoken of.
67. Our reflexive forms for the nominative and accusative are obtained from the personal pronouns by the addition of the suffix -self, plural -selves.
First Person singular: Nom. myself; Gen. of myself; Acc. myself.
First Person plural: Nom. ourselves; Gen. of ourselves; Acc. ourselves.
Second Person singular: Nom. thyself; Gen. of thyself; Acc. thyself.
Second Person plural: Nom. yourselves; Gen. of yourselves; Acc. yourselves.
Third Person singular:
Masculine: Nom. himself; Gen. of himself; Acc. himself.
Feminine: Nom. herself; Gen. of herself; Acc. herself.
Neuter: Nom. itself; Gen. of itself; Acc. itself.
Third Person plural: Nom. themselves; Gen. of themselves; Acc. .
To make the genitive cases (or possessive pronouns) reflexive, we use the pronominal adjective own. “He killed himself with his own sword.”
II. Demonstrative Pronouns
68. The Demonstrative (or pointing-out) pronouns are: this, plural these; that, plural those.
69. The pronoun this points out what is near the speaker; that points out what is further from him.
70. Such and same may also be considered demonstrative pronouns.
71. When this and that relate to two things before mentioned, this means the nearest, which is of course the last one mentioned.
Consequently, that is in such cases equivalent to the former; this to the latter. This is used of a coming statement, or one that has just been made; that generally refers to a past statement.
72. Such may be considered a demonstrative pronoun, indicating or pointing out the kind.
1. If the substantive requires the article (which must be the indefinite article), it stands after the pronoun such: “such a man.”.
2. Such may stand before another attributive adjective: the article, if necessary must stand between them, as: “How long shall all the wicked doers speak so disdainfully, and make such proud boasting?”.
3. Such is sometimes used to denote a particular thing, which it is not necessary to mention. “I told him that he must pay me on such a day.” in this meaning we often find the phrase “such and such”, as: “I would have given thee such and such things,”.
73. To this class belongs also the same, which points out an object by means of the relation of identity, as: “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 15:5)
III. Relative Pronouns
74. The Relative pronouns are: who for persons, which for things, and that for either persons, or things. They are called relative pronouns, because they refer to an object already mentioned, as: “the house, which you have bought”.
75. What is also a relative pronoun, which is equivalent to that which.
76. Who, what and that are substantive pronouns, and cannot stand before the substantive they refer to. Which is an adjective pronoun, and can be immediately followed by its substantive.
From who, which and what are formed compound pronouns by the additions of the suffixes -ever and -soever: whoever, whichever, whatever; whosoever, whichsoever, whatsoever. Whoever is equivalent to “any man who”, and so of the rest.
IV. Interrogative Pronouns
77. Who?, Which?, and What? are also interrogative (or question-asking) pronouns.
1. “Which?” is used to ask which individual of a known class or number is the object we are inquiring about. “Who did this?” carries with it no notion of our having any knowledge on the subject. “Which of you did this?” implies that the speaker knows it was done by one of those being spoken to.
2. “Whether?” was formerly used instead of “which”, when the inquiry related to two objects. “Whether of the two did the will of his father?” (St. Matthew 21:31)
78. When an interrogative pronoun stands at the head of a dependent clause, there is danger of mistaking it for a relative.
To determine whether who, which, or what is an interrogative, turn the sentence on which it depends into a question. If the dependent clause gives the answer to such a question, the pronoun is an interrogative. “I asked who was there.” What did you ask? Answer: “Who was there.” “I asked what he was going to do.” What did you ask? Answer: “What he was going to do.” In these sentences who and what are interrogative pronouns.
V. Reciprocal Pronouns
79. A reciprocal pronoun is one that denotes the mutual action of different agents upon each other.
1. “Eachother”, and “one another”, are our reciprocal forms, which are treated exactly as if they were compound pronouns, taking for their genitives, “eachother’s”; “one-another’s”.
2. “Eachother” is used of two or more; “one another” can only be used of more than two.
VI. Numerals
80. Numerals express the relations of number and quantity.
81. Numerals are definite, if they denote a particular number, as: one, two, three.
82. Numerals are indefinite, if they denote no particular number or quantity, as: many, some, much.
83. The indefinite numerals are: each, every; either, neither; many, much; few, several; all, no, more, some, any, ; other, another; one (used indefinitely), only, alone, etc.
1. Each and every are used to separate, as it were, a number into the individuals of which it is made-up. Every can only be applied to each of more than two individuals. Each can be applied to each of two or any greater number.
2. Either and neither relate to two objects. Either means “the one or the other”; and also “which of the two” you please. Either has also the meaning of each or both. “on either side of the river.”
84. Many, few, several, denote number: much denotes quantity, as many dollars: much money.
1. “Many” is used with a singular substantive, with the indefinite article a between it and the substantive. “You have many a time sacrificed your own feelings to those of others.”
2. “Few” is joined with a plural substantive, but may take the indefinite article a before it, although that article cannot be used with a plural word. “Can you lend me a few dollars?”.
3. When we use “few”, we are approaching to a denial of there being any; we use “a few”, when we wish to assert that there are some. “There are few men who would have acted as he did.”
85. All, no, none, some, any, and enough, denote either number or quantity.
1. “All men” (number); “all the cloth” (quantity). When “all” denotes quantity, the noun will commonly have “the” or the genitive case of a personal pronoun with it.
2. “No” and “none” differ as “my” and “mine”, as: “I have no paper.” “As to paper, I have none.”
3. “None”, though compounded of “no one”, is used as either singular or plural. “All King Solomon’s vessels were of gold; there were none of silver.” (11 Kings 10:21)
86. Some denotes either number or quantity.
1. “Some men” (number); “some beef” (quantity).
2. “Some” is used with numerals to signify “about”, as: “some fifty years ago.”
87. Any has several meanings which must be carefully distinguished, because in other languages these meanings are not all expressed by the same words.
1. After negative words, and such words and phrases as have a negative force, “any” marks the exclusion of all: “He did it without any hesitation.” “We cannot make any difference between you.” So after “scarcely”, “without”, and comparatives, and in questions of appeal, where the expected answer is “nobody”, or “none”, as: “scarcely any one.” “without any difficulty.” “He is taller than any of his school fellows.” “Can any man believe this?”.
2. “Any” is sometimes equivalent to “any you please”, or “every body”, as: “Any body can do that.”
3. Again it is sometimes indefinite, being equivalent to “someone”, as: “Shall we tell any body of our misfortunes?”, the particular person being left undecided.
88. It is not easy to determine whether enough is an adjective or adverb; perhaps, when it is joined to a substantive it is an adjective. In other situations it seems to be an adverb; except after the verb “to have”, or “to be”, it may be considered a substantive.
89. Other takes a plural others, when it is used without a substantive. In the phrase “the other day” it means a day or two ago; a few days ago.
90. Another means one more, or some one other.
91. One when not a numeral, has two principal uses. First, one is used in a general and indefinite way for a man or any man. “One would imagine these to be the expressions of a man blessed with ease, affluence, and power.” “One’s leaning at first would be towards it.” Second, one Often stands as a substitute for a substantive already mentioned.
92. Only commonly stands after its substantive, as “man only“, except when the substantive has an article or possessive pronoun (genitive of a personal pronoun) with it. “the only way;” “his only son”.
93. Alone stands after its substantive.
To complete the indefinite numerals, we may add: aught, naught; something, nothing; somewhat, a little. Naught is used in the sense of worthless, of no value. these are generally used as substantives, but sometimes as adverbs.
94. Of the indefinite numerals or pronouns, those that relate to quantity, whether exclusively or not, are used adverbially, with comparative adjectives to express the degree.
VIII. Definite Numerals
95. Numerals denote the number of things. A few numerals are substantives: a unit, a pair, a couple, a dozen, a score, a hundred, a thousand, a million, etc.
96. Such numerals as answer to the question, “How many?”, are cardinals: one, two, three, four, etc.
97. Such numerals as express “What place?” in a series the thing we are speaking of occupies, are called ordinals: first, second, third, etc.
98. Such numerals as express “How many times?” one thing exceeds another, or what multiple it is of itself, are called multiplicative: double, twofold, triple, treble, threefold, fourfold, etc. Single may stand at the head of this class, to begin the series.
99. Numeral adverbs answer to the question, “How often?”: Once, twice, thrice, etc.
100. In compound numerals of the ordinal series, it is only the last number that takes the ordinal termination, as: “the twenty-fifth year”, “the five hundred and eighty-fourth year”.
101. When the units are combined with tens, they are placed either first with “and”, or last without “and”, as: “twenty-four”, or “four and twenty”): but after 100 the smaller number is always last, as: “one hundred and twenty-four”.
102. To express number distributively (to express, that is, parties of so many together), the cardinal number is repeated:, as: “two and two”, “three and three”. “And he called the twelve, and began to send them two and two.” (St. Mark 6:7)
