CLASSIFICATION OF PRONOUNS.

94. Pronouns are divided into two classes, Substantive Pronouns and Adjective Pronouns.

The Nominative Case I is always written with a Capital letter.

1.- PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

96. The Personal Pronouns consist of

1. The Personal Pronoun of the First Person.

2. The Personal Pronoun of the Second Person. 97. The Personal Pronoun of the First Person is 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. It is made up of the following forms :—

98. The Personal Pronoun of the Second Person is the pronoun which is used when we speak of the person or persons spoken to. It is declinable, and has the following forms :

Nominative Case

[Possessive Case]

Objective Case......

Singular.

Thou
[Thine or Thy]
Thee

Plural.
Ye or You
[Your]
You or Ye

99. In Anglo-Saxon only the singular forms of this pronoun were used in addressing a single person. In ordinary usage the singular is now restricted to solemn addresses, as in prayer to the Deity and in poetry. 100. 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.

Acc. mé (mec) unc (uncit) ús (úsic) || Acc. pé (pec) inc (incit) eów(eówic)

FORMS OF THE TIME OF CHAUCER.

Gen. þín

gé
eówer

Dat. þé

II.-DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS.

102. The pronoun which is used as a simple substitute for a noun that has already been employed is often called the Personal Pronoun of the Third Person. It is more correct to call it the Demonstrative Pronoun of the Third Person. It has the following forms:-

Singular.

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.

103. The genitive cases of this pronoun were not declined as adjectives in Anglo-Saxon, but may now be classed with the other possessives,

THE DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES THIS AND THAT.

105. This and That may be used as real demonstratives (to point to things themselves). In this case This points to what is 'near me,' That points to what is at a distance from me,' as' This book,'' That chair.'

This and That may also be used as logical demonstratives (to refer to some description or name), 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 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.'

108. When used as substantives, that is, without being joined to a noun, or requiring a noun to be supplied, this and that should be termed demonstrative pronouns.

The instrumental case py (thy) appears in the form the in such expressions as 'the sooner the better,

=

by how much sooner, by so much better.'

III.-THE RELATIVE PRONOUN THAT.

108. A Relative* Pronoun is a word which refers to some noun or pronoun already used to denote the person or thing spoken about, and called the antecedent of the relative, and which joins the clause in which it stands to that which precedes it. Thus, in the sentence, 'He is reading about the battle that was fought at Hastings,' that refers to the noun battle, which is called the antecedent to the relative that, and joins the clause' that was fought at Hastings' to the word 'battle' in the preceding clause.

109. 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.

110. That cannot now be used in all cases where who can be used. A clause beginning with that limits or defines the noun to which it refers, and is therefore improper when that noun does not admit of further limitation. Hence we cannot say 'Thomas that died yesterday,' or 'My father that is in America.'

IV. THE INTERROGATIVE AND RELATIVE PRONOUNS

WHO, WHAT, WHICH, WHETHER.

111. The pronoun who, neuter what (A.S. hwa, neuter hwat) was in Anglo-Saxon an Interrogative pronoun.

* 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 The relative pronouns, however, differ from the demonstratives, by having a grammatically connective force.

112. What has the neuter suffix t. It is the neuter of who. It is now indeclinable, and is used not only as a substantive, but also as an adjective. When used as a substantive it is neuter.

113. Which (A.S. hwyle or hwile), is a compound of hwi or hwý (the old instrumental case of hwa), and lic (like). In Scotch it is still quhilk. It was equivalent to the Latin qualis, 'of what sort ? ' * It is properly an adjective, as "Which dress do you prefer?" but is also used substantively, as "Here are port and sherry, which will you take?" Which asks for one out of a definite number; who and what ask indefinitely.

114. Whether (A.S. hwæder) is derived from who (hwa) by means of the suffix ther, and means 'which of the two?'

WHO, WHAT, AND WHICH AS RELATIVES.

115. Who refers only to persons, and does not by its form mark gender, number, or person. Its antecedent is sometimes omitted, as Who steals my purse, steals trash.”

116. What was the neuter of Who, and as a substantive in the nominative or objective only denotes a thing, and now never relates to any antecedent except the neuter that, which, moreover, is always omitted.1

* As "He wiste hwat and hwylc þys wif wære," ' He would have known what and of what sort this woman was.'

+This-ther is the same as the -ter in uter, and the -TEрos in Tóтepos, and implies a comparison or alternative between two.

What is not a compound word, and therefore cannot be a compound relative. The laughable blunder is sometimes made of describing what as compounded of the beginning of which and the end of that.