ments and conditions of all speech, which implies a speaker and a person spoken to; and they are indispensable complements each of the other, so that neither idea could have been called forth in man without the help of its mate."-Guesses at Truth, first series, p. 189.

FIRST CLASSIFICATION

OF PRONOUNS.

§ 205. Pronouns may conveniently be divided into the following classes: I. PERSONAL. II. DEMONSTRATIVE. III. RELIV. INTERROGATIVE. V. ADJECTIVE. VI. ADVERB

ATIVE.

IAL. The last will be noticed under Adverbs.

§ 206. Pronouns have also been divided into three Classes: I. Substantive Pronouns. II. Adjective Pronouns. III. Adverbial Pronouns. The First class comprises those which can not combine with substantives as attributives, but can stand for them as Substitutes. Thus, the word I can not stand with a noun to qualify or limit it, like an adjective. The Second class comprises those which can, like adjectives, combine with nouns attributively, to qualify or limit their meaning; as, "Such men are wise.” The Third class comprises those which can combine with verbs to modify their meaning; as, "He went there." See § 316.

CHAPTER VII

PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

§ 207. THERE are five Pronouns called PERSONAL, because they are substitutes for nouns which denote Persons. They denote only the relation of personality. They are I, THOU, HE, SHE, IT.

The reasons for including the pronoun it with the personal pronouns are historical rather than logical. Strictly, it is applied to things rather than to persons. The reasons for not

including the pronoun who, which denotes persons, in this class are found in its distinctive office of connecting sentences, in which it agrees with the relative pronouns, and is classed with them.

§ 208. Personal Pronouns admit of Person, Number, Gender, and Case.

Variety of form to distinguish the sex is confined to the third person. person. He is Masculine; She is Feminine; It is Neuter. Pronouns of the First and Second person are either Masculine or Feminine, according to the sex of the speaker or of the person addressed.

$210. The current declension of the English Personal pronouns has been given from a regard to convenience, and not because it is an exhibition of true etymological relations. This may be the better understood from an inspection of the declensions of the Personal pronouns and of the Demonstrative pronouns in the Anglo-Saxon. See § 209 and § 200.

PRONOUNS OF THE FIRST PERSON.

§ 211. I and ME, are not etymologically related to each other. The true view of the words is, that they are defective. I has no oblique, and me no nominative case. The same is true of thou and ye. I, in German ich, Icelandic ek, corresponds with ¿yú and ego of the classical languages; ey and ego, like I, being defective in the oblique cases. My is a form originally Accusative, but now used in a Genitive sense. Me, in Anglo-Saxon, was called a Dative form. The fact seems to be, that both my and me grew out of an Accusative form, meh, mec.

That the sound of k originally belonged to the Pronouns me and thee, we learn not only from Anglo-Saxon mec, pec, meh, peh, but from the Icelandic mik, pik, and the German mich, dich. This accounts for the form my, since yey, and the sounds y and g are allied. That both me and my can be evolved from mik, we see in the present Scandinavian languages, where very often, even in the same district, mig is pronounced both mey and mee.

§ 212. WE and OUR, are not in the condition of I and me. They are really in etymological relation to each other. This we infer from the alliance between the sounds of w and ou, and from the Danish forms vi (we), vor (our).

§ 213. Us. Even us is in etymological relation to we. That we and our are so we have just seen. Now in AngloSaxon there were two forms of our, viz., úre (=nostrum) and user (=noster). This connects we and us through our. § 214. The following, then, are the changes in form of the pronoun of the first person: Singular. Nom., I, undeclined; Acc., Me; Gen., My; Form in n, mine. Plural. Nom., We; Acc., Us; Form in r, our; Form in s, ours.

SUBSTITUTION OF PLURALITY FOR UNITY.

§ 215. WE, in the Plural, is often used in place of I in the Singular, especially by Reviewers, Authors, Monarchs, &c. That a Reviewer, in giving his individual opinions to the public, should substitute Plurality for Unity, is very natural, inasmuch as he is associated with others, often in a junto or club, whose collective opinions he is supposed to utter. Moreover, what he lacks in argument he can supply by calling in the aid of we instead of I. That a Ruler, embodying in himself the collected will of others; that an Author or Orator, in addressing his readers or hearers, who entertain the same views with himself, should use the plural term instead of the singular, is warrantable.

"But there is a tribe of writers who are fond of merging their individuality in a multitudinous we. They think they may pass themselves off unnoticed, like the Irishman's bad guinea, in a handful of halfpence. In ordinary books, except when the author can be reasonably conceived to be speaking not merely in his own person, but as the organ of a body, or when he can fairly assume that his readers are going along with him, his using the plural we impresses one with much such feeling as a man's being afraid to look one in the face. In simpler times, before our self-consciousness became so sensitive, men were not afraid to say I, and they never dreamed that their doing so could be any offense to their neighbors. But now men are ready to become he, she, it, they-any thing rather than I. Even Dr. Chalmers, speaking of himself, says, We formerly thought differently, but have now changed our mind."-See Guesses at Truth, first series, p. 143.

PRONOUNS OF THE SECOND PERSON.

§ 216. THOU, THY, THEE, are etymologically related to each other. See § 209. Thee and thy were originally one and the same word (be, pek, pec, Anglo-Saxon), and constituted one and the same case, viz., the accusative. At present they form two cases, thee being an objective, and thy a possessive case. The following are the changes in form of

pronoun of second person: Singular Nom., Thou; Acc., Thee; Gen., Thy; Form in n, Thine. Plural Nom., Ye; Acc., You; Form in r, Your; Form in s, Yours.

§ 217. You is, in usage, a nominative Form. Why should it not be treated as such by the Grammarian? There is no absolute reason why it should not. The Anglo-Saxon form for you was eow; for ye, ge.. Neither bear any sign of case at all; so that, form for form, they are equally and indifferently Nominative or Accusative, as the habit of language may make them. Hence it, perhaps, is more logical to say that a certain form (you) is used either as a Nominative or Accusative, than to say that the Accusative case is used instead of a Nominative. It is clear that you can be used for ye only so far as it is Nominative in its power.

§ 218. YE. As far as the force of such expressions as get along with ye is concerned, the word ye is an Accusative form, and as such it is sometimes used by the poets: "His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both."-Milton. general practice, it is a true Nominative.

In

ME. Carrying out the views just laid down, and admitting you to be a Nominative, or quasi-Nominative case, can we extend the reasoning to the word me, and call it a secondary Nominative, inasmuch as such expressions as it is me it is I, are common!

Now to call such expressions incorrect English is to assume the point. No one says that c'est moi is bad French, and that c'est je is good. The fact is, that the whole question is a question of degree. Has or has not the custom been sufficiently prevalent to have transferred the forms me, ye, and you from one case to another, as it is admitted to have done with the forms him and whom, once Dative, but now Accusative?

=

§ 219. Observe, that the expression it is me it is I, will not justify the use of it is him, it is her—it is he, it is she. Me, ye, you are indifferent forms, i. e., Nominative as much as Accusative, and Accusative as much as Nominative. Him and her, on the other hand, are not indifferent. The m and rare, respectively, the signs of cases other than the Nominative. Again, the reasons which allow the form you to be considered as a Nominative plural on the strength of its be

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