J> 



124 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



a noim.^ It is however wortliy of notice that ^^mine" is even 

 today much used with the value of ^'mv ;'' that many languages 

 have but a single form for both f that the difference in their 

 usage tallies with, a difference always made in German between 

 the adjective as adjunct and the adjective as term.^ 



The grammatical opinion is merely a special application of 

 that advanced by some logicians, who deny the use of the ad- 

 jective as term. Its holders will have it that "The rose is red 

 is at least an impropriety; that the careful thinker must con- 

 ceive that "the rose is a red object." ITo\^^ver convenient such 

 structure of thought may be in a purely logical notation, it seems 

 to me self-evident that it is not followed in thought, as prepared 

 for ordinary linguistic expression. Much argument to the 

 contrary, I may think no doubt by the method indicated in the 

 expression "Redness (by no means a red object) characterizes 

 the rose ;" I may also reverse my mental current in "The rose 

 is characterized by redness (by no means a red object) ;" and 

 this latter sentence expresses exactly what I think I mean by 

 ^'The rose is red." That is, the rose and its redness only are 

 put before you in the relation of an object to its own quality. 



I do not accordingly find that "object" is to be supplied either 

 in "The rose is red," or in "The rose is mine." I therefore 

 rank the "mine" as a predicate adjective, (or, more strictly, as 

 the predicatively employed genitive of I) somewhat dis- 

 tinguished from the attributive, as in German, by a different 

 termination. 



In "Lieutenant Brown of ours" a closer approach is made to strictly 

 substantive usage. So far as "ours" shall mean "our regiment," it is, 

 no doubt, a noun. If it be admitted that an ellipsis has occurred, and 

 that "regiment" is supplied, then "ours" remains an adjective. This 

 purely lexical question may be dismissed with the remark that com- 

 ment similar to the above may be made on "thy" — "thine," "his" — 

 (his'n), etc. 



It has apparently escaped the notice of Grammar that the use of 

 pronouns adverbially is at least a linguistic possibility. So far indeed 

 as "my" is the adjective of "I," so far "usward"^ is the adverb of 



^E. g., in French grammars. 



*Conf. mens, tuus, leur, loro, etc. 



^Conf. "Die schone Frau" and "Die Frau ist scbon," 



■•Thiii word, so far as noted, is preceded in English by a superfluous "to." as ini 

 "God's mercies to usward." But in German dialect "unserwarts" appears un- 

 aided, as an adverb. 



