Owen — Revision of Pronouns, 135 



APPENDIX C— INDEFINITES. 



THEIR l^UMBER. 



This is plainly vastly greater than Grammar indicates. With- 

 out attempting to complete what seems to me an idle begin- 

 ning, I will merely suggest a few of the unrecognized indefi- 

 nites. As point of departure note the following illustration: 

 '^In carving I reserved something, somewhat, somedel (del = 

 Theil) for myself." In this sentence ^'something^' is recog- 

 nized by Grammar as an indefinite and ranked as a pronoun; 

 (Conf. "etwas"). But for ''something'^ I may substitute "part/' 

 '^a portion/' "a slice/' etc., and this without essentially chang- 

 ing the corresponding idea, the method of its presentation, or 

 the part which it plays in sentence-structure. "Someone," too, 

 is hardly more indefinite than "John Doe" or his rival "Richard 

 Roe /' and in "If a hody meet a body comin' through the rye" 

 we recognize the same familiar though dimly outlined physiog- 

 nomy. In '^TJiey say you can't make me criminate m^yself 

 I use each one of the italicised words as fully the peer of "on" 

 (French) or "Man" (German). The "Chose" and "Machine" 

 (masc. "Machin") of French argot are quite analogous ; and once 

 without the pale of classic parlance we find a throng of "Ful- 

 anos," "Zutanos," "Thingimibobs," "What's-his-names," which 

 may well diminish confidence in Grammar's effort to form the 

 indefinite word-class. 



THEIR VARIETY. 



There are moreover other grounds for questioning Grammar's 

 wisdom. Of indefiniteness there are several sorts. To illus- 

 trate, suppose I send you an oral message. It is plain that 

 you may fail exactly to understand me, either by reason of my 

 original inexactness, or through the inaccuracy of my messen- 

 ger. Now in thought-communication my messengers are my 



