r^<)Z. on personal pronouHt. 247 



sefsive is as universally formed by adding the final 

 S, the words mine and thine being only excepted *. 

 Hence I would infer that the words bis, and its, be- 

 long properly to the clafs ol pofiefii'vei, and have been 

 compelled, for want of a proper word for the defini- 

 tive, to do its office also. 



from this kind of analysis we are also farther led 

 to bbserve, that all those words derived from En- 

 gli{h nouns by the addition of an apostrophised '5', 

 vhich have been usually called genitiiies, are always 

 employed to perform the double office of both defini~ 

 five ?inA pofsefsive, 2.nd. are, in this respect, exactly in 

 the same predicament with the \Yords his and its, a-, 

 bove taken notice of. To prove this, we fliall adopt 

 the following illustration. In the sentence, " my 

 hou e is better than yours, but yours is finer than 

 mine,'''' we find, as has been already remarked, that 

 the word bouse can only with propriety follow that 

 clafs of words which we have called above, defini- 

 tivet ; but it never can follow any of those belong- 

 ing to the clafs oi pofsefdves. Hence it must be ad- 

 ded to the words iny and your, before any meaning 

 can be got ; but it cannot be joined with the word 

 yours, nor mine ; we may therefore render that seru 

 tence thus, 



•Vv houses bi-':er than y.urs, but yours is finer than m'ne, or 

 /rjy bouse. s bcier thinyaur house but_yiar hiuse is finer thin my house. 



• By the bye, in the provincial langu'.gs of Edinburgh, these words are 

 formti according to the strictest analogy, ajid are nor proioun.ed mine and 

 'hjtie, b'ji irir.et and ihitiis j of the lis; however I nm so!ne\vh;ic iin.ertain. 



