PRONOUN 



4S3S 



PRONOUN 



three cases; as, Who came? Whose writing is 

 this? To whom are you telephoning? The 

 case form is the same for both singular and 

 plural. 



Which is used to refer to human beings, ani- 

 mals and inanimate objects, and has the same 

 form for the nominative and the objective, 

 with no possessive use at all: Which of those 

 men is your father? Which binding do you 

 prefer? 



What refers principally to animals, objects 

 and abstract ideas, but when used before a 

 noun it may refer to a person; as What are 

 you looking for? What mother would not be 

 just as ready to sacrifice herself for her child? 

 What binding do you prefer? In the last ex- 

 ample, what invites selection from an unlim- 

 ited field, whereas which would imply that a 

 choice must be made among a number of bind- 

 ings which have been definitely mentioned or 

 from among a group to which the speaker is 

 referring. 



Relative Pronouns. A relative pronoun is 

 one that not only "relates" to an antecedent 

 in a preceding clause, but serves as a conjunc- 

 tion connecting its own clause with the clause 

 containing the antecedent. The relative pro- 

 nouns are who, which, that and what. Their 

 uses are illustrated in the following sentences: 

 That boy who is sitting at the desk is my son. 

 He has a volume of history there, which seems 

 to be absorbingly interesting. The chapter 

 that he is studying is an account of the War 

 of the Nations. Let us ask him what it says 

 about the Battle of Verdun. Who and which 

 alone are declinable: nominative, who, which; 

 possessive, whose; objective, whom, which. 



To these four simple relatives there must be 

 added the relative compounds, of which who- 

 ever, whichever and whatever are in most com- 

 mon use, with whoso, whosoever, whichsoever 

 and whatsoever gradually becoming more and 

 more archaic. Another relative, in construc- 

 tions where it follows such, same or many, is 

 the conjunction as. 



Distinctions. Who is used for persons, the 

 higher animals and objects personified. Which 

 is used for animals and things only. That, 

 most general of all, refers to both persons and 

 things. What is used only in a neuter sense, 

 and embodies its own antecedent in its mean- 

 ing of that which or the thing which. 



"Whose" as the Possessive of "Which." The 

 older textbooks strenuously objected to the 

 use of whose to express the possessive of 

 which, insisting upon oj which when referring 



to inanimate things. Modem usage, however, 

 supports the practice in any construction where 

 oj which sounds awkward or roundabout. For 

 example: "The principles whose application we 

 are now studying constitute the framework of 

 the science," rather than "The principles the 

 application of which we are now studying," etc. 



Which and That. Earlier grammarians were 

 most particular to draw a sharp line between 

 what they called "restrictive" and "non-re- 

 strictive" clauses. Restrictive clauses were in- 

 troduced by that; non-restrictive, by who or 

 which. For instance, in the sentence, "The 

 bombs, which were made in this country, ex- 

 ploded prematurely," the clause which were 

 made in this country is non-restrictive because 

 it simply adds a new thought and implies that 

 all the bombs exploded. If the sentence reads, 

 "The bombs that were made in this country ex- 

 ploded prematurely," the clause is classed as 

 restrictive and demands the relative that the 

 idea being that only part of the bombs ex- 

 ploded. 



This distinction, however, is ignored by many 

 good writers of the present day, and the tend- 

 ency seems to be to let euphony settle the 

 choice between that and which. For example, 

 "That electric fan which you sold me" is pre- 

 ferred to "That electric fan that you sold me," 

 on account of the repetition of that. 



When the antecedent refers both to persons 

 and things, that is always to be preferred; as, 

 "Porters are on hand to look after all travelers 

 and baggage that arrive by steamer." It is 

 readily seen that neither which nor who would 

 be appropriate in such a case. 



Demonstrative Pronouns. Pronouns which 

 point out some particular person or thing, an- 

 swering the question which, are called demon- 

 strative pronouns. This class includes this 

 and its plural these, which indicate persons and 

 objects close at hand; that and its plural those, 

 indicating persons and objects that are more 

 distant. Most authorities also include former, 

 latter and same. When these words are used 

 alone, as substantives, they are common pro- 

 nouns: This is my fountain pen; These look 

 fresher than those. When used to modify a 

 noun they assume the nature of an adjective, 

 and for this reason are often classed as adjec- 

 tive pronouns or pronominals: This fountain 

 pen writes smoothly; These peaches look 

 fresher than those apricots. 



Indefinite Pronouns. The name of indefinite 

 pronouns is given to another class of words 

 which have the same double use as the demon- 



