CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



struck the boy, who had done him no harm.' 

 ' What do you want ? ' The words in italics in 

 these sentences are called Pronouns, because they 

 stand for (Lat. pro) nouns, or names of persons 

 and things ; and they are generally said to be 

 used to prevent the too frequent repetition of the 

 nouns. Yet the pronoun and the noun are not 

 exact equivalents for each other. No noun can be ! 

 an exact substitute for /, thou, or who. Pronouns 

 are symbols, names, or highly generalised marks, 

 applied to objects to signify, not any inherent 

 attribute, but merely their relations to the act of 

 speaking. They might therefore be called re/a- ' 

 tional names. I, for instance, is a name applicable 

 to all subjects that can be conceived as speaking. 

 In such a sentence as ' / am sick,' in which the 

 state, ' sick,' is affirmed about some one, the exact 

 force of / may be thus expressed : The person of : 

 whom ' sick ' is affirmed, is one with the person 

 making the affirmation. Who the individual per- 

 son is, the pronoun / gives no indication ; it is 

 implied that this is known from some other source. 

 Those present learn it by hearing whence the 

 sound comes ; in a book, it is gathered from the ' 

 context. 



In like manner, thou is a generalised name for 

 all persons spoken to. What it means or connotes 

 is with reference to the example above given 

 that the person affirmed to know the truth, and 

 the person to whom the affirmation is addressed, 

 are one and the same. 



If the clause, ' he went away again,' stood by 

 itself, what person is denoted by he would be still 

 more vague than in the case of / and thou. He 

 merely implies that a person, neither the speaker 

 nor the spoken to, but one known in some way, is 

 the subject of the assertion. Who it is, is deter- 

 mined, in the example, by John, with which he 

 stands in close relation. 



Who designates some person already named, 

 referring us back to that name (the antecedent) for 

 determining the individual. 



Pronouns may be divided as follows : 



1. Personal Pronouns. The several objects 

 concerned in a speech or sentence stand in one or 

 other of the three relations of speaker (First Per- 

 son), object spoken to (Second Person), object 

 spoken about (Third Person). Pronouns expres- | 

 sive of these relations are called Personal Pro- j 

 nouns. They are (in the nominative case, see p. 

 585), ist person, /, we; 2d, thou, ye or you; 3d, 

 he, she, it, they. 



In phrases like, ' One cannot be sure of that,' one 

 is an indefinite pronoun, designating any person 

 whatever. It is distinct from the numeral adjec- 

 tive one, being derived from the French on, which 

 is a corruption of homme, man. 



\Yhen we say, ' Give me this, and keep thai,' 

 this and that may be considered as demonstrative 

 adjectives, with some noun understood this 

 (thing). But in the expression, ' He mistook his 

 own room for that of the stranger,' that appears 

 to be as much a pronoun as one. 



2. Relative Pronouns, besides standing for 

 nouns, have the power of conjunctions. They join ' 

 sentences and clauses, by relating, or referring 

 back directly to something just named. The 

 relatives in English are three who, which, and 

 that. For the- distinctions in their use, see ; 

 page 591. 



What is used for that which, thus embracing 



582 



both relative and antecedent. In phrases likev 

 ' such a storm as now burst on them,' as is used 

 with the force of a relative pronoun. Perhaps the 

 full expression would be, ' such a storm as (the 

 storm that) burst.' 



3. Interrogative Pronouns are those used in. 

 asking questions ; they are who, which, and what. 



These are the simple pronouns. But a variety 

 of compounds are formed by joining these simple 

 pronouns with other words. Thus, self (in the plural 

 selves) is joined to the personal pronouns to render 

 them more emphatic ; as, myself, herself, himself Y 

 one's-self, ourselves. Selfvtzs originally an adjec- 

 tive, meaning same, but afterwards came to be 

 regarded as a noun. The formation of the com- 

 pounds is anomalous. Other compounds are 

 whoever, whatever, any one, no one, &c. 



Adverbs. 



As adjectives are joined to nouns, so adverbs- 

 are joined to adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs,, 

 to limit or modify their signification. 



Adverbs may be divided into five classes : 



1. Adverbs of Time : Ever, lately, often, secondly,, 

 before, once, next. 



2. Of Place : Here, where, without, above,, 

 away, hither, forward. 



3. Of Degree or Measure : Very, little, so, too,, 

 merely, generally, exceedingly, almost 



4. Of Manner or Quality : How, so, thus, as,, 

 shortly, gratis, wisely, excellently. 



5. Expressive of degrees of certainty or uncer- 

 tainty : Perhaps, possibly, yes, indeed, undoubtedly,, 

 no, by no means. 



Adverbs of manner or quality are formed frorrv 

 adjectives by adding ly ; as, light, lig/itly. 



Adverbs express in one word what, without 

 them, must have required two or three words. 

 Thus, here = in this place; hence from this place; 

 now = at this time ; wisely = like a wise (person). 

 Combinations of words, then, like ' in this place,' 

 ' in this manner' ( = thus), may be called adverbial 

 phrases, and we may class with them many ex- 

 pressions serving a similar purpose in sentences,, 

 although they may not have any one adverb equiv- 

 alent to them ; as, ' in every possible way,' ' where 

 in the world,' ' here and there.' 



Prepositions. 



'The river runs to the sea. The glass stands 

 on the table. The dog lies under the table. He- 

 runs round me. She runs from me. The house 

 by the wood. The house in the wood.' 



These little words in italics, called prepositions,, 

 express certain relations between ideas between 

 the idea of an action and the idea of a thing, or 

 between the idea of one thing and the idea of 

 another thing. In all the instances just given,, 

 the relation is of one kind that of place or direc- 

 tion. And this was the original signification of 

 all prepositions. They gradually, however, came 

 to express other relations. Thus : ' That depends 

 on you. Subjects are under the sovereign.' 



The transition from the palpable, physical rela- 

 tion to the more abstruse mental relation is, in 

 most cases, obvious. A preposition is distin- 

 guished from an adverb by its always requiring 

 an object (a noun or pronoun) after it. In the 

 sentence, ' He runs about,' about is an adverb 

 describing the mode of running ; in, ' He runs- 



