LESSONS IN EN 



noun, bat in place of what noun doea / stand ? In the atate- 

 mont, M>j shoes are vxn .- 1: .| t<> l>o a pronoun ; give 







irly thf d'-l::.:ii'iii in not MI' 



1 iave been designated per ton < 



nt ruaiton. t i . ixtanoe, in ft noun, for it in tin- 

 name of a being. than a noun, for it ha* specific 



iue to a person, and that person the Jirtt person, OOIIMU- 

 :my bo termed a pcra<n I 



denomination of 1, tlu,n, 

 percoii;il pronouns. 



.:< not f.;i: ! in the earliest stages of language. 

 t have made considerable progrosa ere the minuter 

 i icatod by pronouns would receive appropriate terms. 

 What 



eom to have been tho .rigin. Thin ia exemplified in 



the case of tho language of children. Before a child can say, 



' in;/ haf, ho hits learned to say, John wants John's hat, 



I'tiiion of tin 1 ii'i'ii; performing tho office of tho noun and 



seasivo pronoun. 



If wo regard pronouns in their origin, we may divide them 

 into two great classes the primitive and tho derivation: thus / 

 is it primitive pronoun, and my, which comes from me, ia a 

 noun, if wo regard pronouns in their import, we 

 obtain (1) Personal pronouns, or such as more specifically mark 

 the person, as /, thou, lie ; (2) Possess i ,., or such as, 



marking the person, signify possession, as my and mine. 

 If wo regard pronouns in their office, we find some to be, (1) Re- 

 that is, having a specific reference to some preceding 

 .is who ; (2) Interrogative, that is, such as are employed 

 in asking questions, as who, which, and wluit; (3) Demonstrative, 

 ! which demonstrate, that is, show or point out a person 

 or thing, as this and that. Other pronouns are called (4) Re- 

 . such as self, oneself, themselves, because they reflect, or 

 turn back, refer, that is, to the subject of the sentence. These, 

 however, may also be termed compound, inasmuch as they consist 

 of two pronouns ; as, themselves consists of them and selves. 

 Others, again, aro called (5) Indefinite, such as some, any, who- 

 soever, seeing that their import is vague and undetermined. 



The primitive or personal pronouns are inflected in person, 

 number, and case. They are inflected in person, In tho nature 

 of things as well as in grammar there are throe persons. There 

 is tlio first person, or tho speaker, I ; there is the second person, 

 or tho person spoken to, thou ; there is the ihird person, or the 

 person spoken of, lie. More persons than these there cannot be, 

 for the speaker, the person spoken to, and the person spoken of, 

 exhaust all possible modes of address. 



These thrco persona are in tho singular number, denoting one 

 individual. They may become plural; thus. I passes into we, 

 tJiou into you, and he into i 



These six forms as thus given are subjects. Corresponding 

 forms denote objects ; thus : 



Singular. 



Persons 123 



SUBJECTS: I thou he; 

 OBJECTS : me thee him ; 



Plural. 

 1 2 



we ye or you they, 

 us you them. 



Here we have a instance of genuine case, namely, a change 

 of form corresponding with a change of signification. J, there- 

 fore, .may be termed the nominative case and me the objective 

 case ; and so on. Only one of the personal pronouns is inflected 

 in gender in the singular number, namely, lie, masculine ; she, 

 feminine ; it, neuter : the plural they is the same in tho mascu- 

 line, feminine, and neuter. 



We have already learned that tho possessive my comes from 

 the personal pronoun me (I) ; my and its corresponding forma 



Pare used before nouns, as my hat, thy shoe, his stick, our house, 

 your garden, their aunt. 

 Instead of my, mint ia used if the pronoun stands without a 

 noun ; as, who.e pencil is this ? Answer, mine. 



The relative pronoun who is also inflected in case ; thus, 

 nominative wlio, possessive whose, objective whom. In tho same 

 manner is the interrogative declined or inflected, as who, whose, 

 u-hom. 



With these explanations the reader will advantageously study 

 this tabular view, in which are put together the chief facts con- 

 nected with personal and possessive pronouns ; also relative and 

 intirrogative pronouns .- 



Pnuo> 1 



SIMPLE 



PrimOlM or Penonal. 

 SmWBCTS. OBJECTS. 



(Ho*. 



OSM). CMC). 



<r. I me 



< we us 



it. thou the 



\ Plural. ye you 



(Has. be him 



Dnwif ir or fa 



i 



[Mnt it 



I Plitr. they 



RELATIVE (Persons: who 

 AI> < - ( which. 



IHTEBUOOATIVE ( ""(what. 



it 

 tb 

 whom 



my mine, 



our our*. 



you yours, 



bis bu. 

 ben. 



Hsi it*. 



their theirs. 



V.I. . 



DlMOVSTBATIVE 



/- { 

 I"- {.': 



On the pronouns contained in this table wo offer a few addi- 

 tional remarks. 



Thou is properly tho pronoun of the second person myn1^. 

 It is now, however, in common ne, superseded by you, except 

 in an emphatic personal address, in prayer and triplication 

 made to the Divine Being. 



The second person plural of tho personal pronoun waa for- 

 merly ye in the nominative and you in the objective cane. Ye 

 is now almost obsolete in ordinary conversation, and you in 

 employed for both the subject and the object. 



That mine was the original form of which mi/ is a contraction, 

 may be inferred from tho fact that mine still stands before a noun 

 beginning with a vowel, aa 



" Mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 



Mine, however, is in modern writing scarcely BO used. Mine 

 and thine are still common when they stand alone, the forma 

 being retained probably from a regard to euphony, as my and th) 

 would sound weak as terminating syllables. Our and your bad 

 of old forms in n (ourn, yonrn) corresponding with mine and 

 thine. Ourn became our, and this was lengthened into ours, the 

 s, probably as the sign of possession, being borrowed from the 

 Saxon genitive. If so, ours and yours should be written our'* 

 and your's. 



In his, originally neuter as well as masculine, you find * 

 the sign of the possessive case ; also in its, which with hers 

 should probably bo written it's and her's. It in the Saxon ia hit, 

 and hit (from he) was common in English dwn to a late period. 



The possessive of wlio is probably who's, now written whose. 

 Whose is rarely used of things. Instead of whose as applied tn 

 things, of which, or whereof is employed. Instances, however, 

 are not wanting, either in prose or in verse, in which whose ia 

 referred to things ; aa 



"The mutes are those consonants whose sounds cannot be pro- 

 tracted." Murray. 



Which is, in truth, only another form of trTio, and at the time 

 when King James's translation of the Bible was made, which 

 was used of persons as well as things. Which is still used of 

 persons in such interrogations as, " Which of yon will attend the 

 lady?" Instead of wlio and which, that is often used aa a 

 relative, though properly that is a demonstrative. The two kinds 

 of pronouns are, however, intimately connected together, inas- 

 much as who defines and that demonstrates ; as 



RELATIVE. The man who loved is loved. 



DEMONSTRATIVE. The man > what man? thai man. 



Another form of the relative who and which is what. What in 

 used in asking questions, as, " What did you aay ? " "I aaid that 

 you are ill:" you thus see that irTi a? corresponds to that : in 

 other words, that is explanatory of what. In this case that has 

 also a relative force, as may be seen in the fact that in Latin 

 the word that in such a phrase would be tho relative quod, and 

 in French the relative que. 



\\"- (, in some phrases, comprehends both the relative and 

 the antecedent, being equivalent to that which, as 



" This is tohot I wanted." 



A relative pronoun implies an antecedent. The antecedent ia 

 tho word which goea before the relative, and to which the ralm* 

 tivo refers ; aa, 



