GRAMMA R. 



llle fuperlatiVe when a thing is compared with mnny. The 

 elder of the two — the eldeil: of all. Ncverthclcfs it is to be 

 allowed, that multitude may be the objeft of the comparative, 

 if preceded by all or luhok, to give it a collcdtive idea ; as, 

 " he is vvifor than all his teachers, i. e. he is wifer than the 

 whole body of his teachers, — he is wifer than them all put 

 together ; — or, compared with his teachers one after another, 

 he is wifer than them all." 



The Origin and Properties of Pronouns and Dejinitives. 



Pronouns have been dehned fublUtutes for nouns, to pre- 

 vent their too frequent recurrence. Mr. Harris accounts 

 for pronouns, or, as he calls them, nouns of the fecond order, 

 in a different way; and, as his explanation is curious, we Ihall 

 here place it before our readers. " All converfation pafTcs 

 between individuals, who will often happen to be till that in- 

 ftaiit unacquainted with each other. What then is to be 

 done I How fliall the fpeaker addrefs the other, when he 

 knows not his name ? or how explain himfelf by his own 

 name, of which the other is wholly ignorant ? Nouns, as 

 they have been defcribed, cannot anfwer this purpofe. The 

 firft. expedient on this occailon, ieems to have been pointing 

 or indicating with the linger or hand ; fome tr;- :es of which 

 are Hill to be obferved, as a part of that acli'),i which natu- 

 rally attends our fpcaking. But the authors of langu.io;? 

 were not content with this : they invented a race of words 

 to fupply this pointing, which words, as thev always ilood 

 for fubftantives or nouns, were charafterifed by the name of 

 pronouns. Thefe, alfo, they diftinguilhed into three fevcral 

 forts, calling them pronouns of the Hrft, the fecond, and the 

 tliird perfon, with a view to certain diftinftions, which may 

 be explained as follows. 



" Suppofe the parties converfing to be wholly unacquaint- 

 ed, neither name nor countenance on either fide known, and 

 the fubjefh of converfation to be the fpeaker himfelf. Here, 

 to fupply the place of pointing, by a word of equal power, 

 the inventors of language furr.ifhed the fpeaker with tne pro- 

 noun I ; / write, /fay, I defre, &c.; and as the Ipeaker is al- 

 ways principal with refpeft to his own difcourfe, this they 

 called, for that reafon, the pronoun of the iiril perfon. Again, 

 fuppofe the fubject of the converfation to be the party ad- 

 drefled. Here, for finiilar reafon, they invented the pronoun 

 thou ; thou writeft, thou walked, &c. ; and, as the party ad- 

 drefled is next in dignity to the fpeaker, or at leafl comes 

 next v^ith reference to the difcourfe, this pronoun they 

 therefore called the pronoun of the fecond perfon. 



" Laftly, fuppofe the fubjctt of converfation neither the 

 fpeaker nor the party addrefled, but fome third objeft dif- 

 ferent from both. Here they provided another pronoun, 

 he, Jhe, it, which, in diftinfiion to the two former, was call- 

 ed the pronoun of the third perfon. And thus it was, that 

 the pronouns came to be diilinguillied by their refpeftive 

 perfons.'' 



Tliis account, which the author, as he fays, received from 

 Apollonius, is arbitrary and erroneous. The uie of tlie 

 pronouns is not to fupply the names of perfons unknown to 

 each other; nor can they be faid to have been invented ^ for 

 though they anfwer the moll ufeful purpoi'ts, they origin- 

 ated in circumltanccs in wliicii dtfign had no concern. The 

 origin of the two firil pronoiir.s we conceive to be this. 

 They are the adjeclives orie, t'wo, loilng their muncral ilgni- 

 lication, and coming to mean the fpeakt-r and the perfon 

 addrelli-d, by the mere force of affociation with the verb. 

 Let us fuppofe that a perfon wi(hcd, in the infancy of lan- 

 guage, to exprefs the propofition I love tl^ee. If Englilh 

 were his words, he would have faid, one love two, 'i his 

 form being repeatedly ufed, and the perfon uftng it accom- 



panyinc( the loading term cne with a confcioufncfs of himfclff 

 that term would gradually drop its charadler of one in op- 

 pofition to tivo, and derive a new cliaracter by affociation 

 from the verb, namely, one that was fpcaking in oppofition 

 to the other fpoken to. Thus the fame procefs which con- 

 verted one in general into one fpeeiking, converted iico into 

 the perfon addreffed. 



That the pronouns /, thou, were originally one, two, will 

 appear probable from hence. In Hebrew, the moll an- 

 cient language, the pronoun aiifwcring to / is evidently the 

 parent of the numeral one ; and tuio has a clofc rcfemblance 

 to thou. Thus '<Jf^, ani, ego, is -f in Greek, and untu in 

 Latin, and the other form '3;X> «'"f'\ is unicut. Moreover, 

 nriN' "'"■> ^y dropping {< fcems to have produced ti , tu, thou ; 

 and r,v'., duo, two. And in other tongues the pronoun thou 

 and the numeral t<u;o have fuch reiemblance as to befpeak one 

 common origin in Hebrew. Befidcs, the pronouns /and thou 

 ftill retain their origin in their names ; / being ihejirfl perfnn, 

 thou ihe fecond; not bccaufe the former is the tirit and the latter 

 the fecond in dignity, but becaufe thefe were their original 

 meaning. Moreover, the numerals one, ttvo, mull have been 

 among the iirll adjeftives formed by abilradtion from fuch 

 things as nature produced in pairs, or thofe which alternately 

 fucceed ench other, fuch as day and night. And as difcourfe 

 is but a', alternation or interchange of ientiments between t'wo 

 perfcns, the numeral adjedtivcs in queilion were die moft 

 hkely to be ufed on fuch occafions. Remains of this iifage 

 may be tlill traced in fome languages, as we fay, One thinks fo, 

 or in French, On dit ; one being not as Condiliac (fee his 

 Works, torn. v. p. 184.) afferts, a corruption from homwe, 

 but of the Latin unus, and is not a fubilantive, but a lublli- 

 tute for a lubllantive, ;'. f. a pronoun. Finally, weobferve 

 that no words but numerals were capable of being fornr.ed 

 by allociation into pronouns. 'i'\ie Ipeaker, indeed, iright 

 ufe his own name, and which, when repeatedly ufed, ihe 

 verb would convert into the tirll perfon. But on the 

 fame principle another would employ his own name, and 

 thus the allociations of one man would counteraft the afio- 

 ciations of another ; and neither name would be received as 

 the rcprclentative of the fpeaker. 



From this ftatement of the origin of the pronoun, 

 fome particulars refpefting its nature and ufe may be 

 deduced with precilion. I ril, the adjeftivc, in being changed 

 into a pronoun, lofes tlie Generality of a numeral, and al- 

 fumes an individual char.'.di r ; that is, the charatlcr alHgned 

 to it by the verb. But as iny other perfon may ufe that 

 term in finiilar ciicumilances, the pronoun /, which was 

 changed into the indrx of an individual by afToclation, be- 

 comes again general by fucceilion ; each fpeaker having a 

 right in his turn to ufe It : and thus the pronouns / and tiou 

 became fubtlitutes for the names of all p; rfons in a change 

 uf fituation. Secondly, / aiid thou are not, as has been fup- 

 pufed, fubllitutes for tlie names of the fpeaker and the per- 

 fon addreiled, to avoid their t'-) frequent repetition, nor yet 

 fubditutes for thofe ii;.mes wliile yet unknown, but repre- 

 fentatives of thofe perfons in that limited or rellritftcd cha- 

 radler which they derive from the afiociated verb. Now 

 as fpeaktrs there is no difference between a man and a wo- 

 man. A nan that ipeaks and the woman that fpeaks, in 

 that particiJar function, is tlie fame : and the fan.e thing 

 holds in regard to the perfon addreffed. The firil and fe- 

 cond perfons, therefore, have not, in any language, the dif- 

 tindlion of gender merely ; Kcaufe tliey reprelent human 

 beings in that particular charaAer whicli excludes the idea 

 of fex. Thirdly, there is, properly fpcaking, no fuch 

 thing as a third perfon ; this being a definilivt, marking the 

 fubjcft of difcouri^c, and ftiid to be tjie third perfon in refer- 

 ence 



