Chapter XV THE PRONOUN 169. The Pronoun Defined. The sentence, Harry hung Harry's hat on the rack when Harry came into the house, is awkward and unnatural. We would usually say, Harry hung his hat on the rack when he came into the house. These words, his and he, are called pronouns because they express the object of thought, Harry, without naming it. A pronoun is a substantive word that expresses an object of thought without naming it; as, They wandered in the woods. 170. Classes of Pronouns. Study the following sentences: 1. He is my friend. 2. What can you do? 3. He would not give the name of the person who befriended him. In these sentences the words, he, what, you and who, are pronouns because they express objects of thought without naming them. They differ, however, in that the words, he and you, show by their forms the relation between the objects of thought expressed by them and the speaker. The other pronouns do not do this. The word, what, expresses an object of thought unknown and sought. In this particular it is different from the other two. The pronoun, who, as we have already seen in our study of the complex sentence, expresses the relation between thoughts of unequal rank. No one of the other pronouns does this. These differences enable us to classify pronouns into three classes: personal, interrogative, and relative. 1. The Personal Pronoun Defined. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows by its form the relation of the object of thought expressed by it to the speaker; as, They deceive themselves. 2. The Interrogative Pronoun Defined. An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun that expresses an object of thought which is unknown and sought; as, Who was the oldest man? 3. The Relative Pronoun Defined. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that expresses relation; as, This is the man who gave the lecture. Exercise 64 Point out the pronouns in the following sentences and tell whether they are personal, interrogative or relative. Give a reason in each case: you. 1. I am a poor man myself and I can sympathize with it. 3. He, himself, acknowledged his fault to me. 4. The book which the child has is not worth reading. 5. The point was well stated by the child when he saw 6. You who are blessed with plenty should be kina to the poor. 7. They who sow in folly will reap in sorrow. 8. I will not pass from this room until they bear me to the tomb of my forefathers. 9. "Take this, good Mistress Dudley," he added, puting a purse into her hands. 10. But Sir William Howe, if he ever heard this legend, had forgotten it. 11. We, ourselves, are at fault. 12. Who killed Cock Robin? 13. Our fathers, where are they? 14. Which did you enjoy more, Fiske or Ridpath? 171. Classes of Personal Pronouns. In the sentence, He, himself, told me the story, the pronouns, he, and himself, are both personal pronouns. They differ, however, in form. The pronoun, he, cannot be traced back to a simpler form in the English language, while the pronoun, himself, can be traced back to the words, him and self. This difference in form gives us two classes of personal pronouns; simple and compound. 172. Simple Personal Pronoun Defined. A simple personal pronoun is a personal pronoun which cannot be traced back to any simpler form in our language; as, I, he, it. 173. Inflection. There is much more change of form to indicate the properties in the pronoun than in the noun. There are different forms of the pronoun to indicate gender, number, person, and case. 174. First Person. The forms of the first per son may be indicated as follows: The plural forms of the first person do not express two or more speakers, but the speaker and others for whom he speaks. Sometimes this plural form of the first person is used by an editor, ruler, or representative to avoid the use of the pronoun, I, and to lend dignity to the expression; as, "We feel sure that the people will not accept this policy," wrote the editor. 175. Second Person. The forms of the second person may be indicated as follows: SINGULAR Nominative, thou Possessive, thy, thine Objective, thee PLURAL Nominative, you,ye The pronoun, thou, with its forms, is no longer used in ordinary conversation, except by the "Quakers" or Society of Friends. These forms are used in poetry, in the Bible, in prayer, and in other solemn forms of discourse. In modern English the plural forms are used also for the singular. There is no change in form in the simple per |