Chapter 7 OF PRONOUNS.

Pronouns or proxy-nouns are of three kinds; namely, the Personal, the Relative, and the Adjective Pronouns.

Note.-That when we said, some few pages back, that a pronoun was a word used instead of a noun, we did not mean to call such words as thingumibob, what-siname, what-d'ye-call-it, and the like, pronouns.

And that, although we shall proceed to treat of the pronouns in the English language, we shall have nothing to do, at present, with what some people please to call pronoun-ciation.

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SECTION I. OF THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

|Mr. Addams, don't be personal, Sir!"

"I'm not, Sir."

"You am, Sir!"

"What did I say, Sir?-tell me that."

"You reflected on my perfession, Sir; you said, as there was some people as always stuck up for the cloth; and you insinnivated that certain parties dined off goose by means of cabbaging fiom their customers. I ask any gentleman in the room, if that an't personal.

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"Veil, Sir, vot I says I'll stick to."

"Yes, Sir, like vax, as the saying is."

"Wot d'ye mean by that, Sir?"

"Wot I say, Sir!"

"You 're a individual, Sir!"

"You 're another, Sir!"

"You 're no gentleman, Sir!"

"You 're a humbug, Sir!"

"You 're a knave, Sir!"

"You 're a rogue, Sir!"

"You 're a wagabond, Sir!"

"You 're a willain, Sir!"

"You 're a tailor, Sir!"

"You 're a cobler, Sir!" (Order! order! chair! chair! &c.

The above is what is called personal language. How many different things one word serves to express in English! A pronoun may be as personal as possible, and yet nobody will take offence at it.

There are five Personal Pronouns; namely, I, thou, he, she, it; with their plurals, we, ye or you, they.

Personal Pronouns admit of person, number, gender, and case.

Pronouns have three persons in each number.

In the Singular;

I, is the first person.

Thou, is the second person.

He, she, or it, is the third person.

In the plural;

We, is the first person.

Ye or you, is the second person.

They, is the third person.

This account of persons will be very intelligible when the following Pastoral Fragment is reflected on:

HE.

I love thee, Susan, on my life:

Thou art the maiden for a wife.

He who lives single is an ass;

She who ne'èr weds a luckless lass.

It's tiresome work to live alone;

So come with me, and be my own.

SHE.

We maids are oft by men deceived;

Ye don't deserve to be believed;

You don't-but there's my hand-heigho!

They tell us, women can't say no!

The speaker or speakers are of the first person; those spoken to, of the second; and those spoken of, of the third.

Of the three persons, the first is the most universally admired.

The second is the object of much adulation and flattery, and now and then of a little abuse.

The third person is generally made small account of; and, amongst other grievances, suffers a great deal from being frequently bitten about the back.

The Numbers of pronouns, like those of substantives, are, as we have already seen, two; the singular and the plural.

In addressing yourself to anybody, it is customary to use the second person plural instead of the singular. This practice most probably arose from a notion, that to be thought twice the man that the speaker was, gratified the vanity of the person addressed. Thus, the French put a double Monsieur on the backs of their letters.

Editors say "We," instead of "I," out of modesty.

The Quakers continue to say "thee" and "thou," in the use of which pronouns, as well as in the wearing of broad-brimmed hats and of stand-up collars, they perceive a peculiar sanctity.

Gender has to do only with the third person singular of the pronouns, he, she, it. He is masculine; she is feminine; it is neuter.

Pronouns have the like cases with substantives; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective.

Would that they were the hardest cases to be met with in this country!

The personal pronouns are thus declined:-

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CASE. FIRST PERSON SINGULAR. FIRST PERSON PLURAL.

Nom. I We.

Poss. Mine Ours.

Obj. Me Us.

CASE. SECOND PERSON. SECOND PERSON.

Nom. Thou Ye or you.

Poss. Thine Yours.

Obj. Thee You.

Now the third person singular, as we before observed, has genders; and we shall therefore decline it in a different way. Variety is charming.

THIRD PERSON SINGULAR.

CASE. MASC. FEM. NEUT.

Nom. He She It.

Poss. His Hers Its.

Obj. Him Her It.

CASE. PLURAL.

Nom. They.

Poss. Theirs.

Obj. Them.

We beg to inform thee, that the third person plural has no distinction of gender.

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SECTION II. OF THE RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

The Pronouns called Relative are such as relate, for the most part, to some word or phrase, called the antecedent, on account of its going before: they are, who, which, and that: as, "The man who does not drink enough when he can get it, is a fool: but he that drinks too much is a beast."

What is usually equivalent to that which, and is, therefore, a kind of compound relative, containing both the antecedent and the relative; as, "You want what you'll very soon have!" that is to say, the thing which you will very soon have.

Who is applied to persons, which to animals and things without life; as, "He is a gentleman who keeps a horse and lives respectably." To the dog which pinned the old woman, they cried, 'Cosar!'"

That, as a relative, is used to prevent the too frequent repetition of who and which, and is applied both to persons and things; as, He that stops the bottle is a Cork man."

"This is the house that Jack built."

Who is of both numbers; and so is an Editor; for, according to what we observed just now, he is both singular and plural. Who, we repeat, is of both numbers, and is thus declined:-

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SINGULAR AND PLURAL.

To despair shall I doom? Which, that and what are indeclinable; except that whose is sometimes used as the possessive case of which;

"The roe, poor dear, laments amain,

Whose sweet hart was by hunter slain."

Who, which, and what, when they are used in asking questions, are called Interrogatives; as, "Who is Mr. Walker?". "Which is the left side of a round plum-pudding?"

"What is the damage?"

Those who, have made popular phraseology their study, will have found that which is sometimes used for whereas, and words of like signification; as in Dean Swift's "Mary the Cookmaid's Letter to Dr. Sheridan:"

"And now I know whereby you would fain make an excuse,

Because my master one day in anger call'd you a goose;

Which, and I am sure I have been his servant since October,

And he never called me worse than sweetheart, drunk or sober."

What, or, to speak more improperly, wot, is generally substituted by cabmen and hack-drivers for who; as, "The donkey wot wouldn't go."

"The girl wot sweeps the crossing."

That, likewise, is very frequently rejected by the vulgar, who use as in its place; as, "Them as asks shan't have any; and them as don't ask don't want any."

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SECTION III. OF THE ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS.

Adjective pronouns partake of the nature of both pronouns and adjectives. They may be subdivided into four sorts: the possessive, the distributive, the demonstrative, and the indefinite.

The possessive pronouns are those which imply possession or property. Of these there are seven; namely, my, thy, his, her, our, your, their.

The word self is added to possessives; as, myself, yourself, "Says I to myself, says I." Self is also sometimes used with personal pronouns; as, himself, itself, themselves. His self is a common, but not a proper expression.

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The distributive are three; each, every, either; they denote the individual persons or things' separately, which, when taken together, make up a number. Each is used when two or more persons or things are mentioned singly; as, "each of the Catos;" "each or the Browns."

Every relates to one out of several; as,

"Every mare is a horse, but every horse is not a mare."

Either refers to one out of two; as,

"When I between two jockeys ride,

I have a knave on either side."

Neither signifies "not either;" as, "Neither of the Bacons was related to Hogg."

The demonstrative pronouns precisely point out the subjects to which they relate; such are this and that, with their plurals these and those; as, "This is a Hoosier lad; that is a Yankee school-master."

This refers to the nearest person or thing, and to the latter or last mentioned; that to the most distant, and to the former or first mentioned; as, "This is a man; that is a nondescript."

"At the period of the Reformation in Scotland, a curious contrast between the ancient and modern ecclesiastical systems was observed; for while that had been always maintained by a Bull, this was now supported by a Knox"

The indefinite are those which express their subjects in an indefinite or general manner; as, some, other, any, one, all, such, &c.

When the definite article the comes before the word other, those who do not know better, are accustomed to strike out the he in the, and to say, t'other.

The same persons also use other in the comparative degree; for sometimes, instead of saying quite the reverse, or perhaps reverse, they avail themselves of the expression more t'other.

So much for the pronouns.

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