PRONOUNS 17. Pronoun and Antecedent. A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. The noun in whose stead it stands is called its Antecedent. John took Mary's book and gave it to his friend. In this sentence book is the antecedent of the pronoun it, and John is the antecedent of his. 18. Pronouns should agree with their antecedents in person, gender, and number. 19. Personal Pronouns are those that by their form indicate the speaker, the person spoken to, or the person or thing spoken about. Pronouns of the First Person indicate the speaker; they are: I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours. Pronouns of the Second Person indicate the person or thing spoken to; they are: you, your, yours. There are also the grave or solemn forms in the second person, which are now little used; these are: thou, thee, thy, thine, and ye. Pronouns of the Third Person indicate the person or thing spoken of; they are: he, his, him, she, her, hers, they, their, theirs, them, it, its. Few errors are made in the use of the proper person of the pronoun. 20. Gender of Pronouns. The following pronouns indicate sex or gender; Masculine: he, his, him. Feminine: she, her, hers. Neuter: it, its. In order to secure agreement in gender it is necessary to know the gender of the noun, expressed or understood, to which the pronoun refers. Gender of nouns is important only so far as it concerns the use of pronouns. Study carefully the The following rules govern the gender of pronouns: Masculine; referred to by he, his, and him: 1. Nouns denoting males are always masculine. 2. Nouns denoting things remarkable for strength, power, sublimity, or size, when those things are regarded as if they were persons, are masculine; as, Winter, with his chilly army, destroyed them all. 3. Singular nouns denoting persons of both sexes are masculine; as, Every one brought his umbrella. Feminine; referred to by she, her, or hers: 1. Nouns denoting females are always feminine. 2. Nouns denoting objects remarkable for beauty, gentleness, and peace, when spoken of as if they were persons, are feminine; as, Sleep healed him with her fostering care. Neuter; referred to by it and its: 1. Nouns denoting objects without sex are neuter. 2. Nouns denoting objects whose sex is disregarded are neuter; as, It is a pretty child, The wolf is the most savage of its race. 3. Collective nouns referring to a group of individuals as a unit are neuter; as, The jury gives its verdict, The committee makes its report. An animal named may be regarded as masculine; feminine, or neuter, according to the characteristics the writer fancies it to possess; as, The wolf seeks his prey, The mouse nibbled her way into the box, The bird seeks its nest. Certain nouns may be applied to persons of either sex. They are then said to be of Common Gender. There are no pronouns of common gender; hence those nouns are referred to as follows: 1. By masculine pronouns when known to denote males; as, My class-mate (known to be Harry) is taking his examinations. 2. By feminine pronouns when known to denote females; as, Each of the pupils of the Girls High School brought her book. 21. Number of Pronouns. A more common source of error than disagreement in gender is disagreement in number. They, their, theirs, and them are plural, but are often improperly used when only singular pronouns should be used. The cause of the error is failure to realize the true antecedent. If anybody makes that statement, they are misinformed. This sentence is wrong. Anybody refers to only one person; both any and body, the parts of the word, denote the singular. The sentence should read, If anybody makes that statement, he is misinformed. Similarly, Let everybody keep their peace, should read, Let everybody keep his peace. 22. Compound Antecedents. Two or more antecedents connected by or or nor are frequently referred to by the plural when the singular should be used. Neither John nor James brought their books, should read, Neither John nor James brought his books. When a pronoun has two or more singular antecedents connected by or or nor, the pronoun must be in the singular number; but if one of the antecedents is plural, the pronoun must, also, be in the plural; as, Neither the Mormon nor his wives denied their religion. When a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, the pronoun must be in the plural number; as, John and James brought their books. Further treatment of number will be given under verbs. Exercise 8 Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with the proper pronouns. See that there is agreement in person, gender, and number:
Exercise 9 By what gender of the pronouns would you refer to the following nouns? Snake, death, care, mercy, fox, bear, walrus, child, baby, friend (uncertain sex), friend (known to be Mary), everybody, someone, artist, flower, moon, sun, sorrow, fate, student, foreigner, Harvard University, earth, Germany? 23. Relative Pronouns. Relative Pronouns are pronouns used to introduce adjective or noun clauses that are not interrogative. In the sentence, The man that I mentioned has come, the relative clause, that I mentioned, is an adjective clause modifying man. In the sentence, Whom she means, I do not know, the relative clause is, whom she means, and is a noun clause forming the object of the verb know. 24. Who (with its possessive and objective forms, whose and whom) should be used when the antecedent denotes persons. When the antecedent denotes things or animals, which should be used. That may be used with antecedents denoting persons, animals or things, and is the proper relative to use when the antecedent includes both persons and things. What, when used as a relative, seldom properly refers to persons. It always introduces a substantive clause, and is equivalent to that which; as, It is what (that which) he wants. 25. That is known as the Restrictive Relative, because it should be used whenever the relative clause limits the substantive, unless who or which is of more pleasing sound in the sentence. In the sentence, He is the man that did the act, the relative clause, that did the act, defines what is meant by man; without the relative clause the sentence clearly would be incomplete. Similarly, in the sentence, The book that I want is that red-backed history, the restrictive relative clause is, that I want, and limits the application of book. 26. Who and which are known as the Explanatory or Non-Restrictive Relatives, and should be used ordinarily only to introduce relative clauses which add some new thought to the author's principal thought. Spanish, which is the least complex language, is the easiest to learn. In this sentence the principal thought is, Spanish is the easiest language to learn. The relative clause, which is the least complex language, is a thought, which, though not fully so important as the principal thought, is more nearly coÖrdinate than subordinate in its value. It adds an additional thought of the speaker explaining the character of the Spanish language. When who and which are thus used as explanatory relatives, we see Compare the following sentences: Explanatory relative clause: That book, which is about history, has a red cover. Restrictive relative clause: The book that is about history has a red cover. Explanatory relative clause: Lincoln, who was one of the world's greatest men, was killed by Booth. Restrictive relative clause: The Lincoln that was killed by Booth was one of the world's greatest men. Note.—See §111, for rule as to the punctuation of relative clauses. 27. Interrogative Pronouns. An Interrogative Pronoun is a pronoun used to ask a question. The interrogative pronouns are, who (whose, whom), which, and what. In respect to antecedents, who should be used only in reference to persons; which and what may be used with any antecedent, persons, animals, or things. Exercise 10 Choose the proper relative or interrogative pronoun to be inserted in each of the following sentences. Insert commas where they are needed. (See §111):
28. Case Forms of Pronouns. Some personal, relative, and interrogative pronouns have distinctive forms for the different cases, and the failure to use the proper case forms in the sentence is one of the most frequent sources of error. The case to be used is to be determined by the use which the pronoun, not its antecedent, has in the sentence. In the sentence, I name him, note that him is the object of the verb name. In the sentence, Whom do you seek, although coming at the Note the following different case forms of pronouns: Nominative: I, we, you, thou, ye, he, she, they, it, who. Objective: me, us, you, thee, ye, him, her, it, them, whom. Possessive: my, mine, our, ours, thy, thine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, their, theirs, whose. It will be noted that, while some forms are the same in both the nominative and objective cases, I, we, he, she, they, thou, and who are only proper where the nominative case should be used. Me, us, him, them, thee, whom, and her, except when her is possessive, are only proper when the objective case is demanded. These forms must be remembered. It is only with these pronouns that mistakes are made in the use of the nominative and objective cases. 29. The following outline explains the use of the different case forms of the pronouns. The outline should be mastered. The Nominative Case should be used: 1. When the noun or pronoun is the subject of a finite verb; that is, a verb other than an infinitive. See 3 under Objective Case. 2. When it is an attribute complement. An attribute complement, as explained in Chapter I, is a word used in the predicate explaining or stating something about the subject. Examples: It is I, The man was he, The people were they of whom we spoke. 3. When it is used without relation to any other part of speech, as in direct address or exclamation. The Objective Case should be used: 1. When the noun or pronoun is the object of a verb; as, He named me, She deceived them, They watch us. 2. When it is the object of a preposition, expressed or understood: as, He spoke of me, For whom do you take me, He told (to) me a story. 3. When it is the subject of an infinitive; as, I told him to go, I desire her to hope. The infinitives are the parts of the verb preceded by to; as, to go, to see, to be, to have been seen, etc. The sign 4. When it is an attribute complement of an expressed subject of the infinitive to be; as, They believed her to be me, He denied it to have been him. (See Note 2 below.) The Possessive Case should be used: When the word is used as a possessive modifier; as, They spoke of her being present, The book is his (book), It is their fault. Note 1.—When a substantive is placed by the side of another substantive and is used to explain it, it is said to be in Apposition with that other substantive and takes the case of that word; as, It was given to John Smith, him whom you see there. Note 2.—The attribute complement should always have the case of that subject of the verb which is expressed in the sentence. Thus, in the sentence, I could not wish John to be him, him is properly in the objective case, since there is an expressed subject of the infinitive, John, which is in the objective case. But in the sentence, I should hate to be he, he is properly in the nominative case, since the only subject that is expressed in the sentence is I, in the nominative case. Note 3.—Where the relative pronoun who (whom) is the subject of a clause that itself is the object clause of a verb or a preposition, it is always in the nominative case. Thus the following sentences are both correct: I delivered it to who owned it, Bring home whoever will come with you. Exercise 11 Write sentences illustrating the correct use of each of the following pronouns: I, whom, who, we, me, us, they, whose, theirs, them, she, him, he, its, mine, our, thee, thou. Exercise 12 In the following sentences choose the proper form from the words in italics:
30. The Compound Personal Pronouns are formed by adding self or selves to certain of the objective and possessive personal pronouns; as, herself, myself, itself, themselves, etc. They are used to add emphasis to an expression; as, I, myself, did it, He, himself, said so. They are also used reflexively after verbs and prepositions; as, He mentioned himself, He did it for himself. The compound personal pronouns should generally be confined to their emphatic and reflexive use. Do not say, Myself and John will come, but, John and I will come. Do not say, They invited John and myself, but, They invited John and me. The compound personal pronouns have no possessive forms; but for the sake of emphasis own with the ordinary possessive form is used; as, I have my own book, Bring your own work, He has a home of his own. 31. There are no such forms as hisself, your'n, his'n, her'n, theirself, theirselves, their'n. In place of these use simply his, her, their, or your. Exercise 13 Write sentences illustrating the correct use of the following simple and compound personal pronouns: Myself, me, I, them, themselves, him, himself, her, herself, itself, our, ourselves. Exercise 14 Choose the correct form in the following sentences. Punctuate properly. (See §108):
Exercise 15 Fill the blanks in the following sentences with the proper emphatic or reflexive forms. Punctuate properly. (See §108):
32. The Compound Relative Pronouns are formed by adding ever, so, or soever to the relative pronouns, who, which, and what; as, whoever, whatever, whomever, whosoever, whoso, whosoever, etc. It will be noted that whoever, whosoever, and whoso have objective forms, whomever, whomsoever, and whomso; and possessive forms, whosoever, whosesoever, and Exercise 16 Fill the following blanks with the proper forms of the compound relatives:
33. There are certain words, called Adjective Pronouns, which are regarded as pronouns, because, although they are properly adjective in their meaning, the nouns which they modify are never expressed; as, One (there is a possessive form, 34. Some miscellaneous cautions in the use of pronouns: 1. The pronoun I should always be capitalized, and should, when used as part of a compound subject, be placed second; as, James and I were present, not I and James were present. 2. Do not use the common and grave forms of the personal pronouns in the same sentence; as, Thou wilt do this whether you wish or not. 3. Avoid the use of personal pronouns where they are unnecessary; as, John, he did it, or Mary, she said. This is a frequent error in speech. 4. Let the antecedent of each pronoun be clearly apparent. Note the uncertainty in the following sentence; He sent a box of cheese, and it was made of wood. The antecedent of it is not clear. Again, A man told his son to take his coat home. The antecedent of his is very uncertain. Such errors are frequent. In relative clauses this error may sometimes be avoided by placing the relative clause as near as possible to the noun it limits. Note the following sentence: A cat was found in the yard which wore a blue ribbon. The grammatical inference would be that the yard wore the blue ribbon. The sentence might be changed to, A cat, which wore a blue ribbon, was found in the yard. 5. Relative clauses referring to the same thing require the same relative pronoun to introduce them; as, The book that we found and the book that he lost are the same. 6. Use but that when but is a conjunction and that introduces a noun clause; as, There is no doubt but that he will go. Use but what when but is a preposition in the sense of except; as, He has no money but (except) what I gave him. 7. Them is a pronoun and should never be used as an adjective. Those is the adjective which should be used in its place; as, Those people, not, Them people. 8. Avoid using you and they indefinitely; as, You seldom hear of such things, They make chairs there. Instead, say, One seldom hears of such things, Chairs are made there. 9. Which should not be used with a clause or phrase as its antecedent. Both the following sentences are wrong: He sent me to see 10. Never use an apostrophe with the possessive pronouns, its, yours, theirs, ours and hers. Exercise 17 Correct the following sentences so that they do not violate the cautions above stated:
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