III.—SYNTAX OF THE
PRONOUN.
RULE XXI.—Pronouns,
whether personal or
relative, must agree in
gender, number, and person
with the nouns for which they stand, but not (necessarily) in case.
Thus we say: “I have lost my umbrella: it was standing in the corner.”
(i) Here it
is
neuter, singular, and third person, because
umbrella is neuter, singular,
and third person.
(ii) Umbrella
is in the objective case governed by have lost;
but it
is in the nominative, because it is the subject to its own verb was standing.
RULE XXII.—Pronouns,
whether personal or
relative, take their case
from the sentence
in which they stand.
<page 75>
Thus we say: “The sailor whom we met on the beach is ill.” Here sailor is in the
nominative, and whom,
its pronoun, in the objective.
(i) Whom is in the objective, because it is
governed by the verb met
in its own sentence. ‘“The sailor is ill” is
one sentence.’ “Him (whom = and
him) we met” is a second
sentence.
(ii) The relative may be governed by a
preposition, as “The man on whom I relied has not disappointed me.”
RULE XXIII.— Who, whom, and
whose are used only of rational
beings; which
of irrational; that may stand for nouns of any kind.
(i) In poetry,
whose may be used for of which. Thus Wordsworth, in the ‘Laodamia,’ has—
“In worlds whose course is equable and pure.”
RULE XXIV.—The possessive pronouns
mine, thine, ours, yours,
and
theirs can only be used
predicatively;
or, if used as a subject,
cannot have a noun with them.
Thus we say: “This is mine.” “Mine is
larger than yours.” But mine
and thine
are used for my
and thy
before a noun in poetry and impassioned prose: “Who knoweth the power of thine
anger?”
RULE XXV.—After such, same, so much, so great, etc., the relative employed is not
who,
but as.
Thus Milton has—
“Tears such as
angels weep.”
(i) Shakespeare uses as
even after that—
“That
gentleness as
I was wont to have.”
This usage cannot now be employed.
Remarks on Exceptions.
1. The antecedent
to the relative may be
omitted.
Thus we find, in Wordsworth’s “Ode to
Duty”—
“There are ^ who ask not if thine eye
Be on them.”
And Shakespeare, in “Othello,”
iii.3.157, has—
“ ^ Who steals my purse, steals trash.”
And we have the well-known Greek
proverb—
“ ^ Whom the gods love, die young
<page 76>
2.
The relative
itself may be omitted.
(i) Thus Shelley has the line—
“Men must reap the things ^ they sow.”
(ii) And such phrases as, “Is this the
book ^ you wanted?” are very common.
3. The word but is often used for who + not.
It may hence be called the
negative-relative.
Thus Scott has—
“There breathes not clansman of my line
But
(= who not) would have given his life for mine.”
4. The personal pronouns, when in the
dative or objective case, are generally without emphasis.
(i) If we say “Give me your hand,” the me
is unemphatic. If we say “Give me
your hand!” the me
has a stronger emphasis than the give,
and means me,
and not
any other person.
(ii) Very ludicrous accidents sometimes
occur from the misplacing of the accent. Thus a careless reader once read: “And
he said, ‘Saddle me the ass;’ and they saddled him.”
Nelson’s famous signal, “England expects every man to do his duty,” was once
altered in emphasis with excellent effect. A midshipman on board one of H.M.’s
ships was very lazy, and inclined to allow others to do his work; and the
question went round the vessel: “Why is Mr So-and-so like England?” “Because he
expects every man to do his
duty.”
