Plain English Part 41

+The word for which a p.r.o.noun stands is called its antecedent.+

KINDS OF p.r.o.nOUNS

+204.+ The Latin language has had a great deal of influence upon English. Many of our words are taken from the Latin. You remember that all of the names of our parts of speech are derived from Latin words. We also feel the influence of the Latin language in the way in which we number our personal p.r.o.nouns. The Romans naturally thought that one would think of one's self first, and so the p.r.o.nouns referring to one's self, or the person speaking, are called the _first_ person p.r.o.nouns.

They are, _I_, _my_, _mine_, _me_ and _we_, _our_, _ours_, and _us_.

Then they naturally thought that one would think second of the person spoken to, so the p.r.o.nouns referring to the person spoken to are called the _second_ person p.r.o.nouns. Formerly _thou_ was used in speaking to one person. In German and many other languages this form is still used, but in English we do not today use the singular form _thou_ with its variations, _thy_, _thine_, and _thee_, except in poetry or poetic prose. In every-day speech we use _you_ and its forms, _your_ and _yours_, for both the singular and the plural.

Then the Romans considered last the person or thing of whom they were speaking; so p.r.o.nouns referring to the person or thing spoken of are called the _third_ person p.r.o.nouns. These are _he_, _she_, and _it_, with their other forms, _his_, _him_, _her_, _hers_, _its_, in the singular, and _they_, _their_, _theirs_ and _them_ in the plural.

+A personal p.r.o.noun is one that denotes the speaker, the person spoken to, or the person or thing spoken of.+

COMPOUND PERSONAL p.r.o.nOUNS

+205.+ All of these forms of p.r.o.nouns which we have named are simple forms; but we have several personal p.r.o.nouns which have a compound form; that is, a form made by the addition of _self_ or _selves_ to the simple forms.

These are called compound personal p.r.o.nouns. They are, in the singular, _myself_, _thyself_, _yourself_, _himself_, _herself_, _itself_, and in the plural, _ourselves_, _yourselves_ and _themselves_.

The compound personal p.r.o.nouns have two uses, reflexive and emphatic.

Reflexive

+206.+ A compound personal p.r.o.noun has a reflexive use when the actor becomes the object of its own action or in other words when the subject and the object refer to the same thing; as in this sentence, _He has hurt himself_, _himself_ is the object of the incomplete verb _has hurt_, but it refers to the subject _he_. Reflexive is from the Latin _re_ meaning _back_ and from the Latin verb meaning _throw_, so reflexive means literally _thrown_ back. These p.r.o.nouns throw their meaning back to the subject.

Emphatic

+207.+ A compound personal p.r.o.noun has also an emphatic use when it directs especial attention to the noun or p.r.o.noun to which it refers.

For example in the sentence, _He did the work himself_, or, _He, himself, did the work_, _himself_ gives emphasis or intensifies the meaning of the p.r.o.noun _he_.

Remember a compound personal p.r.o.noun is correctly used only in these two ways, reflexive and emphatic. For example, the following sentences are incorrect:

This is for yourself and your comrade.

Ourselves will find out the reason.

The correct form would be:

This is for you and your comrade.

We, ourselves, will find out the reason.

+208.+ You can readily distinguish between the reflexive and the emphatic use. In the reflexive, the compound personal p.r.o.noun is always the _object_ of a verb or preposition, and the subject of the sentence is its antecedent. The subject and the object always refer to the same thing.

In the emphatic use, the compound personal p.r.o.noun is neither the subject nor the object, but is thrown into the sentence simply to render it emphatic, and to call special attention to its antecedent.

Exercise 1

Supply the compound personal p.r.o.noun in the following blanks and tell whether the use is reflexive or emphatic.

1. He discovered the truth.......

2. The workers have robbed......by their ignorance.

3. You must educate.......

4. You must do the work.......

5. He must defend.......

6. Capitalism overreaches.......

7. The people will rule.......

8. We will settle the question.......

Write six sentences in which the compound personal p.r.o.nouns are correctly used.

SINGULAR AND PLURAL

+209.+ Personal p.r.o.nouns, like nouns, have number form. Nouns simply add _s_ to the singular form to denote the plural, but in personal p.r.o.nouns we have different words which we use to express one or more than one person or thing. In the first, second, and third person forms, personal p.r.o.nouns also have different forms for the object form, the possessive and the subject form. The following table gives the singular and plural of the subject form,--that is the form which is used as the subject of the sentence.

+Subject Form+

_Singular_ _Plural_

_First person._ I We _Second person._ You You _Third person._ He, she, it. They

+Compound Personal p.r.o.nouns+

_Singular_ _Plural_

_First._ Myself Ourselves _Second._ Yourself Yourselves _Third._ Himself, herself, itself. Themselves

+210.+ Remember that the first person refers to the person speaking, the second to the person spoken to, and the third person to the person or things spoken of. When we speak of things, we never use the first or second person, unless we are speaking of them in a personified form. So in the third person singular, we have the p.r.o.noun _it_ which refers to one thing. In the plural, we have no special p.r.o.noun referring to things, but the p.r.o.noun _they_ is used to refer both to persons and things.

Exercise 2

Which of the following p.r.o.nouns refer to the person speaking, which to the person spoken to, and which to the person or thing spoken of? Which are singular, which plural?

I will defend my principles.

Give them to me for they are mine.

Do you believe him to be your friend?

We saw their mistake at once.

They acknowledged it was their fault.

Success will be your portion if you persevere.

He struggles for his rights; she does not understand her rights.

It forces us to struggle for our education.

Woman craves her freedom.

Workers of the world, unite; you have a world to gain and nothing to lose but your chains.