PRONOUNS, one of the classes of words or parts of speech, possessing a special inter est both logical and philological. "Jam sick." " Thou knowest the truth." "John was here, but he went away again." " Peter struck the boy, who bad done him no harm." " What do you want?" The words in italics in tlic.; sentences are called pro MUM?, because they stand for (Lat. pro) nouns, or names of persons and things; and they are generally said to be used to prevent the too frequent repetition of the nouns. Yet the pronoun and the noun are not exact equivalents for each other. No noun can be an exact substitute for I, thou, or who. Pronouns are symbols, names, or highly generalized marks, applied to objects to signify, not any inherent attribute, but merely ihcir relations to the act of speaking. They Might therefore be called for instance, is a name applicable to all subjects that can be conceived as speaking. In such a sentence as " 1 am sick," in which the state, "sick," is affirmed about some one, the exact force of 1 may he thus expressed: The person of whom " sick" is affirmed is one with the person making 'Who the individual person is, the pro noun 1 gives no indication; it is implied that this is known from sonic other source. Those present learn it by bearing whence the sound comes; in a book, it is gathered from the context.
In like manner, thou is a generalized name for all persons spoken to. AVhat it means or connotes is—with reference to the example above given—that the person affirmed to know the truth, and the person to whom the affirmation is addressed, are one and the same. What particular person it denotes must be learned, as before, from circumstances. If the clause, "he went away again," stood by itself, what person is denoted by he would be still more vague than in the case of 1 and thou. He merely implies that a person, neither the speaker nor the spoken to, but one known in sonic way, is the subject of the assertion. Who it is, is determined, in the example, by John, with which lie stands in close relation. TITho designates some person already named, referring us back to that name (the antecedent) for determining the individual. What
connotes that the subject is unknown.
Pronouns are usually divided into personal and relative.
1. Personal several objects concerned in a speech or sentence stand in one or other of the three relations of speaker (first person), object spoken to (second person), object spoken about (third person). Pronouns expressive of these rela tions are called personal pronouns. They are (in the nominative case), 1st person, I, we; 2d, thou, ye or you; 3d, he, she, it, they. • Along with the personal pronouns, and most nearly related to the pronouns of the third person, may be classed the words one and that in certain constructions. In phrases like, " One cannot be sure of that," one is an indefinite pronoun, designating any person whatever. It is distinct from the numeral adjective one, being derived from the French on, which is a corruption of homme, man. When we say, " I like peaches, but let me have a a ripe one, or ripe ones," we have now the numeral used as another indA nite pronoun. The first of these indefinite pronouns is applied only_to persons; the sec ond, both to persons and things.
When we say, " Give me this, and keep that," this and that may be considered as demonstrative adjectives, with some noun understood—this (thing). But in the expres sion, " He mistook his own room for that of the stranger," that appears to be as much a pronoun as one.
2. Relative Pronouns (including Interrogative). —Relative pronouns, besides standing for nouns, have the power of conjunctions. They join sentences and clauses, by relat ing or ;referring back directly to something just named. The relatives in English are three—who, which, and that. See RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
What is used for that which, thus embracing both relative and antecedent. In phrases like "such a storm as now burst on them," as in used with the force of a rela tive pronoun. Perhaps the full expression would be " such a storm as (the storm that) burst." 3. Interrogative Pronouns are those used in asking questions; they are who, which, and what.