An English Grammar Part 15

[Sidenote: _Use of the p.r.o.nouns in personification._]

83. The p.r.o.nouns _he_ and _she_ are often used in poetry, and sometimes in ordinary speech, to personify objects (Sec. 34).

CASES OF PERSONAL p.r.o.nOUNS.

I The Nominative.

[Sidenote: _Nominative forms._]

84. The nominative forms of personal p.r.o.nouns have the same uses as the nominative of nouns (see Sec. 58). The case of most of these p.r.o.nouns can be determined more easily than the case of nouns, for, besides a nominative _use_, they have a nominative form. The words _I_, _thou_, _he_, _she_, _we_, _ye_, _they_, are very rarely anything but nominative in literary English, though _ye_ is occasionally used as objective.

[Sidenote: _Additional nominatives in spoken English._]

85. In spoken English, however, there are some others that are added to the list of nominatives: they are, _me_, _him_, _her_, _us_, _them_, when they occur in the _predicate position_. That is, in such a sentence as, "I am sure it was _him_," the literary language would require _he_ after _was_; but colloquial English regularly uses as predicate nominatives the forms _me_, _him_, _her_, _us_, _them_, though those named in Sec. 84 are always subjects. Yet careful speakers avoid this, and follow the usage of literary English.

II. The Possessive.

[Sidenote: _Not a separate cla.s.s._]

86. The forms _my_, _thy_, _his_, _her_, _its_, _our_, _your_, _their_, are sometimes grouped separately as POSSESSIVE p.r.o.nOUNS, but it is better to speak of them as the possessive case of personal p.r.o.nouns, just as we speak of the possessive case of nouns, and not make more cla.s.ses.

[Sidenote: Absolute _personal p.r.o.nouns._]

The forms _mine_, _thine_, _yours_, _hers_, _theirs_, sometimes _his_ and _its_, have a peculiar use, standing apart from the words they modify instead of immediately before them. From this use they are called ABSOLUTE PERSONAL p.r.o.nOUNS, or, some say, ABSOLUTE POSSESSIVES.

As instances of the use of absolute p.r.o.nouns, note the following:--

'Twas _mine_, 'tis _his_, and has been slave to thousands.

--SHAKESPEARE.

And since thou own'st that praise, I spare thee _mine_.--COWPER.

My arm better than _theirs_ can ward it off.--LANDOR.

_Thine_ are the city and the people of Granada.--BULWER.

[Sidenote: _Old use of_ mine _and_ thine.]

Formerly _mine_ and _thine_ stood before their nouns, if the nouns began with a vowel or _h_ silent; thus,--

Shall I not take _mine_ ease in _mine_ inn?--SHAKESPEARE.

Give every man _thine_ ear, but few thy voice.--_Id._

If _thine_ eye offend thee, pluck it out.--_Bible._

My greatest apprehension was for _mine_ eyes.--SWIFT.

This usage is still preserved in poetry.

[Sidenote: _Double and triple possessives._]

87. The forms _hers_, _ours_, _yours_, _theirs_, are really double possessives, since they add the possessive _s_ to what is already a regular possessive inflection.

Besides this, we have, as in nouns, a possessive phrase made up of the preposition _of_ with these double possessives, _hers_, _ours_, _yours_, _theirs_, and with _mine_, _thine_, _his_, sometimes _its_.

[Sidenote: _Their uses._]

Like the noun possessives, they have several uses:--

(1) _To prevent ambiguity_, as in the following:--

I have often contrasted the habitual qualities of that gloomy friend _of theirs_ with the astounding spirits of Thackeray and d.i.c.kens.--J.T. FIELDS.

No words _of ours_ can describe the fury of the conflict.--J.F.

COOPER.

(2) _To bring emphasis_, as in these sentences:--

This thing _of yours_ that you call a Pardon of Sins, it is a bit of rag-paper with ink.--CARLYLE.

This ancient silver bowl _of mine_, it tells of good old times.

--HOLMES.

(3) _To express contempt, anger, or satire_; for example,--

"Do you know the charges that unhappy sister _of mine_ and her family have put me to already?" says the Master.--THACKERAY.

He [John Knox] had his pipe of Bordeaux too, we find, in that old Edinburgh house _of his_.--CARLYLE.

"Hold thy peace, Long Allen," said Henry Woodstall, "I tell thee that tongue _of thine_ is not the shortest limb about _thee_."--SCOTT.

(4) _To make a noun less limited in application_; thus,--

A favorite liar and servant _of mine_ was a man I once had to drive a brougham.--THACKERAY.

In New York I read a newspaper criticism one day, commenting upon a letter _of mine_.--_Id._

What would the last two sentences mean if the word _my_ were written instead of _of mine_, and preceded the nouns?