An English Grammar Part 16

[Sidenote: _About the case of absolute p.r.o.nouns._]

88. In their function, or use in a sentence, the absolute possessive forms of the personal p.r.o.nouns are very much like adjectives used as nouns.

In such sentences as, "_The good_ alone are great," "None but _the brave_ deserves _the fair_," the words italicized have an adjective force and also a noun force, as shown in Sec. 20.

So in the sentences ill.u.s.trating absolute p.r.o.nouns in Sec. 86: _mine_ stands for _my property_, _his_ for _his property_, in the first sentence; _mine_ stands for _my praise_ in the second. But the first two have a nominative use, and _mine_ in the second has an objective use.

They may be spoken of as possessive in form, but nominative or objective in use, according as the modified word is in the nominative or the objective.

III. The Objective.

[Sidenote: _The old_ dative _case._]

89. In Old English there was one case which survives in use, but not in form. In such a sentence as this one from Thackeray, "Pick _me_ out a whip-cord thong with some dainty knots in it," the word _me_ is evidently not the direct object of the verb, but expresses _for whom_, _for whose benefit_, the thing is done. In p.r.o.nouns, this dative use, as it is called, was marked by a separate case.

[Sidenote: _Now the objective._]

In Modern English the same _use_ is frequently seen, but the _form_ is the same as the objective. For this reason a word thus used is called a dative-objective.

The following are examples of the dative-objective:--

Give _me_ neither poverty nor riches.--_Bible._

Curse _me_ this people.--_Id._

Both joined in making _him_ a present.--MACAULAY

Is it not enough that you have _burnt me_ down three houses with your dog's tricks, and be hanged to you!--LAMB

I give _thee_ this to wear at the collar.--SCOTT

[Sidenote: _Other uses of the objective._]

90. Besides this use of the objective, there are others:--

(1) _As the direct object of a verb._

They all handled _it_.--LAMB

(2) _As the object of a preposition._

Time is behind _them_ and before _them_.--CARLYLE.

(3) _In apposition._

She sate all last summer by the bedside of the blind beggar, _him_ that so often and so gladly I talked with.--DE QUINCEY.

SPECIAL USES OF PERSONAL p.r.o.nOUNS.

[Sidenote: _Indefinite use of_ you _and_ your.]

91. The word _you_, and its possessive case _yours_ are sometimes used without reference to a particular person spoken to. They approach the indefinite p.r.o.noun in use.

_Your_ mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, was pa.s.sed by with indulgence.--IRVING

To empty here, _you_ must condense there.--EMERSON.

The peasants take off their hats as _you_ pa.s.s; _you_ sneeze, and they cry, "G.o.d bless you!" The thrifty housewife shows _you_ into her best chamber. _You_ have oaten cakes baked some months before.--LONGFELLOW

[Sidenote: _Uses of_ it.]

92. The p.r.o.noun _it_ has a number of uses:--

(1) _To refer to some single word preceding_; as,--

Ferdinand ordered the _army_ to recommence _its_ march.--BULWER.

_Society_, in this century, has not made _its_ progress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness of ingenuity in trifles.--D. WEBSTER.

(2) _To refer to a preceding word group_; thus,--

If any man should do wrong merely out of ill nature, why, yet _it_ is but like the thorn or brier, which p.r.i.c.k and scratch because they can do no other.--BACON.

Here _it_ refers back to the whole sentence before it, or to the idea, "any man's doing wrong merely out of ill nature."

(3) _As a grammatical subject, to stand for the real, logical subject, which follows the verb_; as in the sentences,--

_It_ is easy in the world _to live after the world's opinion_.

--EMERSON.

_It_ is this _haziness_ of intellectual vision which is the malady of all cla.s.ses of men by nature.--NEWMAN.

_It_ is a pity _that he has so much learning, or that he has not a great deal more_.--ADDISON.

(4) _As an impersonal subject in certain expressions which need no other subject_; as,--

_It_ is finger-cold, and prudent farmers get in their barreled apples.--Th.o.r.eAU.

And when I awoke, _it_ rained.--COLERIDGE.