7. No postals will be answered. 8. I want to have letters written before I shall be plunged into that boiling pot of disagreeables which I constantly expect at Honolulu. 9. Camphor is a preventative of moths. 10. The pinch in the matter of eatables lasted for a little while only. 11. Horses get one feed of steamed food per day. electives have many you this year? 12. How 14. They had abandoned their tents and were living in the open. 15. I can't go on the next train, for that is a freight. 16. This came from an editorial in the Herald. 17. I have an invite to a spread at Memorial Hall. 18. I am going for a constitutional. 19. All my valuables are in that trunk. 20. Be sure to send a cable when you reach London. CHAPTER V PRONOUNS In the use of pronouns, the possibilities of error are so many and so varied that few writers succeed in securing absolute correctness and uniform clearness. Vulgarisms. Some blunders in the use of pronouns are, or should be, confined to the illiterate. No apostrophe should be used in forming the possessive case of a personal pronoun. "theirs," "its," 1 are correct. contraction for "it is." I He was one who was always ready to give his advice. It is impossible for me to hold both of them. "Ours," "yours," "hers," "It's" is in good use as a II He was one as was always ready to give his advice. It is impossible for me to hold the two of them. The use of as for "who," and of the noun-phrase the two for the pronoun "both," is common among the illiterate. I I will accept that as courage which [or accept as courage what] I regarded as arrogance. II I will accept that as courage what I regarded as arrogance. 1 The Oxford English Dictionary says of "its": "Formed in end of 16th century from IT+'s of the possessive or genitive case, and at first commonly written it's, a spelling retained by some to the beginning of the 19th century." In the sentence under II, what is equivalent to "that which " ; but no one would write, "I accept that as courage that which I regarded as arrogance." I What does he want here? II Whatever does he want here? Whatever is used interrogatively by the illiterate only. It is the proper word in "Whatever is, is right." Avoid vulgarisms in the use of pronouns. EXERCISE XLI Write from dictation: — 1. Since you're the visitor, the choice is yours. 2. The bear was lying on its side, dead. 3. The Browns' house is larger than ours, but ours is pleasanter than theirs. 4. Show Mary your doll; it should not grieve you that yours is not so pretty as hers. 5. “It's mine,” said the small girl, crossly, "and if I break its head, what business is it of yours?" EXERCISE XLII In place of any vulgarisms, substitute expressions that are in reputable use: 1. Good people ashore wonder whatever sailors do with their time. 2. I don't know where you're going to find the nation as moves. 3. That tree what grows on the lawn is a magnolia. 4. That's he as lives in the great stone house. 5. You don't need the two of them. There are now but seven Nominative or Objective? English words that have one form for the nominative case and another for the objective; these seven are the pronouns "I," "thou," "he," "she," "we," 66 "they," and "who" (with its compounds "whoever" and "whosoever"). Others have seen them, I believe, as well as I. The Carbottle people were quite as badly off as we. I will not learn my duty from such as thou.1 They were both somewhat taller than she. II Other people have seen them, I believe, as well as me. The Carbottle people were quite as badly off as us. I will not learn my duty from such as thee.1 They were both somewhat taller than her. "I," "we," "thou," and "she are correct; for each is the subject of a finite verb understood. In elliptical sentences like these, the meaning may turn on the case of a pronoun. Thus, in the sentence "I like you better than he," the last pronoun is the subject of a verb understood; in the sentence "I like you better than him," it is the object of a verb understood. I Another fellow, probably he who had remained to search the captain's body, came to the door. II Another fellow, probably him who had remained to search the captain's body, came to the door. Him is incorrect; for the pronoun in question is in apposition with “fellow," the subject of the verb “came.” I He looked sharply over, and called out to know if it was I. If any man is to blame, it's not he. It never entered my head that it could be they. II He looked sharply over and called out to know if it was me.2 If there's any man to blame, it's not him. It never entered my head that it could be them. In each of these examples, the pronoun in question is properly a predicate nominative after some form of the verb "be." 66 1 Quakers use thee "where others use thou." 2 In England, "It is me is used and defended by many educated persons: in the United States, "It is I" is preferred. I It was supposed to be he. We believe it to have been him. II It was supposed to be him. If we bear in mind that the verb "be" takes the same case after it as before it, we may, by determining the case of the first pronoun, easily determine that of the second. In the first example, since the infinitive has no subject of its own, the pronoun after the infinitive must be in the same case as the subject of "was supposed," - that is, the nominative; "he" is, then, correct, as it would be in the sentence "It was he." In the second example, since the infinitive has a subject of its own (namely, "it"), the pronoun after the infinitive must be in the same case as that subject, that is, the objective; "him" is, then, correct, as is plain if we remodel the sentence so as to put in place of "it" a pronoun that has a distinctive form for the objective, as "We believe him to have been her in disguise." A person who would never be guilty of saying "give I" directly may commit precisely the same fault if the 1"A great many young ladies of my acquaintance," says a recent American writer, "do not know the difference between 'you and I' and 'you and me.' I constantly hear them saying, 'He brought you and I a bouquet,' or 'You and me are invited to tea this evening."" |