Chapter VI

THE PRONOUN AND THE NUMERAL

THE PRONOUN

As we have already seen (p. 30), the definition of pronouns as a separate part of speech has caused many difficulties. More than Once in the history of linguistics the very existence of pronouns as a part of speech has been denied. ¹ However, attempts of this kind have not proved successful and in present-day grammars, both English and Russian, pronouns are recognised as a part of speech. This in itself seems to prove that they indeed have some peculiar features which cannot be "explained away".

Thus, the pronouns I, you, he, etc., though pointing to things (in the widest sense of the word) and in so far resembling nouns, cannot as a rule be modified by adjectives. (Phrases like poor me appear to be rare.) These pronouns differ from nouns in that they cannot be connected with any article, or modified by a prepositional phrase, etc. We will therefore start on the assumption that pronouns do constitute a separate part of speech, and proceed to investigate their grammatical properties.

CLASSIFICATION OF PRONOUNS

We usually find in grammars a classification of pronouns into personal, possessive, interrogative, indefinite, relative, etc. It is clear, however, that some points in that classification are not grammatical at all. Thus, if we say, for example, that a pronoun is indefinite we do not characterise it from a grammatical but from a semantic point of view. There is no doubt that the pronoun something is indefinite in its meaning, but that indefiniteness of meaning is in no way reflected either in its morphological properties or in its syntactical functions. This is as much as to say that the indefiniteness of its meaning is irrelevant from the grammatical viewpoint. In a similar way, if we state that the pronoun nothing is negative, we characterise its meaning (and a most important characteristic it is, too), but, again, this is irrelevant for grammar, since it does not entail anything concerning the morphological or syntactical peculiarities of the word. Therefore, in proceeding to a study of pronouns, we will try to keep the grammatical viewpoint firmly in mind, though this will not always be an easy thing to do.

CASE

In dealing with the category of case in pronouns, we must bear in mind that they need not in this respect be similar to nouns.

¹ See, for example, Л. В. Щерба, О частях речи в русском языке. Избранные работы по русскому языку, 1957, стр. 68 сл.

The Pronoun 67

Some of them may, and indeed do, have peculiarities which no noun shares.

Some pronouns distinguish between two cases which are best termed nominative and objective (instead of nominative we might also say subjective). These are the following:

Nomin. I he she (it) we (you) they who Obj. me him her (it) us (you) them whom

The two pronouns in brackets, it and you, might have been left out of the list. We have included them because they share many other peculiarities with the pronouns I, he, she, we, and they. No other pronoun, and, indeed, no other word in the language has that kind of case system.

A certain number of pronouns have a different case system, viz. they distinguish between a common and a genitive case, in the same way as the nouns treated above (see p. 41 ff.). These are, somebody, anybody, one, another, and a few more.

All other pronouns have no category of case (something, anything, nothing, everything, some, any, no, my, his, etc.; mine, hers, etc.).

The case system in pronouns of the somebody type is identical with that of the nouns of the father type. So we need not go into this question any further.

The case system of the pronouns given on this page, on the other hand, is quite isolated in the language, and requires special investigation.

It is very well known that the form me, which is an objective case form, is not only used in the function of object (direct or indirect), but also as predicative, in sentences like It is me. The sentence It is I, though still possible, is rarely used: it has acquired a kind of archaic flavour as its stylistic peculiarity and has therefore become inappropriate in colloquial speech. However, in the construction it is... who the form I is usual: "It's I who am tiresome" he replied. (FORSTER) As to the other pronouns of this group, the sentences It is him, It is her, It is us, It is them, with the objective case form used as a predicative, do occur, but they seem still to have a somewhat careless or "low colloquial" colouring and they have not superseded the variants It is he, It is she, It is we, It is they. Here is an example: No, I don't suppose it will prove to be them. (FORSTER)

The form me can occasionally be found in the function of subject, provided it does not immediately precede the predicate verb, as in the sentence: That's the law of the state, Ham, and there's nothing me or you can do about it. (E. CALDWELL) The form me could not have been used here if there had not been the second subject you, in the sentence. This confirms the view that stress plays

С8 The Pronoun and the Numeral

an important part in determining the use of I or me in such conditions. The form her as subject is found, for instance, in the following sentence from a short story by the same author. Lujean's the likable kind. You and her will get along just fine before you know it. (E. CALDWELL) It should be noted, however, that the form her is possible here because it is part of the group you and her, and therefore gets some sentence-stress. If a feminine pronoun were to be the only subject of the sentence, the form would have to be she, no matter what the style of the sentence was.

Opinions on the precise stylistic colouring of such sentences differ to some extent. What seems certain here is that the nominative forms I, he, etc. are being gradually restricted to the function of subject, whereas the objective case forms me, him, etc., are taking over all other functions. This process seems to have gone further with the 1st person singular pronoun than with the others; the reason for this is not yet clear. It is the isolated position of this case system in the language which must be held responsible for the change. The distinction between I, he, she, we, they, on the one hand, and me, him, her, us, them, on the other, is thus changed from a case distinction to one of a different character — that of unstressed and stressed forms of pronouns. This is similar to the process which has long since been completed in the French language (and in other Romance languages, such as Italian, or Spanish), where the original nominative form (e. g. French je, from Latin ego) has been restricted to the function of subject of the sentence, whereas the original objective case form (e. g. French moi, from Latin me) has taken over its other functions, mainly that of predicative. Cf. Je suis ici 'I am here' and C'est moi 'it is me'; Il est ici 'he is here' and C'est lui 'it is he (him)'. The development in Modern English seems to be following the same lines, on the whole, but it does differ from the French in so far as the use of I as a predicative is still quite possible, whereas in French that possibility is completely lost for the forms je, tu, etc. Here is a curious example from a modern play by S. Taylor:

Maude (suspecting). Is there someone you want to marry?

(Sabrina nods) Who is it?

Sabrina (turning to Linus). Him!

Linus. For God's sake, Sabrina, watch your grammar.

Sabrina. It is he!

With the pronoun who the development is partly similar, and partly different. It is similar in the main point: the case difference between who and whom is quite obviously disappearing. But here it is the original objective case form that is giving way, and it is no longer preserved in any specific syntactic function. Thus, the sentence whom did you see? is being superseded by the variant, who

The Pronoun 69

did you see?, and, similarly, who tends to take the place of whom in such sentences as, This is the man who(m) you wanted to see.

Examples of this use are found as early as in Shakespeare, for instance Between who? ("Hamlet"), and also occur in the 18th century, for instance in a novel by Jane Austen in a conversation between educated speakers: But who are you looking for? Are your sisters coming? An example from a modern play: Who were you private secretary to? (TAYLOR)

E. Sapir has devoted several pages of his book on language to a detailed discussion of all factors contributing to the use of who instead of whom in such contexts. ¹ Be that as it may, the gradual elimination of the objective form whom is beyond doubt.

Thus the general tendency is clearly towards the disappearance of the opposition between nominative and objective in pronouns.

NUMBER

It ought to be emphasised that what we mean here is the grammatical category of number, and the question is, in what pronouns and to what extent that category is actually found.

, It will be easily seen that the category of number has only a very restricted field in pronouns. It is found in the pronouns this/ these, that / those, other / others (if not used before a noun). We need not dwell here on the very peculiar means which are used to form the plural of this and of that. The question is one of the history of English, rather than of Modern English structure. We can limit ourselves to the statement that the method by which each of the two words forms its plural is quite individual and unanalysable from the viewpoint of the modern language.

As to the pronouns I / we; he, she, it / they, it must be stated that there is no grammatical category of number here. We is not a form of the pronoun I, but a separate word in its own right. In a similar way, they is not a form of he, or she, or it, or of all of them, but a separate word.

There is no grammatical category of number either in the pronouns my / our; his, her, its / their, and mine / ours; his, hers / theirs. E. g., her and their are different words, not different forms of one word.

A peculiar difficulty arises here with reference to the pronouns myself / (ourself), ourselves; yourself / yourselves; himself, herself, itself / themselves.

If we compare the two pronouns myself and ourselves, we shall see at once that the difference between the first elements of the two words is purely lexical (just as in the corresponding words my

¹ E. Sapir, Language, 1921, pp. 166—174.

70 The Pronoun and the Numeral

and our), whereas the second elements differ from each other by the same suffix -s that is used to form the plural of most nouns. ¹ Thus we are brought to the conclusion that ourselves is essentially a different word from myself.

There are no other grammatical categories in the English pronoun: there is no category of gender. The pronouns he, she, it, and also the pronouns his, her, Us; his, hers; himself, herself, itself, are all separate words. Thus, she is not a form of the word he but a separate word in its own right.

Поиск по сайту: