The-Grammar-of-English-Grammars-302

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"Who	taught	that	heav'n-directed	spire	to	rise?	The	Man	of	Ross,	each
lisping	babe	replies."—Pope.
OBS.	38.—In	the	classification	of	the	pronouns,	and	indeed	in	the	whole
treatment	of	them,	almost	all	our	English	grammars	are	miserably	faulty,	as	well
as	greatly	at	variance.	In	some	forty	or	fifty,	which	I	have	examined	on	this
point,	the	few	words	which	constitute	this	part	of	speech,	have	more	than	twenty
different	modes	of	distribution.	(1.)	Cardell	says,	"There	is	but	one	kind	of
pronouns"—Elements	of	Gram.,	p.	30.	(2.)	D.	Adam's,	Greenleaf,	Nutting,	and
Weld,	will	have	two	kinds;	"personal	and	relative."	(3.)	Dr.	Webster's
"Substitutes,	or	pronouns,	are	of	two	kinds:"	the	one,	"called	personal;"	the
other,	without	name	or	number.	See	his	Improved	Gram.,	p.	24.	(4.)	Many	have
fixed	upon	three	sorts;	"personal,	relative,	and	adjective;"	with	a	subdivision	of
the	last.	Of	these	is	Lindley	Murray,	in	his	late	editions,	with	his	amenders,
Ainsworth,	Alger,	Bacon,	Bullions,	Fisk,	A.	Flint,	Frost,	Guy,	Hall,	Kirkham,
Lennie,	Merchant,	Picket,	Pond,	and	S.	Putnam.	(5.)	Kirkham,	however,	changes
the	order	of	the	classes;	thus,	"personal,	adjective,	and	relative;"	and,	with
ridiculous	absurdity,	makes	mine,	thine,	hers,	ours,	yours,	and	theirs	to	be
"compounds."	(6.)	Churchill	adopts	the	plan	of	"personal,	relative,	and	adjective
pronouns;"	and	then	destroys	it	by	a	valid	argument.	(7.)	Comly,	Wilcox,	Wells,
and	Perley,	have	these	three	classes;	"personal,	relative,	and	interrogative:"	and
this	division	is	right.	(8.)	Sanborn	makes	the	following	bull:	"The	general
divisions	of	pronouns	are	into	personal,	relative,	interrogative,	and	several	sub-
divisions."—Analytical	Gram.,	p.	91.	(9.)	Jaudon	has	these	three	kinds;
"personal,	relative,	and	distributive."	(10.)	Robbins,	these;	"simple,	conjunctive,
and	interrogative."	(11.)	Lindley	Murray,	in	his	early	editions,	had	these	four;
"personal,	possessive,	relative,	and	adjective."	(12.)	Bucke	has	these;	"personal,
relative,	interrogative,	and	adjective."	(13.)	Ingersoll,	these;	"personal,	adjective,
relative,	and	interrogative."	(14.)	Buchanan;	"personal,	demonstrative,	relative,
and	interrogative."	(15.)	Coar;	"personal,	possessive	or	pronominal	adjectives,
demonstrative,	and	relative."	(16.)	Bicknell;	"personal,	possessive,	relative,	and
demonstrative."	(17.)	Cobbett;	"personal,	relative,	demonstrative,	and
indefinite."	(18)	M'Culloch;	"personal,	possessive,	relative,	and	reciprocal."
(19.)	Staniford	has	five;	"personal,	relative,	interrogative,	definitive,	and
distributive."	(20.)	Alexander,	six;	"personal,	relative,	demonstrative,
interrogative,	definitive,	and	adjective."	(21.)	Cooper,	in	1828,	had	five;
"personal,	relative,	possessive,	definite,	and	indefinite."	(22.)	Cooper,	in	1831,
six;	"personal,	relative,	definite,	indefinite,	possessive,	and	possessive
pronominal	adjectives."	(23.)	Dr.	Crombie	says:	"Pronouns	may	be	divided	into
Substantive,	and	Adjective;	Personal,	and	Impersonal;	Relative,	and
Interrogative."	(24.)	Alden	has	seven	sorts;	"personal,	possessive,	relative,
interrogative,	distributive,	demonstrative,	and	indefinite."	(25.)	R.	C.	Smith	has
many	kinds,	and	treats	them	so	badly	that	nobody	can	count	them.	In	respect	to
definitions,	too,	most	of	these	writers	are	shamefully	inaccurate,	or	deficient.
Hence	the	filling	up	of	their	classes	is	often	as	bad	as	the	arrangement.	For
instance,	four	and	twenty	of	them	will	have	interrogative	pronouns	to	be
relatives;	but	who	that	knows	what	a	relative	pronoun	is,	can	coincide	with	them
in	opinion?	Dr.	Crombie	thinks,	"that	interrogatives	are	strictly	relatives;"	and
yet	divides	the	two	classes	with	his	own	hand!
MODIFICATIONS.
Pronouns	have	the	same	modifications	as	nouns;	namely,	Persons,	Numbers,
Genders,	and	Cases.	Definitions	universally	applicable	have	already	been	given
of	all	these	things;	it	is	therefore	unnecessary	to	define	them	again	in	this	place.
OBSERVATIONS.
OBS.	1.—In	the	personal	pronouns,	most	of	these	properties	are	distinguished	by
the	words	themselves;	in	the	relative	and	the	interrogative	pronouns,	they	are
ascertained	chiefly	by	means	of	the	antecedent	and	the	verb.	Interrogative
pronouns,	however,	as	well	as	the	relatives	which,	what,	as,	and	all	the
compounds	of	who,	which,	and	what,	are	always	of	the	third	person.	Even	in
etymological	parsing,	some	regard	must	be	had	to	the	syntactical	relations	of
words.	By	modifications,	we	commonly	mean	actual	changes	in	the	forms	of
words,	by	which	their	grammatical	properties	are	inherently	distinguished;	but,
in	all	languages,	the	distinguishable	properties	of	words	are	somewhat	more
numerous	than	their	actual	variations	of	form;	there	being	certain	principles	of
universal	grammar,	which	cause	the	person,	number,	gender,	or	case,	of	some
words,	to	be	inferred	from	their	relation	to	others;	or,	what	is	nearly	the	same
thing,	from	the	sense	which	is	conveyed	by	the	sentence.	Hence,	if	in	a	particular
instance	it	happen,	that	some,	or	even	all,	of	these	properties,	are	without	any
index	in	the	form	of	the	pronoun	itself,	they	are	still	to	be	ascribed	in	parsing,
because	they	may	be	easily	and	certainly	discovered	from	the	construction.	For
example:	in	the	following	text,	it	is	just	as	easy	to	discern	the	genders	of	the