Naught is 'ne +aught,' of which the adverb not is merely a shortened form.

133. VII. Distributive Pronouns.

Each is a corruption of 'ever-like.' It can be used both as noun and as adjective: 'Give one to each,' 'Give one to each boy.'

Every is a corruption of 'ever-each,' and is used only when more than two are referred to. It is not employed in modern English as a noun, but must always be followed by a noun.

Either contains as its elements 'aye-whether': in its constituent part whether, the suffix ther marks duality or comparison, as in other, further. Either means 'one of two,' but sometimes occurs with the meaning 'each of two;' e.g. 'on either side of the river was there the tree of life.' (Rev. xxii. 2). Its negative is neither.

Each other and one another are used after a transitive verb to express reciprocity of the action. When we say 'They hate each other,' we mean that the feeling is mutual. Each other is used of two agents and objects, one another of more than two. The construction of the two parts of these compound expressions is different: each and one stand for the agents or subjects, other and another for the objects; thus

"They hate each (subject) the other (object),'

'They hate one (subject) another (object),'

each and one being in apposition with the subject they. But the grammatical relation of these Reciprocal Pronouns has been lost sight of in common use. If we still recognised their original construction, we should say "They gave a present each to the other,' or 'one to another,' instead of saying, as we do, 'They gave a present to each other,' or "They gave presents to one another.'

The forms my, thy, its, were dealt with when we discussed the pronouns of the First, Second, and Third Persons. Mine and thine contain a genitive inflexion n: this n has been dropped in my and thy, which are shortened forms of mine and thine, just as a is a shortened form of an. The r in our, your, their, is a genitive plural inflexion.

Our, your, their, her, give rise to secondary forms ours, yours, theirs, hers, containing s which was originally an inflexion of the genitive singular only. They are thus double genitive forms, just as children is a double plural, nearer a double comparative, and inmost a double superlative.

It has already been pointed out that in modern speech we employ the Possessives belonging to the two groups with this difference:

We use my, thy, her, its, our, your, their, if a noun immediately follows them:

We use mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, theirs, if the noun which they limit does not follow them:

His is used in both ways, but its only when followed by

a noun.

Thus we say 'Give me my book and take yours,' not 'Give me mine book and take your.' But we say 'This is his book' and 'This book is his.'

In the diction of poetry, mine and thine occur with nouns following them, if the nouns begin with a vowel sound: 'mine eye,' 'mine ear,' ' thine honour.'

135. Before leaving the subject of Pronouns, the reader should notice how inflexions, which have disappeared from nouns and adjectives, have survived in words belonging to this part of speech. Hi-m preserves the form of the dative singular, the-m the form of the dative plural; the in our, your, her, is a sign of the genitive; the t in it, what, that, marks the neuter gender.

QUESTIONS.

I. Rewrite the following sentence without using any of the Pronouns:-'The policeman accompanied the prisoner's sister to his house and told her that she was to let him know if she received any further annoyance from her brother or his confederates.'

2. Refer to its class each of the Pronouns in the following

sentences:

'Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed '

'Who shall be true to us,

When we are so unsecret to ourselves?'

'Whatsoe'er thine ill

It must be borne, and these wild starts are useless.'

'And I myself sometimes despise myself.'

'What everybody says must be true.'-'Some that speak no ill of any do no good to any.'-'Their sound went into all the earth.'-'One may be sure of this, that one must be something to do something.'— 'What is my life if I am no longer to be of use to others?'-'Eat such things as are set before you.'-'Whether of them twain did the will of his father?'-'Anything for a quiet life.'-'That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.'-'He is a wise man who knows what is wise.'-'That is but an empty purse that is full of another's money.'

3. How far may he, she, and it, be correctly classed as Personal Pronouns? In what respect do they differ from I and thou?

[When a speaker says I or thou, the persons to whom he refers are clearly identified. The meaning of he, on the contrary, would be as indefinite as possible, unless the previous remarks enabled us to limit the application of the word.]

4.

Define Pronoun and Reflexive Pronoun.

Name the other classes of Pronouns and give one example of each. Place in their proper classes ours, that, which, each.

5. Distinguish between the use of a Personal and a Relative Pronoun. Illustrate your explanation by reference to the two sentences: 'My brother who came is gone,' 'My brother came, but he is gone.'

6. State the rule of syntax respecting the agreement of the Relative Pronoun.

Give two illustrations of the omission of the Relative, and make a sentence in which but is used with the force of a Relative.

7. Write three short sentences in which the nominative, possessive, and objective cases of who, used as a Relative Pronoun, respectively

Occur.

8. 'A gate which opened to them of his own accord' (Acts xii. 10). Why is his used here?

9. Enumerate some of the principal uses of the word one.

IO. Point out anything faulty in the following sentences: 'You may take either of the nine.'

'There goes John with both his dogs on either side of him.'

‘Between every stitch she would look up to see what was going on in the street.'

[Every is distributive and singular. It must have been at least 'every two stitches' or 'every stitch and the next' (or 'the last') that she looked between.]

134

CHAPTER XV.

VERBS.

136. A Verb is a word with which we can make an assertion.

We make assertions about things. The word which stands for the thing about which we make the assertion is called the subject of the verb, or the subject of the sentence. As the names of things are nouns, the subject must be a noun or its equivalent, such as a pronoun, a verb in the infinitive mood, or a noun-clause. Thus we may say

Error (Noun)
It (Pronoun)

To err (Infinitive)

That one should err (Noun-clause)

is human.

When we make an assertion about a thing, we are said in grammatical language to predicate something about the thing. As no assertion can be made without the use of a verb, the verb is called the Predicate of the subject, or of the sentence in which it occurs.

What is asserted is either action or state. Action is asserted when we say 'The prisoner stole the watch,' 'The watch was stolen by the prisoner,' 'The prisoner ran away.' State is asserted when we say 'The prisoner was glad,' "The prisoner continued unrepentant,' 'The prisoner slept soundly.'