Chapter 131

THE TRUE PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

§ 439. _Personal pronouns._--The use of the second person plural instead of the second singular has been noticed already. This use of one number for another is current throughout the Gothic languages. A pronoun so used is conveniently called the _pronomen reverentiæ_.

§ 440. _Dativus ethicus._--In the phrase

Rob me the exchequer,--_Henry IV._,

the _me_ is expletive, and is equivalent to _for me_. This expletive use of the dative is conveniently called the _dativus ethicus_.

§ 441. _The reflected personal pronoun._--In the English language there is no equivalent to the Latin _se_, the German _sich_, and the Scandinavian _sik_, and _sig_.

It follows from this that the word _self_ is used to a greater extent than would otherwise be the case.

_I strike me_ is awkward, but not ambiguous.

_Thou strikest thee_ is awkward, but not ambiguous.

_He strikes him_ is ambiguous; inasmuch as _him_ may mean either the _person who strikes_ or some one else. In order to be clear we add the word _self_ when the idea is reflective. _He strikes himself_ is, at once idiomatic and unequivocal.

So it is with the plural persons.

_We strike us_ is awkward, but not ambiguous.

_Ye strike you_ is the same.

_They strike them_ is ambiguous.

This shows the value of a reflective pronoun for the third person.

As a general rule, therefore, whenever we use a verb reflectively we use the word _self_ in combination with the personal pronoun.

Yet this was not always the case. The use of the simple personal pronoun was current in Anglo-Saxon, and that, not only for the first two persons, but for the third as well.

The exceptions to this rule are either poetical expressions, or imperative moods.

He sat _him_ down at a pillar's base.--BYRON.

Sit thee down.

§ 442. _Reflective neuters._--In the phrase _I strike me_, the verb _strike_ is transitive; in other words, the word _me_ expresses the object of an action, and the meaning is different from the meaning of the simple expression _I strike_.

In the phrase _I fear me_ (used by Lord Campbell in his lives of the Chancellors), the verb _fear_ is intransitive or neuter; in other words, the word _me_ (unless, indeed, _fear_ mean _terrify_), expresses no object of any action at all; whilst the meaning is the same as in the simple expression _I fear_.

Here the reflective pronoun appears out of place, i.e., after a neuter or intransitive verb.

Such a use, however, is but the fragment of an extensive system of reflective verbs thus formed, developed in different degrees in the different Gothic languages; but in all more than in the English.

§ 443. _Equivocal reflectives._--The proper place of the reflective is _after_ the verb.

The proper place of the governing pronoun is, in the indicative and subjunctive moods, _before_ the verb.

Hence in expressions like the preceding there is no doubt as to the power of the pronoun.

The imperative mood, however, sometimes presents a complication. Here the governing person may follow the verb.

_Mount ye_ = either _be mounted_, or _mount yourselves_. In phrases like this, and in phrases

_Busk ye, busk ye_, my bonny, bonny bride, _Busk ye, busk ye_, my winsome marrow,

the construction is ambiguous. _Ye_ may either be a nominative case governing the verb _busk_, or an accusative case governed by it.

This is an instance of what may be called the _equivocal reflective_.

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