Chapter 138

THE INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS.

§ 463. Different nations have different methods of expressing indeterminate propositions.

Sometimes it is by the use of the passive voice. This is the common method in Latin and Greek, and is also current in English--_dicitur_, [Greek: legetai], _it is said_.

Sometimes the verb is reflective--_si dice_ = _it says itself_, Italian.

Sometimes the plural pronoun of the third person is used. This also is an English locution--_they say_ = _the world at large says_.

Finally, the use of some word = _man_ is a common indeterminate expression.

The word _man_ has an indeterminate sense in the Modern German; as _man sagt_ = _they say_.

The word _man_ was also used indeterminately in the Old English, although it is not so used in the Modern.

In the Old English, the form _man_ often lost the -n, and became _me_.--"Deutsche Grammatik." This form is also extinct.

§ 464. The present indeterminate pronoun is _one_; as _one says_ = _they say_ = _it is said_ = _man sagt_, German = _on dit_, French = _si dice_, Italian.

It has been stated, that the indeterminate pronoun _one_ has no etymological connection with the numeral _one_; but that it is derived from the French _on_ = _homme_ = _homo_ = _man_; and that it has replaced the Old English _man_ or _me_.

§ 465. Two other pronouns, or, to speak more in accordance with the present habit of the English language, one pronoun, and one adverb of pronominal origin, are also used indeterminately, viz., _it_ and _there_.

§ 466. _It_ can be either the subject or the predicate of a sentence,--_it is this_, _this is it_, _I am it_, _it is I_. When _it_ is the subject of a proposition, the verb necessarily agrees with it, and can be of the singular number only; no matter what be the number of the predicate--_it is this_, _it is these_.

When _it_ is the predicate of a proposition, the number of the verb depends upon the number of the subject. These points of universal syntax are mentioned here for the sake of illustrating some anomalous forms.

§ 467. _There_ can only be the predicate of a subject. It differs from _it_ in this respect. It follows also that it must differ from _it_ in never affecting the number of the verb. This is determined by the nature of the subject--_there is this_, _there are these_.

When we say _there is these_, the analogy between the words _these_ and _it_ misleads us; the expression being illogical.

Furthermore, although a predicate, _there_ always stands in the beginning of propositions, i.e., in the place of the subject. This also misleads.

§ 468. Although _it_, when the subject, being itself singular, absolutely requires that its verb should be singular also, there is a tendency to use it incorrectly, and to treat it as a plural. Thus, in German, when the predicate is plural, the verb joined to the singular form _es_ ( = _it_) is plural--_es sind menschen_, literally translated = _it are men_; which, though bad English, is good German.

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