CHAPTER IV.

SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS.

s. 498. The syntax of substantives is, in English, simple, from the paucity of its inflections, a condition which is unfavourable towards the evolution of constructional complexities; the most remarkable exception being the phenomenon of convertibility noticed above.

The same is the case with adjectives. The want of inflexion simplifies their syntax equally with that of the substantives.

But with the pronouns this is not the case. Here we have--

1. Signs of gender; 2. Signs of case; 3. Signs of number, to a greater extent, and with more peculiarities, than elsewhere.

Furthermore, the pronouns exhibit in a great degree the phenomena of conversion indicated in p. 400.

s. 499. _Pleonasm in the syntax of pronouns._--In the following sentences the words in italics are pleonastic.

1. The king _he_ is just. 2. I saw _her_, the queen. 3. The _men_, they were there. 4. The king, _his_ crown.

Of these forms, the first is more common than the second and third, and the fourth more common than the first.

s. 500. The fourth has another element of importance. It has given rise to the absurd notion that the genitive case in _-s_ (_father-s_) is a contraction from _his_ (_father his_).

To say nothing about the inapplicability of this rule to feminine genders, and plural numbers, the whole history of the Indo-Germanic languages is against it. {408}

1. We cannot reduce _the queen's majesty_ to _the queen his majesty_.

2. We cannot reduce _the children's bread_ to _the children his bread_.

3. The Anglo-Saxon forms are in _-es_, not in _his_.

4. The word _his_ itself must be accounted for; and that cannot be done by assuming to be _he_ + _his_.

5. The _-s_ in _father's_ is the _-is_ in _patris_, and the -[Greek: os] in [Greek: pateros].

s. 501. The preceding examples illustrate an apparent paradox, _viz._, the fact of pleonasm and ellipsis being closely allied. _The king he is just_, dealt with as a _single_ sentence, is undoubtedly pleonastic. But it is not necessary to be considered as a mere simple sentence. _The king_--may represent a first sentence incomplete, whilst _he is just_ represents a second sentence in full. What is pleonasm in a single sentence, is ellipsis in a double one.

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