Lectures on Language - As Particularly Connected with English Grammar. by William Stevens Balch
page 64 of 261 (24%)
page 64 of 261 (24%)
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specifically _for_ other nouns, to avoid the too frequent repetition of
the same words; as, Washington was the father of his country; _he_ was a valiant officer. _We_ ought to respect _him_. The word _we_, stands for the speaker and all present, and saves the trouble of naming them; _he_ and _him_, stand for Washington, to avoid the monotony which would be produced by a recurrence of his name. Pronouns are all of one kind, and few in number. I will give you a list of them in their respective positions. _Agents._ _Objects._ { 1st person, I, me, { 2d " thou, thee, _Singular_ { 3d " mas. { he, him, { " fem. { she, her, { it, it. { 1st person, we, us, _Plural_ { 2d " ye, or you, you, { 3d " they, them, who, whom. The two last may be used in either person, number, or gender. The frequent use of these words render them very important, in the elegant and rapid use of language. They are so short, and their sound so soft and easy, that the frequency of their recurrence does not mar the beauty of a sentence, but saves us from the redundancy of other words. They are substituted only when there is little danger of mistaking the nouns for which they stand. They are, however, sometimes used in a very |
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