ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS.

 

Each other, one another.

 

421. The student is sometimes troubled whether to use each other or one another in expressing reciprocal relation or action. Whether either one refers to a certain number of persons or objects, whether or not the two are equivalent, may be gathered from a study of the following sentences:—

 

They [Ernest and the poet] led one another, as it were, into the high pavilion of their thoughts.—Hawthorne.

 

Men take each other's measure when they meet for the first time.—Emerson.

 

You ruffian! do you fancy I forget that we were fond of each other?—Thackeray.

 

England was then divided between kings and Druids, always at war with one another, carrying off each other's cattle and wives.—Brewer

 

The topics follow each other in the happiest order.—Macaulay.

 

The Peers at a conference begin to pommel each other.—Id.

 

We call ourselves a rich nation, and we are filthy and foolish enough to thumb each other's books out of circulating libraries.—Ruskin.

 

The real hardships of life are now coming fast upon us; let us not increase them by dissension among each other.—Goldsmith.

 

In a moment we were all shaking hands with one another.—Dickens.

 

The unjust purchaser forces the two to bid against each other.—Ruskin.

 

Distributives either and neither.

 

422. By their original meaning, either and neither refer to only two persons or objects; as, for example,—

 

Someone must be poor, and in want of his gold—or his corn. Assume that no one is in want of either.—Ruskin

 

Their [Ernest's and the poet's] minds accorded into one strain, and made delightful music which neither could have claimed as all his own.—Hawthorne.

 

Use of any.

 

Sometimes these are made to refer to several objects, in which case any should be used instead; as,—

 

Was it the winter's storm? was it hard labor and spare meals? was it disease? was it the tomahawk? Is it possible that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope?—Everett.

 

Once I took such delight in Montaigne ...; before that, in Shakespeare; then in Plutarch; then in Plotinus; at one time in Bacon; afterwards in Goethe; even in Bettine; but now I turn the pages of either of them languidly, whilst I still cherish their genius.—Emerson.

Any usually plural.

 

423. The adjective pronoun any is nearly always regarded as plural, as shown in the following sentences:—

 

If any of you have been accustomed to look upon these hours as mere visionary hours, I beseech you, etc.—Beecher

 

Whenever, during his stay at Yuste, any of his friends had died, he had been punctual in doing honor to their memory.—Stirling.

 

But I enjoy the company and conversation of its inhabitants, when any of them are so good as to visit me.—Franklin.

 

Do you think, when I spoke anon of the ghosts of Pryor's children, I mean that any of them are dead?—Thackeray.

 

In earlier Modern English, any was often singular; as,—

 

If any, speak; for him have I offended.—Shakespeare.

 

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.—Bible.

 

Very rarely the singular is met with in later times; as,—

 

Here is a poet doubtless as much affected by his own descriptions as any that reads them can be.—Burke.

 

Caution.

 

The above instances are to be distinguished from the adjective any, which is plural as often as singular.

 

None usually plural.

 

424. The adjective pronoun none is, in the prose of the present day, usually plural, although it is historically a contraction of ne ān (not one). Examples of its use are,—

 

In earnest, if ever man was; as none of the French philosophers were.—Carlyle.

 

None of Nature's powers do better service.—Prof. Dana

 

One man answers some question which none of his contemporaries put, and is isolated.—Emerson.

 

None obey the command of duty so well as those who are free from the observance of slavish bondage.—Scott.

 

Do you think, when I spoke anon of the ghosts of Pryor's children, I mean that any of them are dead? None are, that I know of.—Thackeray.

 

Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August; but I think none of them are so good to eat as some to smell.—Thoreau.

 

The singular use of none is often found in the Bible; as,—

 

None of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.—Luke iv 27

 

Also the singular is sometimes found in present-day English in prose, and less rarely in poetry; for example,—

 

Perhaps none of our Presidents since Washington has stood so firm in the confidence of the people.—Lowell

 

In signal none his steed should spare.—Scott

 

Like the use of any, the pronoun none should be distinguished from the adjective none, which is used absolutely, and hence is more likely to confuse the student.

 

Compare with the above the following sentences having the adjective none:—

 

Reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none [no sky] was visible overhead.—Thoreau

 

The holy fires were suffered to go out in the temples, and none [no fires] were lighted in their own dwellings.—Prescott

All singular and plural.

 

425. The pronoun all has the singular construction when it means everything; the plural, when it means all persons: for example,—

Singular.

 

The light troops thought ... that all was lost.—Palgrave

 

All was won on the one side, and all was lost on the other.—Bayne

 

Having done all that was just toward others.—Napier

Plural.

 

But the King's treatment of the great lords will be judged leniently by all who remember, etc.—Pearson.

 

When all were gone, fixing his eyes on the mace, etc.—Lingard

 

All who did not understand French were compelled, etc.—Mcmaster.

Somebody's else, or somebody else's?

 

426. The compounds somebody else, any one else, nobody else, etc., are treated as units, and the apostrophe is regularly added to the final word else instead of the first. Thackeray has the expression somebody's else, and Ford has nobody's else, but the regular usage is shown in the following selections:—

 

A boy who is fond of somebody else's pencil case.—G. Eliot.

 

A suit of clothes like somebody else's.—Thackeray.

 

Drawing off his gloves and warming his hands before the fire as benevolently as if they were somebody else's.—Dickens.

 

Certainly not! nor anyone else's ropes.—Ruskin.

 

Again, my pronunciation—like everyone else's—is in some cases more archaic.—Sweet.

 

Then everybody wanted some of somebody else's.—Ruskin.

 

His hair...curled once all over it in long tendrils, unlike anybody else's in the world.—N. P. Willis.

 

"Ye see, there ain't nothin' wakes folks up like somebody else's wantin' what you've got."—Mrs. Stowe.

 

ADJECTIVES. AGREEMENT OF ADJECTIVES WITH NOUNS.

 

These sort, all manner of, etc.

 

427. The statement that adjectives agree with their nouns in number is restricted to the words this and that (with these and those), as these are the only adjectives that have separate forms for singular and plural; and it is only in one set of expressions that the concord seems to be violated,—in such as "these sort of books," "those kind of trees," "all manner of men;" the nouns being singular, the adjectives plural. These expressions are all but universal in spoken English, and may be found not infrequently in literary English; for example,—

These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness

Harbor more craft, etc.

—Shakespeare

 

All these sort of things.—Sheridan.

 

I hoped we had done with those sort of things.—Muloch.

 

You have been so used to those sort of impertinences.Sydney Smith.

 

Whitefield or Wesley, or some other such great man as a bishop, or those sort of people.—Fielding.

 

I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes.—Austen.

 

There are women as well as men who can thoroughly enjoy those sort of romantic spots.—Saturday Review, London.

 

The library was open, with all manner of amusing books.—Ruskin.

 

According to the approved usage of Modern English, each one of the above adjectives would have to be changed to the singular, or the nouns to the plural.

 

History of this construction.

 

The reason for the prevalence of these expressions must be sought in the history of the language: it cannot be found in the statement that the adjective is made plural by the attraction of a noun following.

 

At the source.

 

In Old and Middle English, in keeping with the custom of looking at things concretely rather than in the abstract, they said, not "all kinds of wild animals," but "alles cunnes wilde deor" (wild animals of-every-kind). This the modern expression reverses.

 

Later form.

 

But in early Middle English the modern way of regarding such expressions also appeared, gradually displacing the old.

 

The result.

 

Consequently we have a confused expression. We keep the form of logical agreement in standard English, such as, "This sort of trees should be planted;" but at the same time the noun following kind of is felt to be the real subject, and the adjective is, in spoken English, made to agree with it, which accounts for the construction, "These kind of trees are best."

 

A question.

 

The inconvenience of the logical construction is seen when we wish to use a predicate with number forms. Should we say, "This kind of rules are the best," or "This kind of rules is the best?" Kind or sort may be treated as a collective noun, and in this way may take a plural verb; for example, Burke's sentence, "A sort of uncertain sounds are, when the necessary dispositions concur, more alarming than a total silence."