II. POSSESSIVE FORMS.

 

As antecedent of a relative.

 

407. The possessive forms of personal pronouns and also of nouns are sometimes found as antecedents of relatives. This usage is not frequent. The antecedent is usually nominative or objective, as the use of the possessive is less likely to be clear.

 

We should augur ill of any gentleman's property to whom this happened every other day in his drawing room.—Ruskin.

 

For their sakes whose distance disabled them from knowing me.—C. B. Brown.

 

Now by His name that I most reverence in Heaven, and by hers whom I most worship on earth.—Scott.

 

He saw her smile and slip money into the man's hand who was ordered to ride behind the coach.—Thackeray.

 

He doubted whether his signature whose expectations were so much more bounded would avail.—De Quincey.

For boys with hearts as bold

As his who kept the bridge so well.

—Macaulay.

Preceding a gerund,—possessive, or objective?

 

408. Another point on which there is some variance in usage is such a construction as this: "We heard of Brown studying law," or "We heard of Brown's studying law."

 

That is, should the possessive case of a noun or pronoun always be used with the gerund to indicate the active agent? Closely scrutinizing these two sentences quoted, we might find a difference between them: saying that in the first one studying is a participle, and the meaning is, We heard of Brown, [who was] studying law; and that in the second, studying is a gerund, object of heard of, and modified by the possessive case as any other substantive would be.

Why both are found.

 

But in common use there is no such distinction. Both types of sentences are found; both are gerunds; sometimes the gerund has the possessive form before it, sometimes it has the objective. The use of the objective is older, and in keeping with the old way of regarding the person as the chief object before the mind: the possessive use is more modern, in keeping with the disposition to proceed from the material thing to the abstract idea, and to make the action substantive the chief idea before the mind.

 

In the examples quoted, it will be noticed that the possessive of the pronoun is more common than that of the noun.

Objective.

 

The last incident which I recollect, was my learned and worthy patron falling from a chair.—Scott.

 

He spoke of someone coming to drink tea with him, and asked why it was not made.—Thackeray.

 

The old sexton even expressed a doubt as to Shakespeare having been born in her house.—Irving.

 

The fact of the Romans not burying their dead within the city walls proper is a strong reason, etc.—Brewer.

 

I remember Wordsworth once laughingly reporting to me a little personal anecdote.—De Quincey.

 

Here I state them only in brief, to prevent the reader casting about in alarm for my ultimate meaning.—Ruskin.

 

We think with far less pleasure of Cato tearing out his entrails than of Russell saying, as he turned away from his wife, that the bitterness of death was past.—Macaulay.

 

There is actually a kind of sacredness in the fact of such a man being sent into this earth.—Carlyle.

 

Possessive.

 

There is no use for any man's taking up his abode in a house built of glass.—Carlyle.

 

As to his having good grounds on which to rest an action for life.—Dickens.

 

The case was made known to me by a man's holding out the little creature dead.—De Quincey.

 

There may be reason for a savage's preferring many kinds of food which the civilized man rejects.—Thoreau.

 

It informs me of the previous circumstances of my laying aside my clothes.—C. Brockden Brown.

 

The two strangers gave me an account of their once having been themselves in a somewhat similar condition.—Audubon.

 

There was a chance of their being sent to a new school, where there were examinations.—Ruskin

 

This can only be by his preferring truth to his past apprehension of truth.—Emerson

 

III. PERSONAL PRONOUNS AND THEIR ANTECEDENTS.

 

409. The pronouns of the third person usually refer back to some preceding noun or pronoun, and ought to agree with them in person, number, and gender.

Watch for the real antecedent.

 

There are two constructions in which the student will need to watch the pronoun,—when the antecedent, in one person, is followed by a phrase containing a pronoun of a different person; and when the antecedent is of such a form that the pronoun following cannot indicate exactly the gender. Examples of these constructions are,—

 

Those of us who can only maintain themselves by continuing in some business or salaried office.—Ruskin.

 

Suppose the life and fortune of every one of us would depend on his winning or losing a game of chess.—Huxley.

 

If anyone did not know it, it was his own fault.—Cable.

 

Everybody had his own life to think of.—Defoe.

 

410. In such a case as the last three sentences,—when the antecedent includes both masculine and feminine, or is a distributive word, taking in each of many persons,—the preferred method is to put the pronoun following in the masculine singular; if the antecedent is neuter, preceded by a distributive, the pronoun will be neuter singular.

 

The following are additional examples:—

 

The next correspondent wants you to mark out a whole course of life for him.—Holmes.

 

Every city threw open its gates.—De Quincey.

 

Every person who turns this page has his own little diary.—Thackeray.

The pale realms of shade, where each shall take

His chamber in the silent halls of death.

—Bryant.

 

Avoided: By using both pronouns.

 

Sometimes this is avoided by using both the masculine and the feminine pronoun; for example,—

 

Not the feeblest grandame, not a mowing idiot, but uses what spark of perception and faculty is left, to chuckle and triumph in his or her opinion.—Emerson.

 

It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own.—Huxley.

 

By using the plural pronoun.

 

411. Another way of referring to an antecedent which is a distributive pronoun or a noun modified by a distributive adjective, is to use the plural of the pronoun following. This is not considered the best usage, the logical analysis requiring the singular pronoun in each case; but the construction is frequently found when the antecedent includes or implies both genders. The masculine does not really represent a feminine antecedent, and the expression his or her is avoided as being cumbrous.

 

Notice the following examples of the plural:—

 

Neither of the sisters were very much deceived.—Thackeray.

 

Every one must judge of their own feelings.—Byron.

 

Had the doctor been contented to take my dining tables, as anybody in their senses would have done.—Austen.

 

If the part deserve any comment, every considering Christian will make it themselves as they go.—Defoe.

 

Every person's happiness depends in part upon the respect they meet in the world.—Paley.

 

Every nation have their refinements—Sterne.

 

Neither gave vent to their feelings in words.—Scott.

 

Each of the nations acted according to their national custom.—Palgrave.

 

The sun, which pleases everybody with it and with themselves.—Ruskin.

 

Urging every one within reach of your influence to be neat, and giving them means of being so.—Id.

 

Everybody will become of use in their own fittest way.—Id.

 

Everybody said they thought it was the newest thing there.—Wendell Phillips.

 

Struggling for life, each almost bursting their sinews to force the other off.—Paulding.

 

Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.—Bible.

 

Nobody knows what it is to lose a friend, till they have lost him.—Fielding.

 

Where she was gone, or what was become of her, no one could take upon them to say.—Sheridan.

 

I do not mean that I think any one to blame for taking due care of their health.—Addison.

 

Exercise.—In the above sentences, unless both genders are implied, change the pronoun to agree with its antecedent.