01/05/93

                             CHAPTER 11

             "Personal Pronouns Ego and Tu; Pronouns Is
                              and Idem"

THE ENGLISH PERSONAL PRONOUNS

You know what a pronoun is.  It's a word which takes the place of
a noun in a sentence.  The word it's replacing is called the
antecedent.  So we can ask, "What is the antecedent of this
pronoun", whenever we see a pronoun in a sentence.  That is, we
are asking, "To what noun is this pronoun pointing?"  Read the
following paragraph and pick out the pronouns; ask yourself what
the antecedent is for each pronoun.

     "George asked Larry to go pick up the apple.  He wanted
     an apple so he told him to get it.  But Larry couldn't
     find it, so he couldn't give it to him.  Larry told
     him, 'If I had found it, I would have given it to you,
     but I couldn't find it.'  He turned to Sue sitting
     nearby and said to her,  'He's a failure.  Can you find
     it for me?'  Sue said she didn't know where it was
     either. 'I guess you're just out of luck", she told
     him".

     Alright, that's enough of that.  You see how useful these
pronouns are.  If it weren't for pronouns, you'd have to repeat
every noun and every name each time you wanted to refer to them,
no matter how obvious the reference was.  If you don't believe
me, try reading the paragraph again substituting the antecedent
for each of the pronouns.  Pronouns are useful, and in this
paragraph you saw all kinds of pronouns in all kinds of shapes
and varieties, referring to different antecedents and performing
different grammatical task in their sentences.  This variety in
form is not merely random.  The differences among "he, she, it",
among "his, her, its", and "him, her, it" are critical; they tell
you (1) what the likely antecedent is, and (2) how the pronoun is
being used in the sentence of which it's a part.

     If the speaker is referring to him/herself, or to a group of
people of which he/she considers himself to be a part, in a
sentence, he/she uses the first person pronoun.  In English, the
first person pronoun has three forms to indicate different cases
(grammatical function).

                   Case           Singular         Plural

                Nominative           I               we
                Possessive           my              our
                Objective            me              us

If the speaker is referring to the person or people to whom
he/she is directly talking, he/she uses the second person
pronoun.  (Notice that the cases are not so clearly visible in
the morphology of this pronoun; notice also that English makes no
distinction between second person pronoun in the singular and
plural.)

                   Case           Singular         Plural

                Nominative           you             you
                Possessive           your            your
                Objective            you             you

Now take a close look at these pronouns.  What don't they tell
you about their antecedents?  You can see the difference in
number in the first person pronoun, but you can't in the second.
What else don't you know about the antecedents?  Do you know
their genders?  Do you know simply by looking at the form of,
say, "me" whether the person referred to is male, female, or
neuter?  No.  In English (as well as in Latin), the first and
second pronouns make no distinction in the forms among the
possible genders of their antecedents.  Think about this for a
moment.  Why should the languages have evolved this way?  Why is
it not important for a speaker to be able to indicate differences
in gender in he first and second persons?  Try to figure it out.
Well, let's take a step backwards for a moment: what is the first
person?  It's the speaker or speakers of the sentence, right?
And what is the second person?  It's the person or people whom
the speaker(s) is (are) directly addressing.  So should it be
necessary for someone who's speaking to indicate his or her own
gender to the listener(s)?  Look, I surely know what gender I am,
so there's no reason to indicate in the grammar of my sentence
what gender I am.  Furthermore, the psychology of language is
such that there is an assumed (or real) audience to whom I am
directing my thoughts.  There is always an implied second person
in everything written.  So, if I'm standing directly in front of
you, talking to you, you should have no doubt about my gender,
because you can see me.  Therefore it would be superfluous for me
to add special gender markings to my first person pronouns to
tell you what gender I am.  That is plainly visible.  For this
reason, then, the first person pronouns make no distinctions
among the genders of their antecedents.

     Can you guess now why the second person makes no
distinctions among the genders, either?  Right, because if I (the
first person) am directly addressing you (the second person),
then I should be able to tell your gender too.  You know my
gender, and I know your gender, because we're standing in front
of each other.  As the first person in our conversation, I don't
need to remind you, my audience, of your own gender, do I?

     Now let's look at the first and second pronouns in Latin.
They'll make distinctions in number.  And, to be useful in Latin,
they'll have to decline through all the cases just like Latin
nouns.  Here they are:


                      1st Person           2nd Person

           N/V.           ego                  tu
           [Gen.          mei                  tui]
           Dat.           mihi                 tibi
           Acc.           me                   te
           Abl.           me                   te

           N/V.           nos                  vos
           [Gen.          nostrum/nostri       vestrum/vestri]
           Dat.           nobis                vobis
           Acc.           nos                  vos
           Abl.           nobis                vobis

Look at the following examples.  You'll see how useful these
pronouns are.

     1.    Mittam ad vos filium meum. (I will send my son to you.)
     2.    Ego scribo has litteras.  (I write this letter.)
     3.    Ego vos video, atque vos me videtis. (I see you, and
           you see me.)
     4.    Cum vobis in terram illam veniam.  (I will come into
           that land with you.)
     5.    Cum te in terram illam veniam. (I will come into that
           land with you.)


THE "WEAK" DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE IS, EA, ID

So what about the third person pronouns?  Here there's a problem,
one which plagued, and continues to plague, the Romance languages
derived from Latin.  First off, the third person pronoun is going
to have to tell you more about their antecedents than the first
and second person pronouns did.  If I (the first person) am
talking to you (the second person) directly, I certainly know
what gender you are.  But if I am talking to you about something
else (which is the third person) or if I am talking to you about
several things, it would be nice if I could refer the gender of
these topics of conversations.  Look at the following passage.

     "I've got to tell you a story.  Yesterday I saw Betty and
     Steve.  He asked her for an apple.  She told him that she
     didn't have any.  When he asked her again, she told him to
     go buy his own apples".

     Let's look at this little narrative more closely.  The first
"He" -- how do you know that it's referring to Steve and not to
Betty.  That's easy; it's because "he" is masculine and not
feminine.  If the antecedent had been Betty, then you would have
had "She" in place of "He".  Another thing "He" tells you about
the antecedent is that the antecedent is singular.  If the
antecedent had been plural, then "He" would have been "They".
Right?  One last thing.  Look at the antecedent for "He".  What
case is it in?  It's in the objective (or accusative) case
because it's the direct object of the verb "saw".  Now look at
the pronoun "He".  What case is it in?  It's in the nominative
case.  Why?  Because in its sentence it's the subject of the verb
"asked".  Now look at the pronoun "his" in the last line.  What
case is it in?  This time the pronoun is in the possessive (or
genitive) case, again because the grammar of the sentence it's in
requires it to be in the genitive case.  Even though all the
pronouns are pointing to the same antecedent, they are all in
different cases in their own sentences.  Here is a rule you must
remember:

     "A pronoun gets its number and gender from its
     antecedent, but it gets its case from the way it's
     being used grammatically in its own sentence".

     Remember that; you'll need it very soon.  Now let's get on
with the Latin third person pronoun.  Here's what the Latin third
person pronoun must do: it must be able to show the number and
gender of its antecedent, and it must be able to inflect through
the entire case system.

     Let's look once more at the English third person pronoun, so
that you can see how unbelievably flaccid and corrupted it is in
comparison to the majestic power of the Latin 3rd person pronoun.

                           Singular

                 Masculine    Feminine  Neuter

           Nom.      he         she       it
           Gen.      his        her       its
           Acc.      him        her       it

                           Plural

                  Masculine-Feminine-Neuter

           Nom.             they
           Gen.             their
           Acc.             them

As you can see the English third person pronoun is so feeble it's
hardly worth learning.  In the singular, some of the case forms
are identical, and in the plural it makes no distinction among
the genders: "They" can refer to a group of men, women, or rocks.
So it's not very useful.

     But look at the Latin third person pronoun.  The third
person pronoun starts its life as a weak demonstrative adjective.
It means something like "the" and it agrees with the noun to
which it's attached: "the book".  Then, like the other
demonstratives you've seen -- "ille", "hic", and "iste" -- it can
be used independently as a pronoun.  Let's see how it works.

     First the morphology.  The stem is "e-" and basically it's
declined just like the other demonstratives you've seen before.
You remember the heteroclite declension which has the irregular
"-ius", and "-i" for the genitive and dative singulars?  The
nominative singular of the third person demonstrative is a little
odd, and the genitive and dative singular use these alternative
endings  Try to fill in the declension.  Don't forget, now, the
stem of the demonstrative is "e-" to which the case endings are
going to be added.  Except for the genitive and dative singular,
it will use the standard first and second declension endings
which all standard adjectives use.

                 MASCULINE            FEMININE              NEUTER

N/V.                is                   ea                   id

Gen.           _____________        _____________
_____________

Dat.           _____________        _____________
_____________

Acc.           _____________        _____________
_____________

Abl.           _____________        _____________
_____________


N/V.             ii, or ei          _____________
_____________

Gen.           _____________        _____________
_____________

Dat.           _____________        _____________
_____________

Acc.           _____________        _____________
_____________

Abl.           _____________        _____________
_____________


     First let's see how the weak demonstrative "is, ea, id"
works as an adjective.  Don't forget that as with the
demonstratives "ille", "hic", and "iste", "is" can be used both
as an adjective and as a pronoun.  When used as a demonstrative
adjective, "is" has about the same force as our article "the",
although as you'll see Latin doesn't use "is, ea, id" in some
places where we would use our "the".  Briefly, we may say this:
Latin uses "is, ea, id" as a demonstrative adjective to give a
little emphasis to something which has already been talked about.
Like this:

           "I have a book".
           "Well, then, give me the book".
           "The book is on the table".
           "Okay, thanks.  I'll get the book myself".

The underscored "the's" are candidates for the Latin "is, ea,
id", because the book the two are talking about has already been
identified, and the speakers are calling just a little attention
to it.  Can you see also how "is, ea, id" differs from the strong
demonstrative adjectives "ille" and "hic?"  Can you feel the
difference between saying "Give me the book" and "Give me that
book" or "Give me this book?"  In English we have a weak "this"
that corresponds nicely to the Latin "is, ea, id" used as an
adjective.  We can say for example "I like this book", without
placing much emphasis on the "this".  That is, we're not saying
"I like this book [and not that one over there]".

     Here are some examples of "is, ea, id" used as weak
demonstrative adjectives.  Of course, without a context it may be
a little difficult to see precisely the shades of feeling, but at
least you can see the grammar involved.

     1.    Eos libros vobis dabimus.  (We will give the [or these]
           books to you.)
     2.    Eas litteras ad me mittet.  (He will send the [or this]
           letter to me.)
     3.    Ei libri sunt boni.  (The [or these] books are good.)
     4.    Animi earum feminarum valent.  (The courage of the [or
           of these] women is strong.)
     5.    Nulla civitas ea bella tolerare poterat.  (No city was
           able to endure the [or these] wars.)

Now translate these into Latin, using "is, ea id" for "the".

1.   They will send you the [this] money.



_________________________________________________________________

2.   I will give you the money of the [these] men.


     _________________________________________________________________

3.   The [these] boys are not thinking.



_________________________________________________________________

4.   I will come with the [this] tyrant.



_________________________________________________________________

5.   That man will discover the [this] plot.



_________________________________________________________________


IS, EA, ID AS PRONOUN

Now, how does a mild-mannered weak demonstrative adjective become
the redoubtable third person pronoun, the glory of the Latin
language?  Let's think back.  Remember the demonstrative
adjectives "ille", "hic", and "iste?"  You remember that they can
be used as adjectives, to add emphasis to the noun they're
modifying.

"Ille liber est bonus."         (That book is good.)
"Hic vir est malus."            (This man is evil.)
"Cicero videt istas insidias."
     (Cicero see this plot.)
"Possum superare vitia illa."   (I can overcome those faults.)
"Habeo pecuniam illarum feminarum."  (I have the money of those
women.)

     That's all fine and good.  But you also remember that the
demonstrative adjective can be used, just like all other
adjectives, without a noun explicitly stated, but only implied.
In order to supply the correct noun, you must do two things: (1)
you must examine the form of the demonstrative, and (2) you must
examine the context.  Watch:

     "Illae feminae sunt ibi, sed illas videre non possum".

How do you translate the "illas?"  Well, "illas" is feminine,
accusative plural, right?  It's in the accusative because it's
the direct object of the verb "videre".  But why is it feminine
and plural?  Because the noun which has been left out -- that is,
the things to which "illas" is referring -- is feminine and
plural.  And what is that?  Look at the context.  "Feminae" is
feminine and plural.

     "Those women are there, but I can't see those women" (or,
     more idiomatically in English, "but I can't see them").

When the demonstratives are used without a noun, they are taking
the place of a noun.  And words which take the place of a noun
are called pronouns.  Hence the metamorphosis from demonstrative
adjective to demonstrative pronoun is complete.

     Now let's take a look at the weak demonstrative adjective
"is, ea, id".  It will undergo the same process from adjective to
pronoun.  Because there is only a weak demonstrative force
attached to "is, ea, id", we can translate it into English simply
as our third person pronoun: "he", "she", "it", etc.

                "Videstisne meos amicos?"
                "Video eos".

                "Do you see my friends?"
                "I see them".

All you have to do when you see the weak demonstrative adjective
in a sentence without a noun is to treat it just like third
person pronoun: check the antecedent and find the appropriate
English equivalent.  Read these sentences (go very, very slowly
and be reasonable):

     "Cicero amat Romam, et in ea beatam vitam agit.  Atque ego
     civitatem eius amo.  Toti amici eius sunt Romani.  Vitae
     eorum sunt beatae.  Et eas magna cum sapientia agunt.  Ei
     igitur sunt beati.  Cicero eos amat, et ei eum amant.  Olim
     civitas eorum in periculis magnis erat, sed ea superare
     poterat, quoniam viros multos bonorum morum invenire
     poterat".

     (Cicero loves Rome, and he is leading a happy life in it.  I
     also love his city.  All his friends are Romans.  Their
     lives are happy, and they are leading them [they are leading
     their lives] with great wisdom.  They are therefore happy.
     Cicero loves them, and they love him.  Formerly their city
     was in great danger, but it was able to overcome them [the
     dangers], since it was able to find many men of good
     character.)


THE DEMONSTRATIVE idem, eadem, idem

This is simple.  Latin adds an undeclinable suffix to the end of
the inflected forms of the demonstrative "is, ea, id" and comes
out with "the same".  Like the demonstrative "is, ea, id", the
resulting form can be used either an adjective -- "eadem femina"
(the same woman), or as a full-blown pronoun -- "video easdem" (I
see the same (feminine) things).  Remember, the syntactically
important information comes before the "dem" suffix:  "eisdem",
"eaedem", etc.

     The addition of the suffix cause some distortion of the
spelling of "is, ea, id".  First, in the nominative singular
masculine, the "s" of "is" collides with the "d" of "-dem" and
disappears, but the "i" of "is" becomes long as a result.  In the
nominative singular neuter instead of "iddem" we get "idem". No
big surprise here.  Finally, and this isn't much of a surprise
either, wherever the case ending of "is, ea, id" ends in an "m",
the addition of "dem" changes the "m" to an "n".  Decline "idem,
eadem, idem".

          MASCULINE           FEMININE             NEUTER

N/V.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Gen.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Dat.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Acc.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Abl.   _____________      _____________        _____________


N/V.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Gen.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Dat.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Acc.   _____________      _____________        _____________

Abl.   _____________      _____________        _____________


VOCABULARY PUZZLES

nemo       the pronoun for "nobody" has more than its share of
           oddities:

     (1)   the stem of the word is nemin-;
     (2)   it uses the third declension endings;
     (3)   it's potentially masculine or feminine -- "no man" or
           "no woman";
     (4)   like English "nobody", it's only singular;
     (5)   it uses the genitive singular of the adjective "nullus,
           -a, -um" instead of its expected form of "neminis";
     (6)   in the ablative singular it uses "nullo" (m. and n.) or
           "nulla" (f.) instead of the expected "nemine".
           (Consequently, the only place "nobody" in Latin
           distinguishes among the genders is in the ablative.
           Why that should be I haven't the foggiest idea.)

                                Nom. nemo
                                Gen. nullius
                                Dat. nemini
                                Acc. neminem
                                Abl. nullo, nulla

