Nom. Poss. Obj. Nom. Poss. Obj.
First Person.
I, Mine, Me; We, Ours, Us.
Second Person.
Thou, Thine, Thee; Ye or You, Yours, You[10].
Third Person.
_Masc._ He, His, Him; }
_Fem._ She, Hers, Her; } They, Theirs, Them.
_Neut._ It, Its[11], It; }
The Personal Pronouns have the nature of Substantives, and as such stand
by themselves: the rest have the nature of Adjectives, and as such are
joined to Substantives; and may be called Pronominal Adjectives.
_Thy_, _My_, _Her_, _Our_, _Your_, _Their_, are Pronominal Adjectives:
but _His_, (that is, _Hee’s_) _Her’s_, _Our’s_, _Your’s_, _Their’s_,
have evidently the Form of the Possessive Case: and by Analogy, _Mine_,
_Thine_[12], may be esteemed of the same rank. All these are used, when
the Noun they belong to is understood: the two latter sometimes also
instead of _my_, _thy_, when the Noun following them begins with a vowel.
Beside the foregoing there are several other Pronominal Adjectives; which
tho’ they may sometimes seem to stand by themselves, yet have always some
Substantive belonging to them, either referred to, or understood: as,
_This_, _that_, _other_, _any_, _some_, _one_, _none_; these are called
Definitive, because they define and limit the extent of the thing, to
which they either refer, or are joined. The three first of these are
varied to express Number; as, _These_, _those_, _others_; the last of
which admits of the Plural form only when its Substantive is not joined
to it, but referred to, or understood: none of them are varied to express
the Gender or Case. _One_ is sometimes used in an Indefinite sense
(answering to the French _on_) as in the following phrases; “_one_ is apt
to think;” “_one_ sees;” “_one_ supposes.” _Who_, _which_, _that_, are
called Relatives, because they more directly refer to some Substantive
going before; which therefore is called the Antecedent. They also connect
the following part of the Sentence with the foregoing. These belong to
all the three Persons; whereas the rest belong only to the Third. One of
them only is varied to express the three Cases; _Who_, _whose_[13], (that
is, _who’s_[14]) _whom_: none of them have different endings for the
Numbers. _Who_, _which_, _what_, are called Interrogatives, when they are
used in asking questions. The two latter of them have no variation of
Number or Case.
_Own_, and _self_, in the Plural _selves_, are joined to the Possessives
_my_, _our_, _thy_, _your_, _his_, _her_, _their_; as, _my own_ hand;
_myself_, _yourselves_; both of them expressing emphasis, or opposition;
as, “I did it _my own self_,” that is, and no one else: the latter also
forming the Reciprocal Pronoun; as, “he hurt _himself_.” _Himself_,
_themselves_, seem to be used in the Nominative Case by corruption
instead of _his self_, _their selves_: as, “he came _himself_;” “they
did it _themselves_;” where _himself_, _themselves_, cannot be in the
Objective Case. If this be so, _self_ must be in these instances, not a
Pronoun, but a Noun. Thus Dryden uses it:
“What I show,
Thy _self may_ freely on thy self bestow.”
_Ourself_, the Plural Pronominal Adjective with the Singular Substantive,
is peculiar to the Regal Style.
_Own_ is an Adjective; or perhaps the Participle (_owen_) of the obsolete
verb _owe_; to possess; to be the right owner of a thing.
All Nouns whatever in Grammatical Construction are of the Third Person:
except when an address is made to a Person; then the Noun, answering to
the Vocative Case in Latin, is of the Second Person.