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"A work on english grammar and composition"


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LESSON 119.
NOUNS AND PRONOUNS--PERSON AND CASE.
+Introductory Hints+.--Number and gender, as you have learned, are
modifications affecting the meaning of nouns and pronouns--number being
almost always indicated by form, or inflection; gender, sometimes. There
are two modifications which do not refer to changes in the meaning of nouns
and pronouns but to their different uses and relations. These uses and
relations are not generally indicated by form, or inflection.
_I, Paul_, have written. _Paul, thou_ art beside thyself. _He_ brought
_Paul_ before Agrippa. In these three sentences the word _Paul_ has three
different uses, though, as you see, its form is not changed. In the first
it is used to name the speaker; in the second, to name the one spoken to;
in the third, to name the one spoken of. These different uses of nouns and
pronouns and the forms used to mark these uses constitute the modification
called +Person+. _I, thou, and he_ are personal pronouns, and, as you see,
distinguish person by their form. _I_, denoting the speaker, is in the
+First Person+; _thou_, denoting the one spoken to, is in the +Second
Person+; and _he_, denoting the one spoken of, is in the +Third Person+.


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