Grammatical characteristics of relative adjectives

1. Relative adjectives have no degrees of comparison.

2. They do not form adverbs with the suffix -ly.

3. They have certain typical suffixes such as -en, -an, -ist, -ie, -ical: wooden, Italian, socialist, synthetic, analytical.

4. Relative adjectives are chiefly used as attributes.

... she was a fair example of the middleAmerican class... (Dreiser) (attribute)

She had noticed a prettywooden chain upon Gretel's neck. (Dodge) (attribute)

"Certainly," answered Hilda, looking kindly into the two earnest faces, and wishing from her heart that she had not spent so much of hermonthly allowance for lace and finery. (Dodge) (ATTRIBUTE)

The morning waswindy and sharp. (Saxton) (predicative)

It must be pointed out that no hard and fast line of demarca­tion exists between relative and qualitative adjectives. Compare: silken thread (relative adjective), but silken hair (qualitative ad­jective).

Substantivized adjectives.

Substantivized adjectives have acquired some or all of the cha­racteristics of the noun, but their adjectival origin is still gen­erally felt.

Substantivized adjectives are divided into wholly substantivized and partially substantivized adjectives.

Wholly substantivized adjectives have all the characteristics of nouns, namely the plural form, the genitive case; they are associated with articles,

i. e. they have become nouns: a native, the natives, a native's hut.

Some wholly substantivized adjectives have only the plural form: eatables, valuables, ancients, sweets, greens etc.

Partially substantivized adjectives acquire only some of the characteristics of the noun; they are used with the definite article. Partially substantivized adjectives denote a whole class: the rich, the poor, the unemployed etc. They may also denote abstract notions: the good, the evil, the beautiful, the singular, the plural etc.

Substantivized adjectives denoting nationalities fall under wholly and partially substantivized adjectives.

Wholly substantivized adjectives are: a Russian—Russians, a German — Germans.

Partially substantivized adjectives are: the English, the French, the Chinese etc.

Chapter IV

THE PRONOUN

§ 1. The pronoun is a part of speech, which points out objects and their qualities without naming or describing them.

The Classification of pronouns.

Pronouns fall under the following groups:

(1) Personal pronouns: he, she, it, I, we, you, and they.

(2) Possessive pronouns: my, his, her, its, our, your, their, mine, his, hers, our's, yours, theirs.

(3) Reflexive pronouns: myself, himself, herself, itself, our­selves, yourself (yourselves) and themselves.

(4) Reciprocal pronouns: each other, one another.

(5) Demonstrative pronouns: this (these), that (those), such, (the) same.

(6)Interrogative pronouns: who, whose, what, which.

(7) Relative pronouns: who, whose, which, that, as.

(8) Conjunctive pronouns: who, whose, which, what.

(9) Defining pronouns: each, every, everybody, everyone, everything, all, either, both, other, another.

(10)Indefinite pronouns: some, any, somebody, anybody, some­thing, anything, someone, anyone, one.

(11) Negative pronouns: no, none, neither, nobody, no one, nothing.

There is no uniformity of morphological and syntactical char­acteristics in the groups of pronouns. Some pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, gender, case and number. The categories of person and gender (in the third person singular) exist only in personal and possessive pronouns.

Pronouns as well as nouns have two cases but whereas some pronouns (e.g., personal pronouns and the relative and interroga­tive who) have the nominative and objective cases, others (e. g. indefinite pronouns such as somebody, reciprocal pronouns such as one another, negative pronouns such as nobody) have the common and genitive cases.

The category of number is found in demonstrative pronouns (this and that) and the defining pronoun other.

Many pronouns are characterized by double syntactical use (they may be used as subject, predicative, object, and at the same time as attribute). Here belong demonstrative pronouns, possessive pro­nouns etc.

Personal pronouns.

1. The personal pronouns are I, he, she, it, we, you, and they. The personal pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, case, number and (in the third person singular) gender.

The personal pronouns have two cases: the nominative case and the objective case. The nominative case: I, he, she, it, we, you, they. The objective case: me, him, her, it, us, you, them. The objective case of the pronouns I, he, she, we is expressed by suppletive forms.

In colloquial speech me, not I is commonly used as a predica­tive:

Who is there? — It is me.

The personal pronouns have two numbers, singular (I, he, she, it) and plural (we, they).

The second-person pronoun you is both singular and plural.

The pronouns of the third person he, she, it distinguish gender. Male beings (man, father, uncle, boy etc.) are referred to as he; female beings (woman, mother, aunt, girl etc.) are referred to as she; inanimate things (house, tree, cap etc.) are referred to as it.

Herhusband asked a few questions and sat down to read the evening paper. He was a silent man... (Dreiser)

And then he turned and saw thegirl... She was a pale, ethe­real creature, with wide, spiritual eyes and a wealth of golden hair. (London)

He did not know what to do with hiscap, and was stuffing if into his coat pocket... (London.)

As some nouns denote animate beings of either sex, masculine or feminine (friend, teacher, servant, cousin etc.), personal pro­nouns are often used to specify them:

"Tell your servant that he must not use such words to Hendrike, Mr. Allan," Stella said to me. (Haggard)

2. Personal pronouns may have different functions in the sen­tence, those of subject, object, and predicative:

Iam not free to resume the interrupted chain of my reflections till bedtime… (Ch. Bronte) (subject)

He arranged to meether at the 96th Street station... (Wilson) (OBJECT)

"Who's there?" "It's me." "Who's me?" "George Jackson, sir." (Twain) (PREDICATIVE)

But I think that washim I spoke to. (Cronin) (predicative)

§ 4. Possessive pronouns.

1. Possessive pronouns have the same distinctions of person, number and gender as personal pronouns.

2. Possessive pronouns have two forms, namely thedependent (or conjoint) form and theindependent (or absolute) form.