CHAPTER V.
THE TRUE PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
[§ 439]. Personal pronouns.—The use of the second person plural instead of the second singular has been noticed already. This use of one number for another is current throughout the Gothic languages. A pronoun so used is conveniently called the pronomen reverentiæ.
[§ 440]. Dativus ethicus.—In the phrase
Rob me the exchequer,—Henry IV.,
the me is expletive, and is equivalent to for me. This expletive use of the dative is conveniently called the dativus ethicus.
[§ 441]. The reflected personal pronoun.—In the English language there is no equivalent to the Latin se, the German sich, and the Scandinavian sik, and sig.
It follows from this that the word self is used to a greater extent than would otherwise be the case.
I strike me is awkward, but not ambiguous.
Thou strikest thee is awkward, but not ambiguous.
He strikes him is ambiguous; inasmuch as him may mean either the person who strikes or some one else. In order to be clear we add the word self when the idea is reflective. He strikes himself is, at once idiomatic and unequivocal.
So it is with the plural persons.
We strike us is awkward, but not ambiguous.
Ye strike you is the same.
They strike them is ambiguous.
This shows the value of a reflective pronoun for the third person.
As a general rule, therefore, whenever we use a verb reflectively we use the word self in combination with the personal pronoun.
Yet this was not always the case. The use of the simple personal pronoun was current in Anglo-Saxon, and that, not only for the first two persons, but for the third as well.
The exceptions to this rule are either poetical expressions, or imperative moods.
He sat him down at a pillar's base.—Byron.
Sit thee down.
[§ 442]. Reflective neuters.—In the phrase I strike me, the verb strike is transitive; in other words, the word me expresses the object of an action, and the meaning is different from the meaning of the simple expression I strike.
In the phrase I fear me (used by Lord Campbell in his lives of the Chancellors), the verb fear is intransitive or neuter; in other words, the word me (unless, indeed, fear mean terrify), expresses no object of any action at all; whilst the meaning is the same as in the simple expression I fear.
Here the reflective pronoun appears out of place, i.e., after a neuter or intransitive verb.
Such a use, however, is but the fragment of an extensive system of reflective verbs thus formed, developed in different degrees in the different Gothic languages; but in all more than in the English.
[§ 443]. Equivocal reflectives.—The proper place of the reflective is after the verb.
The proper place of the governing pronoun is, in the indicative and subjunctive moods, before the verb.
Hence in expressions like the preceding there is no doubt as to the power of the pronoun.
The imperative mood, however, sometimes presents a complication. Here the governing person may follow the verb.
Mount ye = either be mounted, or mount yourselves. In phrases like this, and in phrases
Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride,
Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome marrow,
the construction is ambiguous. Ye may either be a nominative case governing the verb busk, or an accusative case governed by it.
This is an instance of what may be called the equivocal reflective.