CHAPTER VI.
ON THE SYNTAX OF THE DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS, AND THE PRONOUNS OF THE THIRD PERSON.
[§ 444]. As his and her are genitive cases (and not adjectives), there is no need of explaining such combinations as his mother, her father, inasmuch as no concord of gender is expected. The expressions are respectively equivalent to
mater ejus, not mater sua;
pater ejus, — pater suus.
[§ 445]. It has been stated that its is a secondary genitive, and it may be added, that it is of late origin in the language. The Anglo-Saxon form was his, the genitive of he for the neuter and masculine equally. Hence, when, in the old writers, we meet his, where we expect its, we must not suppose that any personification takes place, but simply that the old genitive common to the two genders is used in preference to the modern one limited to the neuter, and irregularly formed.
The following instances are the latest specimens of its use:
"The apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy. I have read the cause of his effects in Galen; it is a kind of deafness."—2 Henry IV. i. 2.
"If the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out."—Luke xiv. 35.
"Some affirm that every plant has his particular fly or caterpillar, which it breeds and feeds."—Walton's Angler.
"This rule is not so general, but that it admitteth of his exceptions."—Carew.