CHAPTER XII.
THE INDETERMINATE PRONOUNS.
[§ 463]. Different nations have different methods of expressing indeterminate propositions.
Sometimes it is by the use of the passive voice. This is the common method in Latin and Greek, and is also current in English—dicitur, λέγεται, it is said.
Sometimes the verb is reflective—si dice = it says itself, Italian.
Sometimes the plural pronoun of the third person is used. This also is an English locution—they say = the world at large says.
Finally, the use of some word = man is a common indeterminate expression.
The word man has an indeterminate sense in the Modern German; as man sagt = they say.
The word man was also used indeterminately in the Old English, although it is not so used in the Modern.
In the Old English, the form man often lost the -n, and became me.—"Deutsche Grammatik." This form is also extinct.
[§ 464]. The present indeterminate pronoun is one; as one says = they say = it is said = man sagt, German = on dit, French = si dice, Italian.
It has been stated, that the indeterminate pronoun one has no etymological connection with the numeral one; but that it is derived from the French on = homme
= homo = man; and that it has replaced the Old English man or me.
[§ 465]. Two other pronouns, or, to speak more in accordance with the present habit of the English language, one pronoun, and one adverb of pronominal origin, are also used indeterminately, viz., it and there.
[§ 466]. It can be either the subject or the predicate of a sentence,—it is this, this is it, I am it, it is I. When it is the subject of a proposition, the verb necessarily agrees with it, and can be of the singular number only; no matter what be the number of the predicate—it is this, it is these.
When it is the predicate of a proposition, the number of the verb depends upon the number of the subject. These points of universal syntax are mentioned here for the sake of illustrating some anomalous forms.
[§ 467]. There can only be the predicate of a subject. It differs from it in this respect. It follows also that it must differ from it in never affecting the number of the verb. This is determined by the nature of the subject—there is this, there are these.
When we say there is these, the analogy between the words these and it misleads us; the expression being illogical.
Furthermore, although a predicate, there always stands in the beginning of propositions, i.e., in the place of the subject. This also misleads.
[§ 468]. Although it, when the subject, being itself singular, absolutely requires that its verb should be singular also, there is a tendency to use it incorrectly, and to treat it as a plural. Thus, in German, when the predicate is plural, the verb joined to the singular form es ( = it) is plural—es sind menschen, literally translated = it are men; which, though bad English, is good German.