Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

Lesson 24

PRONOUNS

A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. The word means "for name". By use of pronouns for nouns irksome repetition is avoided. The flow of words is facilitated and speech somewhat streamlined. Does not the following sound

awkward and cumbersome? —'Any man that findeth any man's life shall lose life: and any man that loseth any man's life for Jesus' sake shall find life. Any man that receiveth apostles receiveth Jesus, and any man that receiveth Jesus receiveth God that sent Jesus.' But with pronouns brought into play the stiff wording disappears: "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." (Matt. 10:39,40) The simplicity of the wording brings beauty and power into the previously clumsy utterance. Jesus was speaking to his apostles. His use of pronouns not only eliminated stiffness and repetition, but also shortened the length of statement by almost a fourth without losing any of its thought content, and enabled the speaker to avoid having to use his own name when referring to himself. Pronouns are used to refer back to nouns (called the pronoun's antecedent). They also indicate relation.

Pronouns are applied to objects to make known their relation to the act of speaking. The pronoun I may be applied to all subjects that can be thought of as speaking. For example, in the sentence "I am running", the same one that is talking is doing the running. The pronoun you may be used for any person spoken to: "You run." In this sentence the person doing the running is the person spoken to. The pronoun he points to the person or thing spoken of: "He runs." In this sentence it is clear that he is not the person who says, "He runs," nor the person to whom these words are addressed. It is referring to a third person.

The pronoun used by a speaker to refer to himself is called the first person. (I); the pronoun the speaker uses to refer to the person to whom he is talking is called the second person (you); and the pronoun that refers to the person or thing spoken of is called the third person (he). The plural of I is we, but you is either singular or plural (however, you always takes the plural verb form). The plural of he is they. If the third person one wishes to point

out is not a male, but a female, one says she (plural they); or if one is not speaking of a person he usually says it (plural they).

I, you, he, she, and the third person it (neuter gender), with their plural forms and their different case forms, are the class of pronouns called personal pronouns. There are other classes of pronouns, which will be mentioned and defined but not discussed in detail. Relative pronouns relate to a noun or substantive that has previously appeared; and that substantive is called the antecedent. The principal relative pronouns are who, which, that and what, and are used to introduce clauses. The relative pronoun serves to relate the introduced clause to the pronoun's antecedent in a modifying sense; hence clauses introduced by relative pronouns are called adjective clauses.

The student of this book will notice that the majority of the questions in the reviews begin with who, which, and what. These are words generally used to introduce questions, and are known as interrogative pronouns.

There is a group of words employed in the place of nouns and which have definitive meaning (that is, they define or limit nouns). Now, adjectives are the words that generally have this latter function, but these words which have adjective force and meaning are used in the place of nouns. Hence, in such usage these words are called adjective pronouns. For illustration, in Jesus' parable of the sower he said, in part: "A sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side . . . Some fell upon stony places . . . Some fell among thorns . . . But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold." (Matt. 13: 3-8) In the phrase "some seeds" some is a definitive adjective limiting the noun seeds (not all the seeds sown by the sower, but only some of them). But thereafter the noun seeds is omitted, and the words some and other that follow are understood to stand for the phrases "some seeds" and "other seeds" respectively. Thus standing in the place of

the noun seeds, these words (some and other) are pronouns, and yet they also retain their adjective force or definitive meaning. Hence they are appropriately termed adjective pronouns. Subdivisions of this group are demonstrative and indefinite pronouns.

Many errors are commonly made in the use of pronouns. Primarily, these errors are in the matter of case and number. The pronoun should agree in number with its antecedent; that is, if the person or thing replaced or referred to by the pronoun is singular, then the pronoun should also he singular. The reverse is true: if the antecedent is plural, then the pronoun should agree by being in the plural form. To briefly illustrate: Everybody must take his stand for or against Jehovah God. Note that it is not their stand. Their is plural, whereas the indefinite pronoun everybody is singular. Therefore the sentence as it reads is correct, the singular possessive pronoun his being used to agree in number with its antecedent, everybody. Similarly, Each of Jehovah's witnesses must fulfill his commission. Each and his agree in number.

As to the matter of case, many persons confuse the nominative and the objective case (defined in a previous lesson). They say, "Whom do you think will rule?" or "Who do you favor for world domination?" Cases are mixed. In the first it should be who, because the opening word is the subject of the verb will rule. The nominative case form who is required. Whom is the objective case, and it is this form that is needed in the second example, because it is the object of the verb favor. A very common error is the use of the nominative form when the objective form is required, as follows: This book is prepared for you and I to study. I is the nominative case of this first person pronoun, hut in the above sentence it is used as the object of the preposition for; hence it should be in the objective case, namely, me. Sometimes either case form may be correct, depending upon the meaning to be conveyed. To illustrate: He loves the Lord more than I; or, He loves the

Lord more than me. Both are grammatically correct, but mean two different things. The first is elliptical, and expanded fully would read, He loves the Lord more than I love the Lord. The second means, He loves the Lord more than he loves me.

Thus it is seen that pronouns are very useful in speaking and writing, but that their use involves pitfalls in grammatical structure. Learn to use them correctly to use them effectively.