alytical practical grammar - Toronto Public Library

56 ENGLISH GRA:'IDIAR.
288. Adjective Pronollns are divided into four classes:
Possessive, Distributive, Demonstrative, and Indefinite.
289. Adjectives mcd as nouns, or with a noun understoo:l, commonly
take th,) article the before them (21)1) ; as, the young; the old; the good,
&c. Adjecti ve pronouns do not.
290. or the adjective pronouns, the Possessives (291) clearly have a
double charncter. As an adjective. thpy qualify a noun, and as a pronouD,
stand iustead of a noun. The Distributives, Demonstratives, and Indefinites,
as adjecti \'eg, qualify a noun expl'eBsed or understood, or they stand ill~tead
of a IlOULl, and thus lIlay be rq~:lI'ded sometimes as adjectivee, and some·
times as prolJouTls. Hl'nce they arc classed by some grammarians as ad·
jectives, alld c"lIed pronominal adjectil'es; and by others a~ prvDUllnl,
I1.lId culled adjective pronouns. The latter classitication and name arp.
here prelerred, because they helVe been admitted into the grammar;! of
alm,,,t all languag.·,,; and lJ~cause a change of established nomenclature
is an evil pf '0 sel'iuus a kind, that it should not be incurred unless for
the mo,'t urgent reasons. ::>till, it is a matter of little moment ill itself
which of the,e classifications is adopted. The principal point for the
learner is. to know what words nre adjective pronouns [or pronominal
adjectives], and tbeir characte,' and me; and every teacher may adopt
tLat cla',ificatiou and nnme which he prefers. For the convenience of
such as prefe,' to cnnsidel' them pronominal adjectives, they nre clas~ed
Its ddinitiv~s (20~-5).
POSSESSIVE PROXOVNS.
291. The POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS are such as denote
possession. They are my, thy, his, her, its,-our, your,
their-own.
292. The possessive pronouns are derived from the personal. and combine
the office of th ... adjective aDd prononn. for they always limit one
noun denoting the ohject pos'essed, und stand instead of anotbel' denotinO'
the p