The principles of Latin grammar; comprising the ... - Essan.org

:70 PEONOUNS. § 23translated by one term in English,* differ from one anotherin meaning and use, as follows1st. Sui, the substantive pronoun of the third person, is without thenominative, as the third person (in English he, she, it, they) is not usuallyexpressed in Latin in the nominative, but is implied in the third person ofthe verb. But if it is to be expressed, a demonstrative pronoun, commonlyMe, is used The other cases of the English pronouns of the third person,not reflexive, are expressed by the oblique cases of is, ea, id, the nominativeof which belongs to the demonstrative pronouns. Sui, sibi, se, areused in a reflexive sense referring, as a substitute, to the main subject ofthe sentencef in which they occur ; as, Laudai se, " He praises himself;"Cato se occldit, " Cato killed himself" Cato dixit se esse Ccesare feliciorem," Cato said that he (Cato) was happier than Caesar." Puer putat hoc sibinocere, " The boy thinks 'that this hurts him " (the boy). Proculus Juliusdixisse fertur a se visum esse Romulum, " Proculus Julius is reported tohave said that Romulus was seen by Azm"(Julius). But when the pronounrefers to another word, and there is a transition from the principalto a subordinate subject, the oblique cases of is, ea, id, must be used.Thus, if the words that he, him, by him, in the last three propositions, referredto any other than Cato, or the boy, or Proculus Julius, they wouldhave to be made, in the first sentence, by eum ; in the second, by ei ; andin the third, by ab eo.Exc. Sui, and its' corresponding possessive pronoun suus, are sometimesused when the reference is not to the primary, but to a subordinate subject;but this is never done by good writers when it would cause ambiguity.The most common cases of this usage are :—1st. When the primary subjectis in the first or second person, to which, of course, sui, being the third,cannot refer ; as, ilium occidi suo gladio, " I slew him with his own sword"2d. After quisque or unusyuisque ; as, suum cuique tribmint," they giveevery man his own." 3d. When the word to which suus refers stands immediatelyor almost immediately before it ; as, hunc elves sui ex urbe eje-* The want of different pronouns of the third person, in English, isfrequently the cause of ambiguity, which never can occur in Latin or Greek.' :Thus, if we say : Lysias promised his father never to abandon his friends ;"it is impossible to tell, from this sentence, whose friends are meant,—whetherthose of Lysias or of his father. If the former, k 'his,'' in Latin, would be11suos; if the latter, " ejus, and if the latter in a special manner, " ipsius."+ The main subject is generally the nominative to the leading verb, as inthe above examples. Sometimes, however, the construction requires it tobe in a different case ; as, Ab Antonio admonitus sum ut mane sibi adessem;here, the leading subject is Antonio in the Ablative, and to this, of course,sibi refers ;so in the following : Est libido homini suo amino obsequi, theprincipal subject is homini.