Relatives

INDEFINITE RELATIVES.

List and examples.

121. INDEFINITE RELATIVES are, by meaning and use, not as direct as the simple relatives.

They are whoever, whichever, whatever, whatsoever; less common are whoso, whosoever, whichsoever, whatsoever. The simple relatives who, which, and what may also be used as indefinite relatives. Examples of indefinite relatives (from Emerson):—

1. Whoever has flattered his friend successfully must at once think himself a knave, and his friend a fool.
2. It is no proof of a man's understanding, to be able to affirm whatever he pleases.
3. They sit in a chair or sprawl with children on the floor, or stand on their head, or what else soever, in a new and original way.
4. Whoso is heroic will always find crises to try his edge.
5. Only itself can inspire whom it will.
6. God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please,—you cannot have both.
7. Do what we can, summer will have its flies.

Meaning and use.

122. The fitness of the term indefinite here cannot be shown better than by examining the following sentences:—

1. There is something so overruling in whatever inspires us with awe, in all things which belong ever so remotely to terror, that nothing else can stand in their presence.—Burke.
2. Death is there associated, not with everything that is most endearing in social and domestic charities, but with whatever is darkest in human nature and in human destiny.—Macaulay.

It is clear that in 1, whatever is equivalent to all things which, and in 2, to everything that; no certain antecedent, no particular thing, being referred to. So with the other indefinites.

What simple relative and what indefinite relative.

123. The above helps us to discriminate between what as a simple and what as an indefinite relative.

As shown in Sec. 120, the simple relative what is equivalent to that which or the thing which,—some particular thing; as shown by the last sentence in Sec. 121, what means anything that, everything that (or everything which). The difference must be seen by the meaning of the sentence, as what hardly ever has an antecedent.

The examples in sentences 5 and 6, Sec. 121, show that who and which have no antecedent expressed, but mean any one whom, either one that, etc.

OTHER WORDS USED AS RELATIVES.

But and as.

124. Two words, but and as, are used with the force of relative pronouns in some expressions; for example,—

1. There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has force in it: how else could it rot?—Carlyle.
2. This, amongst such other troubles as most men meet with in this life, has been my heaviest affliction.—De Quincey.

Proof that they have the force of relatives.

Compare with these the two following sentences:—

3. There is nothing but is related to us, nothing that does not interest us.—Emerson.
4. There were articles of comfort and luxury such as Hester never ceased to use, but which only wealth could have purchased.—Hawthorne.

Sentence 3 shows that but is equivalent to the relative that with not, and that as after such is equivalent to which.

For as after same see "Syntax" (Sec. 417).

Former use of as.

125. In early modern English, as was used just as we use that or which, not following the word such; thus,—

I have not from your eyes that gentleness And show of love as I was wont to have. —Shakespeare

This still survives in vulgar English in England; for example,—

"Don't you mind Lucy Passmore, as charmed your warts for you when you was a boy? "—Kingsley

This is frequently illustrated in Dickens's works.

Other substitutes.

126. Instead of the phrases in which, upon which, by which, etc., the conjunctions wherein, whereupon, whereby, etc., are used.

A man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and good abide.—Emerson.
The sovereignty of this nature whereof we speak.—Id.

The dear home faces whereupon That fitful firelight paled and shone. —Whittier.

PRONOUNS IN INDIRECT QUESTIONS.

Special caution needed here.

127. It is sometimes hard for the student to tell a relative from an interrogative pronoun. In the regular direct question the interrogative is easily recognized; so is the relative when an antecedent is close by. But compare the following in pairs:—

1.

(a) Like a gentleman of leisure who is strolling out for pleasure.
(b) Well we knew who stood behind, though the earthwork hid them.

2.

(a) But what you gain in time is perhaps lost in power.
(b) But what had become of them they knew not.

3.

(a) These are the lines which heaven-commanded Toil shows on his deed.
(b) And since that time I thought it not amiss To judge which were the best of all these three.

In sentences 1 (a), 2 (a) and 3 (a) the regular relative use is seen; who having the antecedent gentleman, what having the double use of pronoun and antecedent, which having the antecedent lines.

But in 1 (b), 2 (b), and 3 (b), there are two points of difference from the others considered: first, no antecedent is expressed, which would indicate that they are not relatives; second, a question is disguised in each sentence, although each sentence as a whole is declarative in form. Thus, 1 (b), if expanded, would be, "Who stood behind? We knew," etc., showing that who is plainly interrogative. So in 2 (b), what is interrogative, the full expression being, "But what had become of them? They knew not." Likewise with which in 3 (b).

How to decide.

In studying such sentences, (1) see whether there is an antecedent of who or which, and whether what = that + which (if so, it is a simple relative; if not, it is either an indefinite relative or an interrogative pronoun); (2) see if the pronoun introduces an indirect question (if it does, it is an interrogative; if not, it is an indefinite relative).

Another caution.

128. On the other hand, care must be taken to see whether the pronoun is the word that really asks the question in an interrogative sentence. Examine the following:—

1.

Sweet rose! whence is this hue Which doth all hues excel? —Drummond

2.

And then what wonders shall you do Whose dawning beauty warms us so? —Walker

3.

Is this a romance? Or is it a faithful picture of what has lately been in a neighboring land?—Macaulay

These are interrogative sentences, but in none of them does the pronoun ask the question. In the first, whence is the interrogative word, which has the antecedent hue. In the second, whose has the antecedent you, and asks no question. In the third, the question is asked by the verb.

OMISSION OF THE RELATIVES.

Relative omitted when object.

129. The relative is frequently omitted in spoken and in literary English when it would be the object of a preposition or a verb. Hardly a writer can be found who does not leave out relatives in this way when they can be readily supplied in the mind of the reader. Thus,—

These are the sounds we feed upon.—Fletcher.
I visited many other apartments, but shall not trouble my reader with all the curiosities I observed.—Swift.

Exercise.

Put in the relatives who, which, or that where they are omitted from the following sentences, and see whether the sentences are any smoother or clearer:—

1. The insect I am now describing lived three years,—Goldsmith.
2. They will go to Sunday schools through storms their brothers are afraid of.—Holmes.
3. He opened the volume he first took from the shelf.—G. Eliot.
4. He could give the coals in that queer coal scuttle we read of to his poor neighbor.—Thackeray.
5. When Goldsmith died, half the unpaid bill he owed to Mr. William Filby was for clothes supplied to his nephew.—Forster
6. The thing I want to see is not Redbook Lists, and Court Calendars, but the life of man in England.—Carlyle.
7. The material they had to work upon was already democratical by instinct and habitude.—Lowell.

Relative omitted when subject.

130. We often hear in spoken English expressions like these:—

There isn't one here ‸ knows how to play ball.
There was such a crowd ‸ went, the house was full.

Here the omitted relative would be in the nominative case. Also in literary English we find the same omission. It is rare in prose, and comparatively so in poetry. Examples are,—

The silent truth that it was she was superior.—Thackeray

I have a mind presages me such thrift.—Shakespeare.

There is a nun in Dryburgh bower, Ne'er looks upon the sun. —Scott.

And you may gather garlands there Would grace a summer queen. —Id.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.—Campbell.

Exercises on the Relative Pronoun.

(a) Bring up sentences containing ten instances of the relatives who, which, that, and what.

(b) Bring up sentences having five indefinite relatives.

(c) Bring up five sentences having indirect questions introduced by pronouns.

(d) Tell whether the pronouns in the following are interrogatives, simple relatives, or indefinite relatives:—

1. He ushered him into one of the wherries which lay ready to attend the Queen's barge, which was already proceeding.

2. The nobles looked at each other, but more with the purpose to see what each thought of the news, than to exchange any remarks on what had happened.

3. Gracious Heaven! who was this that knew the word?

4. It needed to be ascertained which was the strongest kind of men; who were to be rulers over whom.

5. He went on speaking to who would listen to him.

6. What kept me silent was the thought of my mother.