Middletown transcript., 1898-02-05
FOURTH COLLEGE PAPER.
BIZ A xrxBKn OF THE FACULTY.

BIZ MEMBKR OF THE FACULTY.
Instances Of incohersnce arise more often.
perhaps from the misuse Of pronouns than
from the misuse of other any parts Of speech
Such misuse Of pronouns often invol yes
nothing worse than inelegance or the pos
sibility that the writer's meaning may be
absurdly misinterpreted, but sometimes
misused pronoun makes q sentence or
paragraph obscure.
It will be well to take up first the misuse
of personal pronouns, and to begin with an
illustrative example, THE Americans soon
realized that they would be of great value
to them" wrote student in discussing the
origin of slavery in the United States. The
sentence rs it stands is incoherent, because
the relation Of the pronouns to other words
10 not clear. The defect is remedied by SUBJ
stituing "ths slaves for the first "they."
There are great many instances in which
obscurity arising from the misuse Of per-
sonal pronouns may be cleared up by put
ting in place Of the ambiguous pronoun
the noun for which it stands.
A familiar type of ineoherencs arising
from the misuse of personal pronouns is
furnished in this sentence, The doctor told
his coachman that he would haYe to be
more careful how he drove or he would en-
danger his life." OF course the simplest
way to make such a sentence clear is to use
the direct instead of the indirect address,
thus, THE doctor said to his coachman,
You must be more careful how you drive
or you will endanger my life.' "The use "of
the doctors" in place of the second "his"
would correct the incoherence of the SEN
tence. but such a form of expires sion, while
unmistakably coherent and clear, would be
awkward.
Young writers often use plural pronoun
in referring to singular antecedent. This
form of incoherence often brings about in
elegance rather than obscurity. " Com
pairing the negro OF to-day with those of
1860 We find them much improved" wrote
q student in discussing the origin, growth
and abolition of slavery in the United
States. The sentence may be corrected by
pluralizing negro" or by repeating ''negro''
where 'sthose" occurs, and putting "him"
in place Of "them."
Some able writers now and then use
personal pronoun before they have express
ed the noun to which it refers. This is in
its effect more often inelegant than obscure,
yet such usage involves sort of incoher-
enee and it may involve obscurity. An ex-
treme example is, dislike their manners
who interrupt and contradict other speak
ers." Such q sentence is hardly obscure,
yet the mind dWells confusedly a moment
on "their," wondering to what it refers. II
dislike the manners of those" ETC., is better
The rhetorical management of relative
pronouns involves in the main questions as
to the management of relative clauses.
Young writers frequently offend in the
matter ofpiling up relative clauses one upon
another: 1t 10 right enough to use several
relative clauses in succession, provided they
have q common antecedent, but q success
sion Of relative clauses dependent one upon
another, and hitched together like sausage
links. may bring about an awkward and
sometimes obscure construction. A success
sion Of relative clauses with q common an
tecedent is shown in this sentence: "This is
a book that have enjoyed, that think
you will enjoy but which cannot recon-
mend to every young man" Such SEN
tence is Of proper construction, and alto
gether coherent. Here is q sentence with a
succession Of relative clauses dependent not
upon a common antecedent, but upon one
another: "W hen you come across the book
that the professor whom we met at the
house of the old gentleman whose evening
reception we thought so plassnt, please
send them to me-" Here We have the sau-
sage-link construction. It is to the mind
distracting and loose. 1t cannot be cor
rected, BY the way. simply by emitting the
first two relative pronouns. That would be
merely to make the sentence more slovenIy.
What has been written is far from ex-
hausting the subject Of pronouns. but the
subject is too difficult for exhaustive treat
ment in such n series of articles as these.
Enough has been said. however. to give
some hint of what students about to enter
Delaware College may reasonably be ex-
pected to know. The next of these articles
will take up the subject of Anne rican Lit
erasure. but the subject Of the composition |
will in few weeks be resumed.
RrnRanuSo vsr.ann omIva