PART III Relative Pronouns Defined and Illustrated The relative pronouns are who, which, what, that, and as, with the inflections of who, viz.: the objective whom and the possessive whose, and the compounds in -ever, -so, and -soever, as, whoever, whoso, whosoever, whomever, whomsoever, whosesoever, whichever, whichsoever, whatever, and whatsoever. [NOTE. In the list as given above, the words are placed in the order commonly adopted by grammarians, which is probably due to the fact that who is used of persons, giving it the place of dignity, while which and what are naturally associated with who. In the separate treatment of the words, however, the alphabetical order, used elsewhere throughout this book, will be followed.] Who, which, and what are used also as interrogative pronouns, and that as a demonstrative pronoun; but as when so used they are not properly connectives, those uses will not be here considered. AS As is most frequently used as an adverb or as a conjunction. (See under CONJUNCTIONS.) It is, however, also used with the force of a pronoun. In some such uses in the older writers it would be possible to substitute that without appreciable change of meaning; as: I have not from your eyes that gentleness, Here we might say: "... that gentleness, And show of love, that I was wont to have." In the Tatler (conducted by Addison and Steele, 1709) we read of "a body of men as [that] lay in wait." This usage would now be considered incorrect or inelegant. But after the correlatives as (adv.), same, so, and such, as is used with pronominal force. In many such cases it would be very difficult to treat it either as an adverb or as a conjunction. Its meaning as a pronoun can not be directly defined, because no other word or set of words will take its place with the same correlative force. But its pronominal import will appear from the fact that who, which, or that might in many cases be substituted by a slight change in the form of the sentence, especially of the verb. Thus : ... By breadth is meant such a massing of the quantities, . . . as shall enable the eye to pass without obstruction . . . from one to another, so that it shall appear to take in the whole at a glance. W. ALLSTON Lectures on Art, Composition p. 154. Here we might substitute that, except that the latter word lacks the correlative force. By omitting "such" from the first clause, that may be readily substituted in the second; thus, "a massing of the quantities that shall enable the eye," etc. Again : On the sides of the cave were fan-like ivory tracings, such as the frost leaves upon a pane. HAGGARD King Solomon's Mines ch. 16, p. 225. The reference here is not to manner or mere sequence of thought. It is not “as the frost leaves a pane." The reference is to something traced upon the pane, and we might give the meaning precisely by substituting for "such as "the words "like those which," "like those" carrying the meaning of "such" and "which" of "as"; thus, "fan-like ivory tracings like those which the frost leaves upon a pane." There are many cases in which the exact part of speech represented by as is admittedly difficult to assign, and as to which grammarians would not agree. A safe rule would be, that where as can not be readily explained as a |