Possessive & demonstrative pronouns

Possessive & demonstrative pronouns Posted by leire on Apr 12, 2012 in Latin Language

Possessive pronouns

	One holder	Several holders
1st person	meus, -a, -um	noster, nostra, nostrum
2nd person	tuus, -a, -um	uester, uestra, uestrum
3rd person (reflexive)	suus, -a, -um

Its main function is the morphemic: they express the category of person and number. The reflexive possessive suus, -a, -um has also a phoric function, since the owner is always the subject of the sentence. If the holder is not the subject of the sentence, it is used as the possessive the genitive form of the phoric pronoun is, ea, id, or the genitive of demonstratives. See the following example:

Pater filios suos amat, sed eorum vitia reprehendit

(The father loves his children, but punishes his vices)

They also have an important emphatic role, if we consider that Latin economizes the use of possessives and do not use them when it is clear who is the holder. Its use in these cases is clearly pleonastic. Its emphatic role, as in the case of personal pronouns, can be marked by the addition of certain particles (-como, -met, pte) to the pronoun:

Meis oculis vidi = I saw it with my own eyes

Tute tibi tuopte ingenio prodes plurimum = you yourself can benefit from yourself for your own talent

These kind of pronouns are formed like personal pronouns and are declined as adjectives of the first class, with the only difference that the vocative of meus is me.

Demonstrative pronouns

This	Singular			Plural
This	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Femenine	Neuter
Nominative	hic	haec	hoc	hi	hae	haec
Accusative	hunc	hanc	hoc	hos	has	haec
Genitive	huius			horum	harum	horum
Dative	huic			his
Ablative	hoc	hac	hoc	his

That	Singular			Plural
That	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	iste	ista	istud	isti	istae	ista
Accusative	istum	istam	istud	istos	istas	ista
Genitive	istius			istorum	istarum	istorum
Dative	isti			istis
Ablative	isto	ista	isto	istis

That (more distance)	Singular			Plural
That (more distance)	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	ille	illa	illud	illi	illae	illa
Accusative	illum	illam	illud	illos	illas	illa
Genitive	illius			illorum	illarum	illorum
Dative	illi			illis
Ablative	illo	illa	illo	illis

The main function of demonstratives is deictic: they are used to point objects in space. Hic is the demonstrative of objects close to the speaker (1st deixis), iste refers to the receivers environment (2nd deixis), ille (3rd deixis) points distant objects (physically or mentally). This tripartite system however is not valid for classical Latin, as purely demonstrative value, presents more of a shared system between two forms: hic, for objects close to the speaker and the receiver; ille, for distant objects.

Demonstrative pronouns may also have an emphatic function and, sometimes, this will be their main function. Iste, which was out of the demonstration system is used with emphatic negative value, as a pejorative:

Iste grex = that (despicable) gang

Within this contemptuous use we must consider the use iste in forensic language to designate the opposing party. On the other hand, ille, the demonstrative of distance, is used with positive emphatic value to refer to people or well known things:

Medea illa

Xenophon, Socraticus ille