Contents Introduction The development of personal pronouns in English

Personal pronouns in the New English period
At the beginning of the Early Modern English period, the use of the
pronouns yow (you) and thou was similar to their use in other European languages.
You was used in relation to the elder or socially superior; thou—in addressing a
junior or socially inferior.
The most significant change in the pronoun system is the gradual
disappearance of the pronoun of the 2nd l. units h., thou (object, n. thee) together
with the possessive pronoun thy (thine) from the living colloquial language. It
acquires a certain expressive coloring, becomes a word of the archaic style,
expressing solemnity or extreme rudeness. In modern language, it retains the
stylistic coloring of solemnity.
In connection with the displacement of thou, the pronoun you in the singular
has ceased to be a polite form, it has become neutral.
In the second person plural pronoun itself, a well-known restructuring also
took place - it lost its case forms. In Middle English, in this pronoun, as in other
personal pronouns, two cases were distinguished: the nominative ye and the object
you. Now the old case forms are being rethought, stylistic differentiation is being
carried out between them: the old form of the object case you becomes a common
nominative-objective form characteristic of the neutral style, while the form ye,
which has also lost its case meaning, becomes poetic archaism, acquiring a stylistic
coloring of solemnity.

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Thus, in the pronoun of the second person, on the one hand, numerical
differences (thou-you) were erased, on the other hand, the grammatical difference
between the forms of the nominative and object cases, but instead the subtlest
stylistic differences appeared: you, ye, thou. As a result, you becomes the common
2nd person form, regardless of number.
The tendency to expand the use of forms of the objective case is also
noticeable in other personal pronouns: so, despite the objections of grammarians,
the use of those in the predicative was finally established: It's me.
In Early New English there is the use of the so-called Dativus Commodi,
"dative interest." In this case, the verbal pronoun expresses the performance of an
action for the sake of someone, for example, knock me at this gate {Taming of the
Shrew, I, 2) This usage disappears in New English.

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