This is _the best_ of the two. This principle is capable of an application more extensive than our habits of speaking and writing will verify. Thus to go to other parts of speech, we should logically say-- Whether of the two, rather than Which of the two. Either the father or the son, but not Either the father, the son, or the daughter. This statement may be refined on. It is chiefly made for the sake of giving fresh prominence to the idea of duality, expressed by the terminations -er and -ter. § 435. The absence of inflection simplifies the syntax of adjectives. Violations of concord are impossible. We could not make an adjective disagree with its substantive if we wished. * * * * * CHAPTER IV. SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. § 436. _Pleonasm in the syntax of pronouns._--In the following sentences the words in italics are pleonastic: 1. The king _he_ is just. 2. I saw _her_, the queen. 3. The _men_, they were there. 4. The king, _his_ crown. Of these forms, the first is more common than the second and third, and the fourth more common than the first. § 437. The fourth has another element of importance. It has given rise to the absurd notion that the genitive case in -'s (_father-'s_) is a contraction from _his_ (_father his_). To say nothing about the inapplicability of this rule to feminine genders, and plural numbers, the whole history of the Indo-Germanic languages is against it. 1. We cannot reduce _the queen's majesty_ to _the queen his majesty_. 2. We cannot reduce _the children's bread_ to _the children his bread_. 3. The Anglo-Saxon forms are in -es, not in _his_. 4. The word _his_ itself must be accounted for; and that cannot be done by assuming it to be _he_ + _his_. 5. The -s in _father's_ is the -is in _patris_, and the -ος in πατέρος. § 438. The preceding examples illustrate an apparent paradox, viz., the fact of pleonasm and ellipsis being closely allied. _The king he is just_, dealt with as a _single_ sentence, is undoubtedly pleonastic. But it is not necessary to be considered as a mere simple sentence. _The king_--may represent a first sentence incomplete, whilst _he is just_ represents a second sentence in full. What is pleonasm in a single sentence is ellipsis in a double one. * * * * * CHAPTER V. THE TRUE PERSONAL PRONOUNS. § 439. _Personal pronouns._--The use of the second person plural instead of the second singular has been noticed already. This use of one number for another is current throughout the Gothic languages. A pronoun so used is conveniently called the _pronomen reverentiæ_. § 440. _Dativus ethicus._--In the phrase Rob me the exchequer,--_Henry IV._, the _me_ is expletive, and is equivalent to _for me_. This expletive use of the dative is conveniently called the _dativus ethicus_.