Excerpt from Modern Language Notes, Vol. 17

III. We pass on now to the third point of the argument: that there can be no plural of I, because 1 represents an idea absolutely unique, and therefore incapable of pluraliza tion. This argument rests upon the tacit as sumption, again (i prz'ori, that the plurals of substantive words always faithfully preserve the ideal content of their singulars. But in the realm of fact, that is, in the realm of gram mar, it is frequently found that plurals are formed from singulars for which, according to this assumption no plurals should be possible. What actually happens is, indeed, no mystery the added idea of plurality is allowed to modify the original concept of the singular so far as may be necessary to permit the combination of the two. The ordinary nouns of material, such as iron, copper, ice, for example, in their unmodified form present the idea of con tinuous or indeterminate substance, an idea quite as difficult to pluralize as the idea of the pronoun in question. But these nouns are free to form plurals, - z'rous, rappers, fees, which, through reaction of the plural idea, come to designate discrete or determinate substance. Precisely similar is the case of abstract nouns, whose plurals are inevitably concrete; as, for example, cold, colds; Izealtlz, [tea/tits; ira, z'rae, in Vergil's famous line. So too with proper names, - the class, for sooth, to which our latest wisdom would assign the very pronoun in question.4 I' may say Smith, and then I doubtless mean a cer tain definite personality, a concept absolutely unique in any given utterance of mine as that which is indicated by I. But I may also say the Smiths, though the uniqueness evaporates quite in the pluralization. Here too, as in the other case, the argument proves too much, since it would make plurals impos sible to all substantives save class-nouns only. In all these cases, no doubt, the plural be comes logz'ca/ly the plural of a class-concept.

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