Analyzing and Interpreting Literature / Unit 2 AIL 0134 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Pronouns Standing for Abstractions
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The idea
A writer addressing Vanity may then call it thou for many lines. Sample question five turns on exactly this. Apostrophe, the address to an absent thing or an abstraction, defeats readers who assume a pronoun must stand for a person.
In practice
Thou may address an abstraction.
Where people slip
Apostrophe hides the referent.
Your place on the trail
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