31. We now employ five cases; Nominative, Possessive, Dative, Objective, and Vocative.

(i) In Nouns, only one of these is inflected, or has a case-ending—the Possessive.

(ii) In Pronouns, the Possessive, Dative, and Objective are inflected. But the inflexion for the Dative and the Objective is the same. Him and them are indeed true Datives: the old inflection for the Objective was hine and hi.

32. The following are the definitions of these cases :—

(1) The Nominative Case is the case of the subject. (2) The Possessive Case indicates possession, or some sim

ilar relation.

(3) The Dative Case is the case of the Indirect Object, and also the case governed by certain verbs.

(4) The Objective Case is the case of the Direct Object. (5) The Vocative Case is the case of the person spoken to. It is often called the Nominative of Address.

(i) Nominative comes from the Lat. nomināre, to name. From the same root we have nominee.

(ii) Dative comes from the Lat dativus, given to.

(iii) Vocative comes from the Lat. vocativus, spoken to or addressed.

33. The Nominative Case answers to the question Who? or What? It has always a verb that goes with it, and asserts something about it.

34. The Possessive Case has the ending 's in the singular; 's in the plural, when the plural of the noun ends in n; and only when the plural ends in s.

"the

The possessive case is kept chiefly for nouns that are the names of living beings. We cannot say "the book's page" or "the box's lid," though in poetry we can say temple's roof," etc. There are many points that require to be specially noted about the possessive :—

(i) The apostrophe (from Gr. apo, away, and strophē, a turning) stands in the place of a lost e, the possessive in O.E. having been in many cases es. In the last century the printers always put hop'd, walk'd, etc., for hoped, walked, etc. The use of the apostrophe is quite modern.

(ii) If the singular noun ends in s, we often, but not always, write Moses' rod, for conscience' sake, Phœbus' fire; and yet we say, and ought to say, Jones's books, Wilkins's hat, St James's, Chambers's Journal, etc.

(iii) We find in the Prayer-Book, "For Jesus Christ his sake." This arose from the fact that the old possessive in es was sometimes written is; and hence the corruption into his. Then it came to be fancied that 's was a short form of his. But this is absurd, for two reasons :—

(a) We cannot say that "the girl's book" is=the girl his book.
(b) We cannot say that "the men's tools" is=the men his tools.

35. How shall we account for the contradictory forms Lord'sday and Lady-day, Thurs-day and Fri-day, Wedn-es-day and Mon-day, and for the curious possessive Witenagemot?

(i) Lady-day, Friday, and Monday are fragments of the possessive of feminine Nouns in O.E. The oldest possessive of lady was ladyan, which was then shortened into ladyë, lastly into lady. So with Frija, the goddess of love; and with Moon, which was feminine. Thus we see that in Lady-day, Friday, and Monday we have old feminine possessives. The word witenagemot means the meet or meeting of the witan, or wise men, the possessive of which was witěna.

36. The Dative Case answers to the question For whom? or To whom? It has no separate form for Nouns; and in Pronouns, its form is the same as that of the Objective. But it has a very clear and distinct function in modern English. This function is seen in such sentences as--

(1) He handed the lady a chair.

(2) Make me a boat!

(3) Woe worth the day! (= Woe come to the day!) (4) Heaven send the Prince a better companion!

(5) Heaven send the companion a better Prince !

(6)

Sirrah, knock me at this gate, Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly." (Shakespeare, "Taming of the Shrew,” I. ii. 31.)

(7) Methought I heard a cry! (= Meseems.)

(8) Hand me the salt, if you please.

Some grammarians prefer to call this the Case of the Indirect Object; but the term will hardly apply to day and me in (3) and (7). In all the other sentences, the dative may be changed into an objective with the prep. to or for.

(i) In the sixth sentence, the me's are sometimes called Ethical Datives.

(ii) In the seventh sentence, methought is = meseems, or it seems to me. There were in O.E. two verbs--thincan, to seem; and thencan, to think. (iii) In the eighth sentence the phrase if you please is if it please you, and the you is a dative. If the you were a nominative, the phrase would mean if you are a pleasing person, or if you please me.

=

37. The Objective Case is always governed by an activetransitive verb or a preposition. It answers to the question Whom? or What? It is generally placed after the verb. Its form is different from that of the Nominative in pronouns ; but is the same in nouns.

(i) The direct object is sometimes called the reflexive object when the nominative and the objective refer to the same person—as, "I hurt myself;" "Turn (thou) thee, O Lord!" etc.

(ii) When the direct object is akin with the verb in meaning, it is sometimes called the cognate object. The cognate object is found in such phrases as: To die the death; to run a race; to fight a fight, etc.

(iii) A second direct object after such verbs as make, create, appoint, think, suffer, etc., is often called the factitive object. For example: The Queen made him a general; the Board appointed him manager; we thought him a good man, etc.

Factitive comes from the Latin facere, to make.

38. The difference between the Nominative and the Vocative cases is this: The Nominative case must always have a verb with it; the Vocative cannot have a verb. This is plain from the sentences:

(i) John did that.

(ii) Don't do that, John!

39. Two nouns that indicate the same person or thing are said to be in apposition; and two nouns in apposition may be in any case.

(i) But, though the two nouns are in the same case, only one of them has the sign or inflection of the case. Thus we say, "John the gardener's mother is dead." Now, both John and gardener are in the possessive case; and yet it is only gardener that takes the sign of the possessive.

PRONOUNS.

1. A Pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun. We say, "John went away yesterday; he looked quite happy." In this case the pronoun he stands in the place of John.

(i) The word pronoun comes from the Latin pro, for;

a name.

and nomen,

(ii) The above definition hardly applies to the pronoun I. If we say I write, the I cannot have John Smith substituted for it. We cannot say John Smith write. I, in fact, is the universal pronoun for the person speaking; and it cannot be said to stand in place of his mere name. The same remark applies to some extent to thou and you.

2. The pronouns are among the oldest parts of speech, and have, therefore, been subject to many changes. In spite of these changes, they have kept many of their inflexions; while our English adjective has parted with all, and our noun with most.

3. There are four kinds of pronouns: Personal; Interrogative; Relative; and Indefinite. The following is a

table, with examples of each :—

4. There are three Personal Pronouns: The Personal Pronoun of the First Person; of the Second Person; and of the Third Person.

5. The First Personal Pronoun indicates the person speaking; the Second Personal Pronoun, the person spoken to; and the Third, the person spoken of.

6. The First Personal Pronoun has, of course, no distinction of gender. It is made up of the following forms, which are fragments of different words :

(i) We is not = I+I; because there can be only one I in all the world. We is really = I + he, I + you, or I + they.

(ii) I can have no vocative as such. If you address yourself, you must say Thou or You.

"Me

(iii) The dative is preserved in such words and phrases as thinks" ("it seems to me," where the think comes from thincan, to seem, and not from thencan, to think); "Woe is me;"

"Give me the

7. The Second Personal Pronoun has no distinction of It has the following forms :-

gender.

(i) Ye was the old nominative plural; you was always dative or objective. "Ye have not chosen me; but I have chosen you."

This is still

(ii) Thou was, from the 14th to the 17th century, the pronoun of affection, of familiarity, of superiority, and of contempt. the usage in France of tu and toi. Hence the verb tutoyer.

(iii) My, Thy, Our, Your are used along with nouns; Mine, Thine, Ours, and Yours cannot go with nouns, and they are always used alone. Mine and Thine, however, are used in Poetry and in the English Bible with nouns which begin with a vowel or silent h.

8. The Third Personal Pronoun requires distinctions of gender, because it is necessary to indicate the sex of the person we are talking of; and it has them.