Lesson 56 - 60: Noun, Nominative, Objective, Possesive

56. In the general wearing-away of inflections, the number of case forms has been greatly reduced.

Only two case forms.

There are now only two case forms of English nouns,—one for the nominative and objective, one for the possessive: consequently the matter of inflection is a very easy thing to handle in learning about cases.

Reasons for speaking of three cases of nouns.

But there are reasons why grammars treat of three cases of nouns when there are only two forms:—

(1) Because the relations of all words, whether inflected or not, must be understood for purposes of analysis.

(2) Because pronouns still have three case forms as well as three case relations.

57. Nouns, then, may be said to have three cases,—the nominative, the objective, and the possessive.

I. Uses of the Nominative.

58. The nominative case is used as follows:—

(1) As the subject of a verb: "Water seeks its level."

(2) As a predicate noun, completing a verb, and referring to or explaining the subject: "A bent twig makes a crooked tree."

(3) In apposition with some other nominative word, adding to the meaning of that word: "The reaper Death with his sickle keen."

(4) In direct address: "Lord Angus, thou hast lied!"

(5) With a participle in an absolute or independent phrase (there is some discussion whether this is a true nominative): "The work done, they returned to their homes."

(6) With an infinitive in exclamations: "David to die!"

II. Uses of the Objective.

59. The objective case is used as follows:—

(1) As the direct object of a verb, naming the person or thing directly receiving the action of the verb: "Woodman, spare that tree!"

(2) As the indirect object of a verb, naming the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb: "Give the devil his due."

(3) Adverbially, defining the action of a verb by denoting time, measure, distance, etc. (in the older stages of the language, this took the regular accusative inflection): "Full fathom five thy father lies;" "Cowards die many times before their deaths."

(4) As the second object, completing the verb, and thus becoming part of the predicate in acting upon an object: "Time makes the worst enemies friends;" "Thou makest the storm a calm." In these sentences the real predicates are makes friends, taking the object enemies, and being equivalent to one verb, reconciles; and makest a calm, taking the object storm, and meaning calmest. This is also called the predicate objective or the factitive object.

(5) As the object of a preposition, the word toward which the preposition points, and which it joins to another word: "He must have a long spoon that would eat with the devil."

The preposition sometimes takes the possessive case of a noun, as will be seen in Sec. 68.

(6) In apposition with another objective: "The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn."

III. Uses of the Possessive.

60. The possessive case always modifies another word, expressed or understood. There are three forms of possessive showing how a word is related in sense to the modified word:—

(1) Appositional possessive, as in these expressions,—

The blind old man of Scio´s rocky isle.—Byron.

Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ´s bay.—Shelley.

In these sentences the phrases are equivalent to of the rocky isle [of] Scio, and in the bay [of] Baiæ, the possessive being really equivalent here to an appositional objective. It is a poetic expression, the equivalent phrase being used in prose.

(2) Objective possessive, as shown in the sentences,—

Ann Turner had taught her the secret before this last good lady had been hanged for Sir Thomas Overbury´s murder.—Hawthorne.

He passes to-day in building an air castle for to-morrow, or in writing yesterday´s elegy.—Thackeray

In these the possessives are equivalent to an objective after a verbal expression: as, for murdering Sir Thomas Overbury; an elegy to commemorate yesterday. For this reason the use of the possessive here is called objective.

(3) Subjective possessive, the most common of all; as,—

The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator´s power display.

—Addison.

If this were expanded into the power which his Creator possesses, the word Creator would be the subject of the verb: hence it is called a subjective possessive.