d. If I say, "Your brother's friend sent James to me; I sent your friend's brother to James; You sent James to my friend's brother;" you can easily see that all these sentences differ much from one another in meaning. The difference of meaning arises from the different relations of the words to one another, and these different relations are called cases. That objects exist or act, that objects are owned, or make parts of other objects, and that objects are acted upon, are the three chief conditions of things, on which cases are based. What, then, is case? Case is the sense or form in which nouns and pronouns are construed with other words, to express thought. There are three cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective. What does the nominative case denote ? The nominative case denotes the condition of a noun or pronoun that is used as the subject of a predicate. Ex.-John struck James. (Who struck James?) The rose tiful. (What is beautiful?) Fishes swim in the sea, and birds the air. Mary's bunch of flowers is fading. is beau fly in A noun or pronoun is also in the nominative case, when it is used independently or absolutely. Ex.-Independently: "John, come to me;" Alas, poor Yorick !" "The Pilgrim Fathers,-where are they?" "Merchants' Bank." Absolutely The tree having fallen, we returned;" "Bonaparte being banished, peace was restored;" "To become a scholar, requires exertion." Independently; used in addressing persons or other objects, in exclaiming, or in simply directing attention to an object. Absolutely; used before a participle, or after a participle or an infinitive, without being governed by it or controlled by any other word. Exercises. Spell the plural of the following words :— Sofa, larva, house, mouse, feather-bed, booth, tooth, ox, box, root, foot, turf, wolf, genus, genius, isthmus, trio, cargo, valley, sally, alley, ally, rabbi, crutch, stomach, trellis, ellipsis, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Jones. Words Explained.-Possessive, owning. Apostrophe, turning or cutting off, something that shows omission: kingis crowne has become king's crown. What does the possessive case denote? The possessive case denotes possession. Ex.-John's horse. My slate. The children's books. Boys' sports. The Possession may be past, or future and merely intended, as well as present and actual; as, "Webster's Dictionary;" "Men's boots for sale here." former example implies origin; the latter, fitness. What is the regular sign of the possessive case? An apostrophe, or comma above the line, followed by the letter s. Is the possessive s always expressed? Men's affairs. It is omitted from plural nouns ending with s, and sometimes also from singular nouns ending with s, or an s-sound. Ex.-The soldiers' camp. For conscience' sake. A singular noun ending with an s-sound, should generally have the apostrophe and s; as, "Dennis's Works."-Pope. "Louis's reign."—Macaulay. "Charles's affairs."-Prescott. It is often better to use of, or to make the possessive word an adjective; as, "The death of Socrates;" "Lucas Place." "For conscience' sake," "For goodness' sake," etc., are rather idiomatic exceptions to the rule, than fair illustrations of a general principle. What does the objective case denote ? The objective case denotes the condition of a noun or pronoun that is used as the object of a verb or preposition. Ex. This stream turns a mill. (Turns what?) dam. (Over what?) The water flows over the I saw her with him? (Saw whom? with whom?) The object of a transitive verb or of a preposition, is the noun or pronoun required after it to make sense; as, "I rolled a stone down the hill." Here stone is the object of the verb rolled, and hill is the object of the preposition down. Exercises. The noun or pronoun, and why; then the case, and why : Fair John shot John found Mary's book. Lucy's lamb nips the grass. blooms the lily. He wrote his name in his book. some squirrels in your father's field. Sweet fountain, once again I visit thee. The Greeks were more ingenious than the Romans [were]. The plough, the sword, the pen, and the needle,—how Words Explained.—Idiomatic, peculiar, formed by custom without regard to rules. Principle, a rule or law, a truth that applies to many particulars. Objective, denoting an object; and object, something thrown in the way, something aimed at or affected. Prep-o-si-tion, from pre, before, and positio, placing; a word placed before others to show position or relation. Repetition, telling again. Explanation, telling what a thing is. When must a noun or pronoun agree in case with another noun or pronoun? When it is but a repetition of the other, or when it denotes, by way of explanation, the same thing. Ex.-I, 1, am the man. a barber. Friends, false friends, have ruined me. Smith is Smith the barber is my neighbor. How can the different cases of nouns be distinguished? By their meanings: or, the nominative may be found by asking a question with who or what before the verb; the objective, with whom or what after the verb; and the possessive is known by the apostrophe. Ex.-" Mary plucked flowers for John's sister." Who plucked?-plucked what?-for whom? e. Having now shown you what properties nouns and pronouns have, I shall next show you, briefly and regularly, how the different nouns and pronouns are written to express these properties. This process is called declension. What, then, is it, to decline a noun or pronoun ? To decline a noun or pronoun, is to show, in some regular way, what forms it has to express its grammatical properties. Observe that nouns sometimes remain unchanged, and that pronouns are sometimes wholly changed, to express their properties. Exercises. mighty! To retreat was to lose all. that you can learn. (I know what?) is plain?) On that day of desolation, I know (What was what?) Why he went, is plain. (What Promising and performing are two different things. Lady, I was captive made; Bleeding for my Christian nation, By the walls of high Belgrade.-Campbell. Spell the possessive singular; then the possessive plural, if the word can have it :— Sister, (thus S-i-s-sis-t-e-r-apostrophe-s-ter's-Sister's,) John, day, Sparks, prince, horse, St. James, John Henry Thomson, he, one, who, other, she, it, court-martial, brother-in-law, bookkeeper; the duke of Northumberland; Allen and Baker; Morris the bookseller; Morris, the bookseller. Words Explained.—Decline', to change from one state or form into another. Supersede; to take the place of, because preferred. Style, mode of writing or speaking. Authority; right to govern from greater merit, or through power derived from others. Emphatic, expressing an idea with greater force. Reflexive, turning back upon itself, that the act or relation reverts to the subject. 3D PERS. Fem. She, her or hers, her; they, their or theirs, them. Decline John, man, boy, lady, fox, farmer, Benjamin, city. Decline I, thou, you, he, she, it, myself, thyself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, one, other, who, whoever, whosoever, which, whichever, what, that, as, none. Thou is now superseded, in common usage, by you. Thou is still pre ferred in addressing the Deity, and often in Scriptural or poetic style. We may include, with the speaker, the person addressed, and the person spoken of. You may include, with the person addressed, the person spoken of. You, he, and I we; thou or you and he-you. Editors, in speaking of themselves editorially, generally prefer we to I. This use of the plural pronoun denotes greater modesty or authority; for it implies that the speaker is not alone in his opinion. Ours, yours, hers, etc., are each equivalent to the simple possessive pronoun and a noun; as, "This is my hat, and that is yours," i. e., your hat. It sometimes denotes merely the state or condition of things; as, "It snows;" "It was moonlight on the Persian sea;" "It is too dark here to read." Sometimes it introduces a sentence, and is explained by a following word, phrase, or clause; as, "It is he;" "It is she;" "It was they ;" "It is mean to take advantage of another's distress ;" "It is perfectly plain that a straight line must be the shortest distance between two points." (What is plain?) It is sometimes applied to creatures whose sex is not obvious or not important; as, "We found a young fawn, and caught it." The sex, most grammarians say, is disregarded in such instances, and the words are neuter. But, since the nouns must, in such cases, be nearly always of the common gender, and since we can say, "It is he," "It is she," it may be as well to say it is of the common gender. ("The tiger broke its chain," seems less proper to me than, "The tiger broke his chain.") The compound personal pronouns of the first and the second person are composed of the simple possessive pronouns and self or selves; those of the third person, of the objective pronouns and self or selves. These pronouns are used only in the nominative and the objective case, and they are either emphatic or reflexive in sense; as, "He himself waited on his guest;" "She deceived herself." To express possession emphatically, own is used with the smple possessive pronoun; as, "This is my own affair." None (no-one) may be used either as singular or plural. Each other properly relates to two only; one another, to more. Exercises. What is the objective corresponding to— I?-thou ?-we?-ye?-he?-she?-it?-they?-you?—who? What is the nominative corresponding to Me? us? - thee?- him? whom her?-hers ?-them?— themselves?-herself?-it ?-which? Form the compound pronoun :— My, our, thy, your, him, her, it, one, them, who, which, what. Of what gender, person, number, and case is each of the following pronouns ?— Him, his, its, he, them, it, I, you, thy, their, she, thou, me, your, us, they, my, mine, thine, yours, it, hers, others, theirs, we, thee, our, ours, ye, myself, ourself, themselves, ourselves, thyself, yourselves, yourself, himself, itself, herself, one, none, one's, ones', other, others', who, what, which, whatever. |