Anglo-Saxon, year and winter had plural terminations. Phrases like "a twelvemonth" and "a fortnight" are sometimes used.

IV. Some nouns have the PLURAL TERMINATION ONLY; as, Annals, antipodes, archives, ashes, assets, bitters, bowels, breeches, compasses, clothes, calends, customs, drawers, downs, dregs, eaves, embers, entrails, fetters, filings, forceps, goggles, goods, hatches, hose, ides, lees, matins, mallows, news, nippers, nones, nuptials, pincers, pinchers, pliers, reins, snuffers, shears, scissors, shambles, spectacles, staggers, thanks, thank is obsolete, tidings, tongs, trowsers, tweezers, vespers, vitals, victuals, yellows. Letters in the sense of literature, and manners in the sense of behavior, may be added to the list. These, in construction, are used in the plural number.

V. Some nouns have the PLURAL FORM, BUT ARE OFTEN USED IN CONSTRUCTION IN THE SINGULAR NUMBER. Alms was originally a noun singular, being a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon almesse. The s belonged to the word just as s in goose does. "This almesse should thou do of thy proper things."-CHAUCER. Pains has the plural form; when preceded by much, it should have a singular verb. News has the plural form, but is used in the singular as well as in the plural. Odds is used in both the singular and plural. The same is true of gallows and bellows, though gallows has gallowses. Means is used in both the singular and the plural, though it has a singular form, mean, which is sometimes used. Billiards has the sense of a game containing a unity of idea. Riches seems to have been the French richesse, and therefore strictly no more plural than gentlenesse. Ethics, metaphysics, and other similar words, comprehending each the whole system of a particular science, do not convey the idea of parts or particular branches, but of a whole. collectively, and hence seem to be treated as words belonging to the singular number; they are also used as plurals.

VI. Some nouns have SOMETIMES THE SAME FORM FOR BOTH NUMBERS, AND AT OTHER TIMES A REGULAR PLURAL FORM; such are dozen, pair, brace, couple, score. "He bought ten dozen" "he bought them by dozens." Under this description. may be placed such words as youth, heathen, which, in a singular form, can enter into either a singular or a plural construction, and yet can take a plural form; as, A heathen rages; the heathen rage; the heathens rage.

VII. "COMPOUNDS, consisting of two or more words connected by a hyphen, are generally composed either of two nouns, of which one is used in the sense of an adjective, as man-trap, where man is really an adjective; or of a noun and adjective, as court-martial; or of a noun and some expression having the force of an adjective, as father-in-law, where in-law has the force of an adjective as much as legal. In all these compounds the sign of the plural is added to that part of the compound which really constitutes the noun, whether at the end or not; as, Man-traps, courts-martial, fathers-in-law," cousins german, outgoings, queen consorts, Te Deums. "In forming

the possessive case, the rule is different, the sign of the possessive being uniformly suffixed to the compound expression; thus, father-in-law, plural fathers-in-law, possessive father-in-law's.” -HART'S Grammar, p. 42.

Compounds united without a hyphen follow the general rule; as, spoonfuls, overflowings.

VIII. Proper nouns, when used in the plural number, follow the rule, for the most part, of common nouns; as, Canada, the Canadas; Carson, the Carsons; Rogers, the Rogerses; Alleghany, the Alleghanies; India changes the vowel, Indies.

IX. Words used as mere words follow the general rule; as, The ins and the outs; the yeas and the nays.

X. When a TITLE AND A NAME ARE USED TOGETHER, Some grammarians recommend that the title only have the plural form; as, the Misses Lyman; others, that both have the plural form; as, the Misses Lymans; and others, that the name only have the plural form; as, the Miss Lymans. The last is the correct form if the two words are viewed as a compound term; the first, if they are viewed as in opposition; the second, if they are viewed as if in classical languages. The last, namely, the Miss LYMANS, is sanctioned by the highest authority.

COMPARATIVE ETYMOLOGY.

§ 255. Some ancient languages, as the Anglo-Saxon, the Moso-Gothic, and the Greek and Hebrew, the old and the present Icelandic, in addition to the singular and the plural, had the Dual, which denotes two objects, or a pair. The English has Dual is from the Latin word duo

no dual.

two. Thus, in

the Anglo-Saxon, pu, the singular thou; git, the dual-ye two; ge, the plural-ye. We have the remains of ancient number in the examples given: of the Hebrew, as in cherubim; of the Greek, as in phenomena; of the Latin, as in larvæ; of the Anglo-Saxon, as in oxen. We have also borrowed certain forms of number from modern languages. See Examples above.

CASES OF NOUNS.

§ 256. CASE denotes the relation which a noun sustains to other words in the sentence, expressed sometimes by its termination and sometimes by its position. Nouns have three cases, the Nominative, the Possessive or Genitive, and the Objective or Accusative.

The NOMINATIVE CASE is the noun in its simple form, and denotes the relation of the subject to the finite verb; as, "Man speaks;" "John is loved."

The POSSESSIVE or GENITIVE CASE denotes the relation of possession or origin, and is formed by adding to the simple form the letter s, with an apostrophe before it; as, "Man's virtue;" "Milton's poems."

The OBJECTIVE or ACCUSATIVE CASE is the noun in its simple form, and denotes the relation of the object to the verb, or the complement of a preposition; as, "He struck the soldier;" "he lives in Boston." To these cases might be added the Dative and the Vocative. See § 261.

ORIGIN OF THE TERM.

Nom.

Gen.

Dat.

§ 257. CASE is from the Latin word casus, a falling. The cases were supposed to fall or decline from the Nominative, which was written in a perpendicular, and therefore called rectus casus, the right case, while the others were written from that at different angles, and therefore called obliqui casus, the oblique cases, as in the opposite diagram.

Acc.

Voo

Abl

259. I. Generally, when the singular ends in s, or in letters of a similar sound, and the next word begins with s, or when there is an s also in the penult, the apostrophic s is omitted, but the apostrophe is added; as, For righteousness' sake; for conscience' sake; Moses' disciples; Peleus' son. See § 483.

II. When the letter s, added as the sign of the possessive, will coalesce with the terminating sound of the noun, it is pronounced in the same syllable, as John's; but if it will not coalesce, it adds another syllable to the word, as in the example above, Charles's, pronounced as if written Charlesis.

III. When the nominative plural ends in s, the possessive plural is formed by adding only an apostrophe; when it does not end in s, the possessive plural is formed by adding both the apostrophe and the s. See examples of declension.

TRANSITION FROM THE

ANGLO-SAXON GENITIVE.

§ 260. In the Anglo-Saxon, the genitive termination of many nouns in the singular number was es, is, or ys; as, Godes, leafes, mirthis, mannys.

In the 16th century, the words his, her, and their were introduced into use instead of the genitive case:

Where is this mankind? Who lives to age
Fit to be made Methusalem his page?"

DR. DONNE.

"And by Ronix her womanish subtlety" Ronixis or Ronix's womanish subtlety. "About the Hollanders their throwing off the monarchy of Spain." "My paper is Ulysses his bow, in which every man of wit or learning may try his strength." Addison, in this quotation, uses this form of expression, and elsewhere justifies it. "The same single letter s on many occasions does the office of a whole word, and represents the his and her of our forefathers."-Spect., No. 207.

It appears that as cases gradually melted away from the language, his took the place of is, ys, es, from its resemblance to them in sound, and that her and their were introduced by an imitative process.

"Ben

Yet opposition had been made to this innovation. Jonson, in his Grammar, which came out in 1640, after his death, says, 'Nouns ending in x, s, sh, g, and ch, take to the genitive singular i, and to the plural e, which distinctions, not observed, brought in first the monstrous syntax of the pronoun his joining with a noun betokening a possessor.' But this 'monstrous syntax' became so general, that the republisher of Ben Jonson, in 1662, taking upon him to correct his author, audaciously and tacitly put in room of this passage, 'To the genitive cases of all nouns denoting a possessor is added 's, with an apestrophe, thereby to avoid the gross syntax of the pronoun his joining with a noun; as, The Emperor's court, not The Emperor his court; thus foisting in his own conviction that 's stands for his, and yet retaining the expression the gross syntax,' he has made old Ben write nonsense."-See Cambridge Philological Museum, vol. i., p. 670.

In the phrase "the queen's majesty," we see the absurdity of supposing that the possessive 's is equivalent to his.

THE NUMBER OF CASES.

§ 261. It has been a question how many cases should be admitted in the English language. If a change of termination is essential to constitute a case, there are but two cases, the nominative and the possessive, which are the only two forms of the

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