Higher Lessons in English Part 59

Ship, moon, earth, spring, virtue, nature, night, England.

+Caution+.--Avoid changing the gender of the p.r.o.noun when referring to the same antecedent.

+Direction+.--_Correct these errors_:--

1. The polar bear is comparatively rare in menageries, as it suffers so much from the heat that he is not easily preserved in confinement.

2. The cat, when it comes to the light, contracts and elongates the pupil of her eye.

3. Summer clothes herself in green, and decks itself with flowers.

4. War leaves his victim on the field, and homes desolated by it mourn over her cruelty.

LESSON 119.

NOUNS AND p.r.o.nOUNS--PERSON AND CASE.

+Introductory Hints+.--Number and gender, as you have learned, are modifications affecting the meaning of nouns and p.r.o.nouns--number being almost always indicated by form, or inflection; gender, sometimes. There are two modifications which do not refer to changes in the meaning of nouns and p.r.o.nouns but to their different uses and relations. These uses and relations are not generally indicated by form, or inflection.

_I, Paul_, have written. _Paul, thou_ art beside thyself. _He_ brought _Paul_ before Agrippa. In these three sentences the word _Paul_ has three different uses, though, as you see, its form is not changed. In the first it is used to name the speaker; in the second, to name the one spoken to; in the third, to name the one spoken of. These different uses of nouns and p.r.o.nouns and the forms used to mark these uses const.i.tute the modification called +Person+. _I, thou, and he_ are personal p.r.o.nouns, and, as you see, distinguish person by their form. _I_, denoting the speaker, is in the +First Person+; _thou_, denoting the one spoken to, is in the +Second Person+; and _he_, denoting the one spoken of, is in the +Third Person+.

Instead of _I_ a writer or speaker may use the plural _we_; and through courtesy it came to be customary, except among the Friends, or in the language of prayer and poetry, to use the plural _you_ instead of _thou_.

_The bear killed the man_. _The man killed the bear_. _The bear's grease was made into hair oil_. In the first sentence the bear is represented as performing an act; in the second, as receiving an act; in the third, as possessing something. These different uses of nouns and p.r.o.nouns and the forms used to mark these uses const.i.tute the modification called +Case+. A noun used as subject is in the +Nominative Case+; used as object complement it is in the +Objective Case+; and used to denote possession it is in the +Possessive Case+.

Some of the p.r.o.nouns have a special form for each case; but of nouns the possessive case is the only one that is now marked by a peculiar form. We inflect below a noun from the Anglo-Saxon, [Footnote: The Anglo-Saxon cases are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative; the Latin are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, and ablative; the English are nominative, possessive (genitive), and objective.

ANGLO-SAXON.

Hlaford, _lord_.

Singular. Plural.

Nom. hlaford, hlaford-_as_.

Gen. hlaford-_es_, hlaford-_a_.

Dat. hlaford-_e_, hlaford-_um_.

Acc. hlaford, hlaford-_as_.

Voc. hlaford, hlaford-_as_.

LATIN.

Dominus, _lord_.

Singular. Plural.

Nom. domin-_us_, domin-_i_.

Gen. domin-_i_, domin-_orum_.

Dat. domin-_o_, domin-_is_.

Acc. domin-_um_, domin-_os_.

Voc. domin-_e_, domin-_i_.

Ab. domin-_o_, domin-_is_.

ENGLISH.

Lord.

Singular.

Nom. lord, Pos. lord-_'s_, Obj. lord; Plural.

Nom. lord-_s_, Pos. lord-_s'_, Obj. lord-_s_.]

and one from the Latin, the parent of the Norman-French, in order that you may see how cases and the inflections to mark them have been dropped in English. In English, prepositions have largely taken the place of case forms, and it is thought that by them our language can express the many relations of nouns to other words in the sentence better than other languages can by their c.u.mbrous machinery of inflection.

+DEFINITIONS+.

+_Person_ is that modification of a noun or p.r.o.noun which denotes the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of+.

+The _First Person_ denotes the one speaking+.

+The _Second Person_ denotes the one spoken to+.

+The _Third Person_ denotes the one spoken of+.

A noun is said to be of the first person when joined as an explanatory modifier to a p.r.o.noun of the first person; as, _I, John_, saw these things; _We Americans_ are always in a hurry. [Footnote: It is doubtful whether a noun is ever of the first person. It may be said that, in the sentence _I, John, saw these things_, John speaks of his own name, the expression meaning, _I_, _and my name is John_, etc.]

A noun is of the second person when used as explanatory of a p.r.o.noun of the second person, or when used independently as a term of address; as, _Ye crags_ and _peaks_; Idle time, _John_, is ruinous.

+Direction+.--_Compose sentences in which there shall be two examples of nouns and two of p.r.o.nouns used in each of the three persons_.

+Person Forms+.

Personal p.r.o.nouns and verbs are the only cla.s.ses of words that have distinctive person forms.

+Direction+.--_From the forms of the p.r.o.nouns given in Lesson 124, select and write in one list all the first person forms; in another list, all the second person forms; and in another, all the third person forms._

Person is regarded in grammar because the verb sometimes varies its form to agree with the person of its subject; as, _I see_; _Thou seest_; _He sees_.

+DEFINITIONS+.

+_Case_ is that modification of a noun or p.r.o.noun which denotes its office in the sentence+.

+The _Nominative Case of a noun or p.r.o.noun_ denotes its office as subject or as attribute complement+.

+The _Possessive Case of a noun or p.r.o.noun_ denotes its office as possessive modifier+.

+The _Objective Case of a noun or p.r.o.noun_ denotes its office as object complement, or as princ.i.p.al word in a prepositional phrase+.

A noun or p.r.o.noun used independently is said to be in the nominative case.

+Examples+.--I am, _dear madam_, your friend. Alas, _poor Yorick_! _He being dead_, we shall live. _Liberty_, it has fled! (See Lesson 44.)

A noun or p.r.o.noun used as explanatory modifier is in the same case as the word explained--"is put by apposition in the same case."

+Examples+.--The first colonial _Congress_, _that_ of 1774, addressed the _King_, _George III_. He buys is goods at _Stewart's_, the dry-goods _merchant_.

A noun or p.r.o.noun used as objective complement is in the objective case.