Higher Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (popular books to read TXT) 📕

denotes its office in the sentence+.

+The Nominative Case of a noun or pronoun denotes its office as subject or as attribute complement+.

+The Possessive Case of a noun or pronoun denotes its office as possessive modifier+.

+The Objective Case of a noun or pronoun denotes its office as object complement, or as principal word in a prepositional phrase+.

A noun or pronoun 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 pronoun 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 pronoun used as objective complement is in the objective case.

+Examples+.—They made him speaker. He made it all it is.

A noun or pronoun used as attribute complement of a participle or an infinitive is in the same case (_Nom._ or Obj.) as the word to which it relates as attribute.

+Examples+.—Being an artist, he appreciated it. I proved it to be him.

+Remark+.—When the assumed subject of the participle or the infinitive is a possessive, the attribute complement is said to be in the nominative case; as, Its being he [Footnote: The case of he in these examples is rather doubtful. The nominative and the objective forms of the pronoun occur so rarely in such constructions that it seems impossible to determine the usage. It is therefore a matter of no great practical importance.

Some, reasoning from the analogy of the Latin, would put the attribute complement of the abstract infinitive in the objective, supposing for and some other word to be understood; as, For one to be him, etc. Others, reasoning from the German, to which our language is closely allied, would put this complement in the nominative.

The assumed subject of the infinitive being omitted when it is the same in sense as the principal subject, him, in the sentence I wish (me or myself) to be him, is the proper form, being in the same case as me.] should make no difference. When the participle or the infinitive is used abstractly, without an assumed subject, its attribute complement is also said to be in the nominative case; as, To be he [Footnote: See footnote above.] is to be a scholar; Being a scholar is not being an idler.

+Direction+.—_Study carefully the Definitions and the Remark above, and then compose sentences in which a noun or a pronoun shall be put in the nominative case in four ways; in the objective in five ways; in the possessive in two ways_.

 

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LESSON 120.

ANALYSIS AND PARSING.

+Direction.+—_Analyze the following sentences, and give the case of each noun and pronoun:_—

1. Not to know what happened before we were born is to be always a child. 2. His being a Roman saved him from being made a prisoner. 3. I am this day weak, though anointed king.

+Explanation.+—Nouns used adverbially are in the objective case because equivalent to the principal word of a prepositional phrase. (See Lesson

35.)

 

4. What made Cromwell a great man was his unshaken reliance on God. 5. Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, was not a prophet’s son. 6. Arnold’s success as teacher was remarkable.

+Explanation.+—_Teacher_, introduced by as and used without a possessive sign, is explanatory of Arnold’s.

7. Worship thy Creator, God; and obey his Son, the Master, King, and Saviour of men. 8. Bear ye one another’s [Footnote: For the use of one another, see Lesson 124.] burdens.

+Explanation.+—The singular one is explanatory of the plural ye, or one another’s may be treated as a compound.

9. What art thou, execrable shape, that darest advance? 10. O you hard hearts! you cruel men of Rome! 11. Everybody acknowledges Shakespeare to be the greatest of dramatists. 12. Think’st thou this heart could feel a moment’s joy, thou being absent? 13. Our great forefathers had left him naught to conquer but his country.

(For the case of him see explanation of (3) above.)

14. I will attend to it myself.

+Explanation+.—Myself may be treated as explanatory of I.

15. This news of papa’s puts me all in a flutter. [Footnote: See second footnote, page 247.] 16. What means that hand upon that breast of thine? [Footnote: See second footnote, page 247.]

 

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LESSON 121.

PARSING.

+TO THE TEACHER+.—We do not believe that the chief end of the study of grammar Is to be able to parse well, or even to analyze well, though without question analysis reveals more clearly than parsing the structure of the sentence, and is immeasurably superior to it as intellectual gymnastics. We would not do away with parsing altogether, but would give it a subordinate place.

But we must be allowed an emphatic protest against the needless and mechanical quoting, in parsing, of “Rules of Syntax.” When a pupil has said that such a noun is in the nominative case, subject of such a verb, what is gained by a repetition of the definition in the Rule: “A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb is in the nominative case”? Let the reasons for the disposition of words, when given at all, be specific.

+Parsing+—a word is giving its classification, its modifications, and its syntax, i.e., its relation to other words.

+Direction+.—_Select and parse in full all the nouns and pronouns found in the first ten sentences of Lesson_ 120. For the agreement of pronouns, see Lesson 142.

+Model for Written Parsing+.—_Elizabeth’s favorite, Raleigh, was beheaded by James I_.

 

CLASSIFICATION. | MODIFICATIONS. | SYNTAX. –––––—|–––––––—|–––––––––– |_Per-Num- Gen-_ | Nouns. Kind.|_son. ber. der. Case_.| –––––—|–––––––—|–––––––––– Elizabeth’s Prop.| 3d Sing. Fem. Pos. | Mod. of favorite. favorite Com. | 3d Sing. Mas. Nom. | Sub. of was beheaded. Raleigh Prop.| 3d Sing. Mas. Nom. | Expl. Mod. of favorite. James I. Prop.| 3d Sing. Mas. Obj. | Prin. word of Prep. phrase.

TO THE TEACHER.—For exercises in parsing nouns and pronouns, see Lessons 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 44, 46, 59, 60, 71, 73, 78, 80, and 81. Other exercises may be selected from examples previously given for analysis, and parsing continued as long as you think it profitable.

 

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LESSON 122.

CASE FORMS—NOUNS.

Nouns have two case forms, the simple form, common to the nominative and the objective case, and the possessive form.

+RULE.—The Possessive Case of nouns is formed in the singular by adding to the nominative the apostrophe and the letter s (_’s_); in the plural by adding (_’_) only. If the plural does not end in s, (_’s_) are both added. [Footnote: In Anglo-Saxon, es was a genitive (possessive) ending of the singular; as, sta:n, genitive sta:n-es. In old English, es and is were both used. In modern English, the vowel is generally dropped, and (‘) stands in its place. The use of the apostrophe has been extended to distinguish the possessive from other forms of the plural.

Some have said that our possessive ending is a remnant of the pronoun his. Phrases like, “Mars his sword,” “The Prince his Players,” “King Lewis his satisfaction” are abundant in Early, and in Middle, English. But it has been proved that the his in such expressions is an error that gained its wide currency largely through the confusion of early English orthography.

Professor Hadley has clearly shown that the Saxon termination has never dropped out of the language, but exists in the English possessive ending to-day.]

+Examples+.—_Boy’s, boys’, men’s_.

+Remark+.—To avoid an unpleasant succession of hissing sounds, the s in the possessive singular is sometimes omitted; as, conscience’ sake, goodness’ sake, Achilles’ sword, Archimedes’ screw (the s in the words following the possessive here having its influence). In prose this omission of the s should seldom occur. The weight of usage inclines to the use of s in such names as Miss Rounds’s, Mrs. Hemans’s, King James’s, witness’s, prince’s. Without the s there would be no distinction, in spoken language, between Miss Round’s and Miss Rounds’, Mrs. Heman’s and Mrs. Hemans’.

+Remark+.—Pronounce the (‘s) as a separate syllable (= es) when the sound of s will not unite with the last sound of the nominative.

+Remark+.—When the singular and the plural are alike in the nominative, some place the apostrophe after the s in the plural to distinguish it from the possessive singular; as, singular, sheep’s; plural, sheeps’.

+Direction+.—_Study the Rule and the Remarks given above, and then write the possessive singular and the possessive plural of each of the following nouns_:—

Actor, elephant, farmer, king, lion, genius, horse, princess, buffalo, hero, mosquito, negro, volcano, junto, tyro, cuckoo, ally, attorney, fairy, lady, monkey, calf, elf, thief, wife, wolf, chief, dwarf, waif, child, goose, mouse, ox, woman, beau, seraph, fish, deer, sheep, swine.

Compound names and groups of words that may be treated as compound names add the possessive sign to the last word; as, a man-of-war’s rigging, the queen of England’s palace,[Footnote: In parsing the words queen and England separately, the (‘s) must be regarded as belonging to queen; but the whole phrase queen of England’s may be treated as one noun in the possessive case.] Frederick the Great’s verses.

+Remark+.—The possessive plural of such terms is not used.

The preposition of with the objective is often used instead of the possessive case form—_David’s_ Psalms = Psalms of David.

+Remarks+.—To denote the source from which a thing proceeds, or the idea of belonging to, of is used more frequently than (‘s).

The possessive sign (_’s_) is confined chiefly to the names of persons, and of animals and things personified. We do not say the tree’s leaves, but the leaves of the tree.

The possessive sign however is often added to names of things which we frequently hear personified, or which we wish to dignify, and to names of periods of time, and to words denoting value; as, the earth’s surface, fortune’s smile, eternity’s stillness, a year’s interest, a day’s work, a dollar’s worth, two cents’ worth.

By the use of of, such expressions as witness’s statement, mothers-in-law’s faults may be avoided.

+Direction+.—_Study carefully the principles and Remarks given above, and then make each of the following terms indicate possession, using either the possessive sign or the preposition of, as may seem most appropriate, and join an appropriate name denoting the thing possessed_:—

Father-in-law, William the Conqueror, king of Great Britain, aid-de-camp, Henry the Eighth, attorney-at-law, somebody else,[Footnote: In such expressions as everybody else’s business, the possessive sign is removed from the noun and attached to the adjective. (See Lesson lai.) The possessive sign should generally be placed immediately before the name of the thing possessed.] Jefferson, enemy, eagle, gunpowder, book, house, chair, torrent, sun, ocean, mountain, summer, year, day, hour, princess, Socrates.

 

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LESSON 123.

CONSTRUCTION OF POSSESSIVE FORMS.

As the possessive is the only case of nouns that has a distinctive inflection, it is only with this case that mistakes can