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LESSON 119.
NOUNS AND PRONOUNS—PERSON AND CASE.
+Introductory Hints+.—Number and gender, as you have learned, are modifications affecting the meaning of nouns and pronouns—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 pronouns 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 pronouns and the forms used to mark these uses constitute the modification called +Person+. I, thou, and he are personal pronouns, 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 pronouns and the forms used to mark these uses constitute 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 pronouns 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.