At the words “Nominative Case” there was a real cry of horror from nearly every one in court. You might have thought they had all turned into interjections, they made such a fuss.
“Nominative Case!” cried Noun; “shame, shame!”
“Shameful! awful! shocking!” cried Adjective.
“Fie! fie! fie!” cried Interjection, and turned three times over head and heels.
“Pray do not use such words, Dr. Verb,” said Judge Grammar, “but tell us what you mean.”
“Really, my lord,” said Dr. Verb, “I did not mean any harm. Nominative is not such a very long word, that people should make such a fuss about it. I am sure the ladies and gentlemen of the jury will not be angry at my using it.”
“That depends on how you explain it,” said the Judge; “What does it mean?”
“It means the person or thing that is or does whatever my verb says about him. The cat purrs. It is the cat that does what the verb mentions. You have only to put ‘who’ before the verb in any sentence, and the answer will give you the Nominative. ‘Who purrs?’ The answer is the cat, so cat is the nominative to the verb purrs. That is the way that I find out whom I am to make my verb agree with.”
“Is that your way, Brother Parsing?” asked the Judge.
“Yes, my lord,” answered Serjeant Parsing, “that is my way, and therefore, of course, it is the best way. My way is always the best way. Now there is a sentence all ready for you: My way is always the best way. I’ll find the nominative before you can dot an i. ‘What is always the best way?’ Answer, my way is always the best way;—so my way is the Nominative.”