forms were fallings off, or declinations (Cp. the term declension). The Romans applied the term case to the nominative (casus rectus); not so the Greeks, from whom the idea was borrowed. The oldest English had six cases: Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, and Instrumental. In Modern English we have the subject-noun or Nominative case, the object-noun or Objective case, and the Possessive case. The Nominative and Objective case of nouns have the same form, and both are without case-endings. The Objective includes the Accusative or direct object of a transitive verb, and the impersonal object or Dative case, generally expressed by the noun with the preposition to or for before it. It is sometimes called the Indirect object. The true Dative (of nouns and pronouns) is seen in such expressions as, he bought his brother a farm; I made me great works; woe worth the day; woe is me; me-thinks, me-seems, &c. The infinitive of purpose is a dative in "Their feet make haste to shed blood." We have preserved the O. E. genitive -s, but all other endings have gone ; e for the dative singular, and um for the plural have disappeared. In the thirteenth century a final e represented both the singular and plural dative. The loss of this final e in the fourteenth century, left the dative and accusative undistinguished in form from the nominative. Possessive Case. 102. The Possessive case, unlike the Nominative and Objective, is marked by a distinct form. Our possessive is the representative of the older genitive, but we can see how much its force is weakened when we find as late as 1420 such expressions as strengthes qualitee (the quality of strength), cannys knottes (the knots of cane), vynes rootes (roots of vines). In the oldest English there were various declensions, as in Greek and Latin, and different genitive suffixes for the singular and the plural. The suffixes for the singular in the first period were -es, smith-es (smith's), -an, steorr-an (star's) -e, rod-e (rood's) -a, sun-a (son's). For the plural they were -a, as, smith-a, rod-a, sun-a; -ena, as, steorr-ena. In the thirteenth century the suffixes of the genitive in the singular were -es and -e; in the plural -ene (-en), -e, and the modern form -es which often replaced the others. In the fourteenth century -es (-s) is the ordinary suffix for singular and plural. The suffix -en, -ene (gen. pl.) is found as late as 1387; wycchen tonges (Trevisa, 11. p. 187) of witches. See extract from Trevisa on p. 95. = tongues 103. The O.E. suffix -es was at first limited to the singular of certain masculine and neuter nouns, but was afterward extended to the feminine. The expression lady-day is the last relic of the old mode of forming the genitive feminine. Fabyan (A.D. 1516) has Mary Mawdelayne day, (Chronicle, p. 488). This ending -es (-us, -ys, -is) made a distinct syllable in the older stages of the language. "And by the popës mediacioun." CHAUCER, Man of Lawes Tale, 1. 234. "And cristendom of prestës handës fonge." Ib. 1. 377. "The nightës char (car) the stars about doth bring." LORD SURREY. "Larger than the moonës sphere.' SHAKESPEARE, Midsum. Night's Dream, 11. I. Formation of the Possessive Case. 104. The Possessive case (singular and plural) is formed in the written language by the suffix -s. In the spoken language it has the same phonetic modifications as the plural -s. (See § 90, p. 71, § 63, p. 45). The apostrophe in the singular marks the elison of the e of the old -es. The general use of the apostrophe in the singular is not found much before the end of the seventeenth century. It was probably employed to distinguish the possessive case from the plural number. Its use may have been established from a false theory of the origin of the suffix -s, which prevailed from Ben Jonson's to Addison's time, namely, that it was a contraction of his, hence such expressions as : "For Jesus Christ his sake.”—Prayer Book. (Camerarius's). WHITLOCK, p. 52. We find this corruption towards the close of the fourteenth century. Trevisa has "egle hys nest" = eagle's nest. -is, another form of -es was sometimes written apart from its noun, and hence perhaps the confusion of his with -is, or -es. In the thirteenth century we find his for -is (-es) intentionally used after proper names. Nouns forming their plural by vowel change, or by the suffix -n, take the possessive sign after the plural ; as, men's, oxen's, children's. Nouns forming their plurals in -s were thought to be without the case-sign; hence in writing the possessive came to be marked by the apostrophe, as boys'.' When a singular noun ends in an s sound, the possessive sign is dropped, and the apostrophe (often This came about in the seventeenth century, through the notion that the s in boys' was the sign of the plural number, and not of the possessive case. G omitted) marks its absence; as, for justice' sake, for conscience' sake, your highness' love, &c. In foreign proper names (of two or more syllables) ending in s, the possessive is unchanged. Cp. Moses' law, Thetis' wrath, Olympus' top. In common English names we generally sound an additional syllable; as Fames's (pronounced Fâmz-ez). "Peersses bernes ; ""Peersses wyf." Piers Plowman, C. p. 148. 105. In compounds the possessive suffix is added to the last term, the son-in-law's house, William-theConqueror's reign. Sometimes we find the principal substantive inflected as in the older stages. "For his grace's sake the cardinal.”—FORD. "Constance the Kynges sister of France" The King of France's sister.-FABYAN. "Eadwardes kynges leave” = King Edward's leave. "On Williames daye the yonger Kynges" = On King William the younger's day.-O.E. Miscell. p. 145. "Saberhtes deâth east seaxna cyninges" = The death of Sæberht, king of the East Saxons.-Bed. ii. 5. The Case absolute. = 106. In the oldest period the dative was the absolute case. About the middle of the fourteenth century the nominative began to replace it. Pecock (A.D. 1449) has a few instances of the tative: "Him it witing and not weerning," he knowing it and not forbidding it (11. 325). Milton occasionally imitates the Latin construction, as "him destroyed." In the use of the passive participle we have introduced being, as, "this being done," which was in the sixteenth century, "this done." |