Part 7
_Nom._ child children _Poss._ child’s children’s _Obj._ child children
=123.= The noun in the nominative case is used in other relations besides that of subject of a verb. The subjective complement is in the nominative case, as well as the noun used independently.
When a noun is object of a preposition, it is in the objective case.
=Summary.=—=Case= is that property of a noun or a pronoun which shows its relation to some other word in the sentence.
There are three cases.
A noun used as subject of a verb, as subjective complement, as an exclamatory noun, or as a term of address is in the =nominative case=.
A noun used as object of a verb or of a preposition is in the =objective case=.
A noun used as a possessive modifier is in the =possessive case=.
=Declension= is the arrangement of the three case forms of a noun in the two numbers.
=Exercise.=—Tell the use, the case, the number, and the gender of every noun in these sentences.
1. The chill glitter of the northern summer sunrise was washing down over the rounded top of old Sugar Loaf.
2. Thank him according to our customs, Mowgli.
3. What a good draught the nag takes!
4. Alas! Kitty Clover, they say it is wicked; that I must not catch grasshoppers for a pussy cat on Sunday.
5. Why doesn’t your mother make a fresh cup of coffee?
6. We might shovel off the snow, and dig down to some of last year’s onions.
7. Pilgrim fathers! why should we not glorify the pilgrim mothers?
8. What did Peterson Sahib mean by the elephant dance?
9. The boy is the shoemaker’s friend.
10.
Mistress Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?
11. I didn’t ask the captain’s leave when I attended this ceremony, for I had a general idea that he wouldn’t give it.
12. Cæsar is certainly the handsomest and most gentlemanly cat I ever saw.
13. How was the Princess’s nose ring the cause of your misfortune?
14.
Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night. When the loosed storm breaks furiously?
15. Indeed all the really pretty girls that you see are Americans.
16. When I opened the goldfinch’s door on the morning of the blackbird’s arrival, he paid no attention to his beloved bath, but instantly flew over and alighted on the cage of the newcomer.
17. These ten cows knew their names after a while, and would take their places as I called them.
18. Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, was Scrooge.
19.
O time and change! how strange it seems With so much gone to still live on!
XXXII. NOUNS: THE APPOSITIVE
=124.= It is frequently necessary to explain some term we use, and there is a convenient way for doing this without making a new sentence. For instance, an author writes, “One of these buildings belongs to the Horse Guards.” Then, for fear we may not know who the Horse Guards are, he adds these explanatory words, “a very fine body of English cavalry.”
This group of words consists of the noun _body_ used as a base word, modified by the prepositional phrase _of English cavalry_, the adjective element _very fine_, and the article _a_. The whole group is placed beside the term it explains, and is separated from it by a comma. Such a group of words is called an =appositive=, and the base word _body_ is called =a noun in apposition=.
=125.= Sometimes we explain who a person is by using his name; as, “I heard your friend, _John Richards_, say that he was going to write to you.”
Sometimes the name of a person or animal or place is used first, and then explained by a group of words; as, “Akela, _the great gray Lone Wolf_, lay out at full length on his rock.”
=126.= The appositive and the term it explains are in reality two names for the same person or thing. You might think that either one could be called the appositive, but this is not so. It is the explanatory term that is the appositive, and this is the second of the two terms.
=127.= Sometimes, when there is no danger of any misunderstanding, the appositive comes at a little distance from the word it modifies; as, “Splendid buildings meet our eyes at every turn,—churches, private residences, places of business, and public edifices.” Can you account for this arrangement?
=128.= Sometimes an appositive has been used so long with the word it modifies that the two have become united into one name; as, Peter the Hermit, Peter the Great, William the Conqueror. Such an appositive is not set off by a comma.
NOTE.—In the term Peter the Great, the adjective _great_ has become a noun, and is modified by the adjective _the_.
=129.= When ownership is to be denoted, the sign of possession is added to the appositive instead of to the term that it explains; as, “The poet Milton’s daughter,” “Mr. Taft, the president’s, cow,” “My friend Julia’s husband.”
=Summary.=—An =appositive= is a word or a group of words placed after a term to explain it.
When the base word of an appositive is a noun, it is called a =noun in apposition=.
The case of a noun in apposition is the same as that of the noun it explains.
An appositive is a modifier of a noun or a pronoun.
An appositive is set off from the rest of the sentence by commas unless it makes one term with the word it modifies.
=Exercise.=—Select all the appositives in the following sentences, and tell what they modify. Find the nouns in apposition. Tell the case of each, giving the reason in each instance. Analyze sentences 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16.
1. Alfred the Great loved books and strangers and travelers.
2. In the neatest, sandiest hole of all lived Benjamin’s aunt and his cousins,—Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.
3. The conversation turned to rheumatism, a subject of very remote interest to Polly.
4. My son William became a telegraph operator before he was seventeen.
5. James II, the bigoted successor of Charles I, had annulled the charters of all the colonies.
6. The geography lesson that day was the rivers of Asia,—the Obi, Yenisei, Lena, Amoor, Hoang Ho, and Yang-tse-kiang.
7. Some writers tell us that Edward the Confessor had made a will appointing Duke William his successor.
8. Foremost among the envious ones was the Princess Panka, the daughter of a neighboring king.
9. Close to Charing Cross is Trafalgar Square, a fine open space with a fountain, and a column to Lord Nelson.
10. The body of Warwick the kingmaker was exposed for three days on the pavement of St. Paul’s, and then deposited among the ashes of his fathers in the abbey of Bilsam.
11. The pass was crowned with dense, dark forest,—deodar, walnut, wild cherry, wild olive, and wild pear.
12. Kaa, the big Rock Python, had changed his skin for perhaps the two hundredth time since his birth.
13. Eric the Red, a wandering Norseman who was dwelling in Iceland, went to sea and discovered Greenland.
14. There are so many things to distract a boy’s attention,—a chipmunk in the fence, a bird on a near tree, and a henhawk circling high in the air over the barnyard.
15. Very soundly it slept, that doomed hare crouching under the fir bush!
16. They had never been accounted for, Rebecca’s eyes.
XXXIII. APPOSITIVE ADJECTIVES
=130.= Adjectives are not always placed before the noun they modify. When they are used as subjective complements, they follow the verb, although they modify the subject; as, “Life is _real_,” “The air seems _moist_.” We also find many sentences like the following, “The camel, restless and weary, groans and occasionally shows his teeth.”
Here it is evident that the adjectives _restless_ and _weary_ are in the sentence to describe the camel; hence they modify the noun _camel_; but instead of preceding this noun, they follow it. Because of their position such adjectives are called =appositive adjectives=.
=131.= An appositive adjective is usually set off by a comma or commas. It is frequently modified by a phrase, as in the expressions, “restless under his heavy load,” “weary with the long journey.”
=Summary.=—An adjective with or without modifiers may be used as an appositive.
An appositive adjective is usually set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma.
=Exercise.=—Select all the appositive adjectives in these sentences, and tell what they modify. Give the modifiers of each adjective. Account for the punctuation. Analyze sentences 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12.
1. His tunic, scarlet in color, is of the softest woolen fabric.
2. The skirt drops to the knee in folds heavy with embroidery.
3. Grandfather Nutter was a hale, cheery old gentleman, as straight and as bald as an arrow.
4. The pink rose, dear for its old associations, was transplanted to a sunny place close by the south door.
5. Presently the Colonel came in, bluff, warm, and hearty.
6. From the other window one saw the distant forest, so deep, black, and mysterious.
7. The April night, softly chill and full of the sense of thaw, was closing down over the wide salt marshes!
8. Presently, from far along the dark heights of the sky, came voices, hollow, musical, confused.
9. Here is a foot passenger, dusty and tired, who comes with lagging steps.
10. There is no nation known to history in which all citizens, male and female, old and young, native and foreign born, have had the suffrage.
11. Ginger hurried off into the darkness, wild with excitement.
12. The chief engineer entered the smoking room for a moment, red, smiling, and wet.
XXXIV. INDIRECT OBJECT
=132.= We have seen that the direct object names the receiver of the
## action asserted by the verb. In the sentence, “Kotuko made his dog a
tiny harness,” the direct object of the verb _made_ is a _tiny harness_, for this group of words tells what received the making, and answers the question _made what?_
If we go further and ask the question, _made a harness for what?_ the answer is, _his dog_. This group of words is called the indirect object. It names the receiver of the direct object; that is, the dog received the harness.
=133.= An indirect object is always in the objective case, but it is not a complement of the verb, because it is not a necessary element of a sentence. We call it a modifier of the verb. The sentence, “In the morning the old wife gave the princess three nuts,” would be complete if we left out the indirect object _the princess_, and merely told what the old wife gave, namely, three nuts.
Notice that the indirect object comes between the verb and the direct object. If we place it after the direct object, we must supply the preposition _to_ or _for_, and then instead of an indirect object we shall have a prepositional phrase.
=Summary.=—An =indirect object= is a word or a group of words that tells to whom or for whom, to what or for what, something is done.
An indirect object names the receiver of the direct object.
An indirect object precedes the direct object.
An indirect object is a modifier of a verb.
An indirect object is in the objective case.
Only a few transitive verbs take both direct and indirect objects. Some of them are _bring_, _buy_, _do_, _get_, _give_, _lend_, _make_ _pass_, _pay_, _promise_, _sell_, _send_, _show_, _take_, _tell_, _write_.
=Exercise 1.=—Write sentences containing both direct and indirect objects, using verbs in the list above.
=Exercise 2.=—Select both the direct and the indirect objects in the following sentences, giving reasons:—
1. Carry your grandmamma a custard and a little pot of butter.
2. Aladdin made his mother very little reply.
3. I showed my comrades a large heap of stones.
4. Mrs. Howe had promised the children presents, so she bought George a gun, Mollie two gold rings, and Paul a checkerboard.
5. I wish the Lord would give horses voices for just one week.
6. Bring my mother six women slaves to attend her.
7. If you offer Dash a bit of sheep’s wool now, he tucks his tail between his legs, and runs for home.
8. I never told my schoolmates that I was a Yankee.
9. I paid Gypsy a visit every half hour during the first day of my arrival.
10. Then the magician gave Aladdin a handful of small money.
11. Father Andrew also taught Tom a little Latin.
12. The sultan granted Aladdin his request and again embraced him.
XXXV. ADVERBIAL NOUN PHRASES
=134.= We have learned that a frequent modifier of a verb is a prepositional phrase telling the place or time of an action; as, “So off we go in the cool, clear morning.”
Sometimes a noun, or a group of words of which a noun is the base word, takes the place of this prepositional phrase; as, “_Last summer_ the apple trees bore no fruit.”
The words _last summer_ tell time, and modify the predicate _bore no fruit_, but there is no preposition in this group of words. _Summer_ is a noun modified by the adjective _last_. Such a group of words we call an =adverbial noun phrase=. The noun used as base word we call an =adverbial noun=.
=135.= An adverbial noun phrase tells not only time and place, but it often answers such questions as _how far?_ _how long?_ _how much?_ as, “We walked _the whole distance_ before sunset.” “She stayed in London _ten days_.” “One orange weighed _twelve ounces_.”
=Summary.=—An =adverbial noun phrase= is a group of words of which a noun is the base word, that tells the time or place of an action, or how long, how far, or how much.
An adverbial noun phrase modifies a verb.
An =adverbial noun= is always in the objective case.
=Exercise.=—Select the adverbial noun phrases and the nouns used as base words. Tell what the phrases modify, and what questions they answer. (Notice that these phrases often modify more of the predicate than just the verb.) Analyze sentences 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10.
1. He followed her to school one day.
2. Each boy who failed to report himself was fined one cent.
3. Elizabeth Eliza went home directly.
4. Morning, noon, and night, Dame Van Winkle’s tongue was incessantly going.
5. His keen, sonorous, passionate cry rang strangely on the night, three times.
6. The trail was an easy one this time.
7. There the wild plum each summer fruited abundantly; and there a sturdy brotherhood of beeches each autumn lavished their treasure of three-cornered nuts.
8. I worked a whole week to get the traps properly set out.
9. The next instant the panther received a smart blow on the top of his head.
10. Kala Nag, the elephant, stood ten fair feet at the shoulder.
11. Ere the cow had gone twenty-five yards, Lobo was upon her.
12. The next morning Mrs. Peterkin began by taking out the things that were already in her trunk.
XXXVI. ADVERBIAL NOUN PHRASES
=136.= When we wish to tell how long, or wide, or deep, or thick a thing is, we frequently make use of such statements as these:—
The valley is nine miles long.
The street is sixty feet wide.
The water is ten fathoms deep.
The slices were an inch thick.
It is evident that in the first sentence the question _how long?_ is answered by the words _nine miles_. Hence this group of words modifies the adjective _long_, having the same use as the adverb _very_ in, “The valley is very long.” But the base word of this group is the noun _miles_, hence the whole group must be an adverbial noun phrase. We conclude from this familiar sentence that an adverbial noun phrase may modify an adjective.
What adverbial noun phrase modifies _wide_? _deep_? _thick_?
Make sentences in which an adverbial noun phrase modifies the adjectives _old_, _tall_, _high_.
=137.= The adverbial noun phrase may also modify an adverb, as in the sentence, “She came two hours afterward,” where _two hours_ answers the question _how long afterward?_ How do we know that _afterward_ is an adverb?
NOTE.—A common illustration of this use is found in the familiar expression _a short time ago_, where the adverb _ago_ (which is never used by itself) is modified by the adverbial noun phrase _a short time_. Think of five other noun phrases often used to modify _ago_.
=Summary.=—An adverbial noun phrase may modify an adjective or an adverb. In such a case it denotes a measure of some sort.
=Exercise.=—Select the adverbial nouns and the phrases of which they are the base words. Tell what these phrases modify, and what questions they answer.
1. About an hour later a big red fox came trotting into the glade.
2. When the stone was pulled up, there appeared a staircase about three or four feet deep, leading to a door.
3. The trail was perhaps an hour old.
4. After viewing old Fort Snelling, we walked a mile farther to the parade ground, and watched the soldiers drill.
5. An ordinary wolf’s forefoot is four and one half inches long.
6. Lobo stood three feet high at the shoulder, and weighed one hundred and fifty pounds.
7. If the crows do not kill the owl, they at least worry him half to death and drive him twenty miles away.
8. It is a curious fact about boys that two will be a great deal slower in doing anything than one.
9. When the eagle returned an hour later to the point of shoals, the net looked less strange to him.
10. Twenty-five years ago the American minister at the court of Turin was conversing with a young Italian of high rank from the island of Sardinia.
11. The largest aboriginal structure of stone within the limits of the United States has a circuit of 1480 feet, is five stories high, and once included five hundred separate rooms.
12. How many years did Jacob serve for Rachel?
13. The week before the election one of the candidates for mayor spoke to an audience of laboring men every evening.
14. That day I left the university, and my trial took place a little while later.
15. David reflected a few moments longer.
XXXVII. OBJECTIVE COMPLEMENT
=138.= In the sentence, “The boys called the turtles Harry Blake’s sheep,” the verb is followed by two noun elements. What are they? The second element is not an appositive of the first, neither have we here a direct and an indirect object. Prove this.
If we ask the question, _What_ did the boys call Harry Blake’s sheep? the answer is, _the turtles_; hence this must be the direct object of _called_. But the sentence is not complete here. We do not mean that the boys _called_ the turtles, that is, _summoned_ them. We mean that they _named_ the turtles. If we ask the question, “What did the boys call the turtles?” the answer is, “_Harry Blake’s sheep_.” This group of words is necessary as a second complement of the verb, and at the same time it tells what the turtles became as a result of calling, or naming, them. Such an element is called an =objective complement=, because it tells something about the direct object.
The base word of an objective complement is in the objective case.
=139.= Not all transitive verbs take an objective complement; but only verbs of making or causing, such as _make_, _call_, _name_, _elect_, _appoint_, _choose_.
=140.= Sometimes the objective complement has an adjective for its base word instead of a noun; as, “The great wood-fire in the tiled chimney place made our sitting room _very cheerful_ of winter nights.”
=Summary.=—An =objective complement= is a word or a group of words that helps to complete the verb, and tells what the direct object becomes as a result of the action asserted by the verb.
The base word of an objective complement may be either a noun or an adjective.
=Exercise.=—Find all the objective complements in the following sentences and tell about them in this way:—
MODEL.—_Ben called this room his cabin._
_His cabin_ is a noun element used as objective complement of the verb _called_, because it tells what the direct object, _this room_, becomes as a result of the calling. The base word of this objective complement is the noun _cabin_.
1. His blue beard made him so ugly and so terrible in appearance that women and children fled from him.
2. She kept the cottage always as neat as a new pin.
3. By much trampling we had made the salt marsh a mere quagmire.
4. This mother, proud of her knowledge of French, always called her little daughter Mademoiselle.
5. If ever I have a boy to bring up in the way he should go, I shall make Sunday a cheerful day to him.
6. To the great amusement of my grandfather, Sailor Ben painted the cottage a light sky-blue.
7. Then, inch by inch, the untempered heat crept into the heart of the Jungle, turning it yellow, brown, and at last black.
8. The fish had buried themselves deep in the dry mud.
9. The natives of Bermuda call the tamarisk the “salt-cedar.”
10. Nature meant him for a frontiersman, but circumstances made him an innkeeper.
11. The only way that they could set the king’s head straight was to remove it.
12. Columbus rechristened the island San Salvador, but its precise identity has always been a little doubtful.
13. A parrot would shriek me wild in a week.
14. Skin changing always makes a snake moody and depressed till the new skin begins to shine and look beautiful.
15. The giver makes the gift precious.
16. The sound of a bell struck the merrymakers dumb.
17. Who appointed you judge of your brother?
18. The dim light of stars rendered large objects near at hand visible in bulk and outline.
19. We call domestic animals dependent creatures; but who made them dependent?
XXXVIII. PARSING OF NOUNS
=141.= When we tell all that is true about a noun from a grammatical point of view, we are said to =parse= it.
In parsing a noun we should tell:—
(1) Its class,—common or proper.
(2) Its person,—first, second, or third. (See Note.)
(3) Its number,—singular or plural.
(4) Its gender,—masculine, feminine, neuter, or common.
(5) Its case,—nominative, possessive, or objective.
(6) Its use in the sentence.
NOTE.—Nouns do not change their _form_ for =person=. Since they are almost always the names of persons or things spoken of, they are usually in the _third person_. A noun is in the _first person_ when it is used in apposition with a pronoun of the first person. (See p. 98.) A noun is in the _second person_ (1) when it is used in apposition with a pronoun of the second person; (2) when it is used as a term of address.
=Exercise.=—Parse each noun in the following sentences:—
1. All the great men of the neighborhood were there on horseback,—militia officers in uniform, the member of Congress, the sheriff of the county, the editors of newspapers, and many a farmer, too, had mounted his patient steed or come on foot.
2. Next day Mowgli himself fell into a very cunning leopard trap.
3. The Bermudas are, with the exception of Gibraltar, England’s most strongly fortified hold.
4. Then Mrs. Howe graciously showed the admiring ladies her collection of fine lace and embroideries.
5. The thoughtful, lonely ways of their admiral made Columbus an object of terror to his ignorant seamen.