PREPOSITIONS GOVERN THE OBJECTIVE CASE.
[Illustration: LOOK AT ME
PREPOSITIONS GOVERN THE OBJECTIVE CASE]
“When the Parts-of-Speech found themselves so suddenly turned out of
the court, they collected in a group before the door, and looked at
each other in astonishment.”
“Here is a pretty thing!” said Mr. Noun, indignantly. “Fine way to
treat us, indeed!”
“And after all, I only said what is true,” said Preposition. “I do put
every noun or pronoun that comes after my words in the Objective Case,
do I not, Dr. Syntax?”
“Prepositions govern the Objective Case,” said Dr. Syntax, in his usual
monotonous voice; then lifting his spectacles, he twisted his head
round to look at Preposition, and actually deigned to explain his words
by saying: “Whatever noun or pronoun a preposition is placed before and
refers to, must be in the Objective Case.”
“Speak to him,” murmured Serjeant Parsing, as if he were talking to
himself: “_him_, a pronoun, objective case, governed by the preposition
_to_.”
“Mr. Pronoun, you hear that!” exclaimed Mr. Noun. “This little
Preposition is said to govern us, you and me, in the Objective Case.
Very impertinent, on my word!”
“On my word!” again muttered Serjeant Parsing. “Word, a noun, Objective
Case, governed by the preposition _on_.”
“However, it does not matter to me,” continued Mr. Noun, without taking
any notice of Serjeant Parsing. “It will make no difference to me;” and
he turned away, with his hands in his pockets, and began to whistle a
tune.
“It does matter to me, though,” said Pronoun, “for I have to alter my
words according to the case they are in. _I_ is only in the nominative
case, _me_ in the objective; _we_ is nominative, _us_ objective; _he_
nominative, _him_ objective, and so on. You cannot say ‘look at _I_;’
you must say ‘look at _me_.’”
“Look at me,” echoed Serjeant Parsing, in the same quiet tone: “_me_,
Objective Case, governed by the preposition _at_.”
“Quite so,” continued Pronoun, turning to Serjeant Parsing. “I am
objective there, I cannot help it; I must be objective after a
preposition.”
“Yes,” said Serjeant Parsing, aloud, “and it is very convenient for me
that you must. It often helps me to find out whether a word is really
a preposition or no. I just try whether it wants _I_ or _me_ after it.
Take _when_ or _if_, for instance. You can say, when _I_ go, if _I_
were; so _when_ and _if_ are not prepositions. But you cannot say ‘for
I,’ or ‘from I;’ you must have the Objective Case, and say for _me_,
from _me_; so _for_ and _from_ are prepositions governing the Objective
Case.”
“You had better take care,” said Preposition; “you keep on saying
Objective Case, and if you say it before Judge Grammar, you know you
will get us all into trouble again.”
“Oh, never fear,” said Serjeant Parsing; “the Judge will listen to us
patiently enough, next time. Besides, he must hear about Objective
Case, whether he likes it or no, because the prize will partly depend
upon it.”
“The prize! what prize?” cried every one.
“Listen. There is to be a grand trial or examination soon. All
the Schoolroom-shire children are to be invited, and all you
Parts-of-Speech are to make up a story between you. You will each get
a mark for every word you give, and whoever gets the most marks will
get----”
“Yes, what? what will he get?” they all cried out eagerly.
“Ah! that is a secret. What I want to tell you is, that any word that
governs another will get an extra mark. For instance, when I say
‘Listen to me,’ the preposition _to_ puts _me_ in the Objective Case,
so _to_ will get an extra mark.”
“That is splendid!” cried little Preposition, clapping his hands and
jumping about for joy. “I always govern a noun or pronoun in the
Objective Case, so I shall get two marks every time I come in.”
“Not quite so sure,” interrupted Dr. Verb. “Sometimes you come before
a verb, _to_ eat, _to_ sleep, _to_ fly, and then you can only get one
mark, for you do not govern me, my little dear, seeing that verbs do
not have a case at all.”
“Ah, but you have to agree with your Nominative Case, Dr. Verb,” said
Pronoun; “so I suppose, when I am nominative, I shall have an extra
mark, for I might be said to govern you in a sort of way.”
“No, no,” said Serjeant Parsing, putting in his word, “you are not said
to govern Dr. Verb; he agrees with you, that is all; but the Nominative
Case, being a very honourable one, will always get two marks.”
“Then,” said Mr. Noun, suddenly stopping his whistling and taking an
interest in the conversation, “I am of course to get two marks for
every noun in the Nominative Case?”
“Certainly,” answered Serjeant Parsing.
“And in the Objective Case also?” asked Mr. Noun.
“No, no,” said Serjeant Parsing, laughing; “that would be too much of
a good thing, since your words are nearly always either nominative or
objective. No, no; on the contrary, the Objective Case, being governed
by other words (even such little trifles as prepositions), is not
considered at all an honourable case, and therefore will not only give
a noun or pronoun no extra marks, but will take away one of those it
already has. For instance, if I am parsing ‘Come to me,’ and I give Mr.
Pronoun a mark for _me_, I must strike out that mark as soon as I find
that _me_ is in the Objective Case, and must give it to Preposition for
his little word _to_, which governs _me_.”
Mr. Noun and Mr. Pronoun both looked very dismal at these tidings, and
then Mr. Noun said:--
“I hope no one else except Preposition can put me into the Objective
Case.”
“O yes, indeed, I can,” cried Dr. Verb, bustling up, eagerly; but
Serjeant Parsing stopped him.
“No, no, Dr. Verb,” he said, “we are not going to begin that question.
No notice will be taken of any noun or pronoun’s being in the Objective
Case, unless it is governed by a preposition. That is the rule for
this trial; another time, perhaps, your rights will be considered.”
Serjeant Parsing then took the following lines to Schoolroom-shire,
that every Objective Case governed by a preposition might be found
out:--
Tom called for me, I went with him,
We climbed upon a rock;
There over the sea we looked for thee,
Till seven of the clock.
And then a white sail over the main,
Brought back our sailor-boy again.
Fill up the blanks with a noun or pronoun, and say whether it will be
nominative or objective.
.... went for a walk yesterday, .... walked through a dark .... under
tall ....; suddenly, when .... were in a very lonely ...., .... heard
the steps of some .... crashing through the .... “What can it be?” ....
cried .... stopped to listen; the .... came nearer, two bright eyes
gleamed at us through the ...., and in another .... out bounded, with a
deep .... that made echoes all round us, our own dear old ...., who had
broken his chain, escaped from the ...., and had come out to look for
....
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