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.
6. I thought that nothing in the world was so beautiful as the
sultan my father’s palace.
7. Perhaps your fish is eighteen inches long.
8. Here comes the boat! This is your waterproof, Hetty. Be
careful now, Miss Alice. Mrs. Blank, you will need your sun
umbrella. Hold on a minute, skipper, till I get that basket.
9. At nine o’clock, Williams, a bronze Hercules, low-voiced,
gentle-mannered, a trusty boatman, and an enthusiast in his
calling, met us at the dock.
10. The savage sticks bright feathers in his hair, carries a
tomahawk, and wears moccasins upon his nimble feet.
11. Some evenings afterward the same thing happened at another
corner of the pasture.
12. The innocent savages gave Columbus a new world for Castile
and Leon, and he gave them some glass beads and little red caps.
13. The sultan received the present from Aladdin’s mother’s
hand.
14. The elephant was thoughtfully chewing the green stem of a
young plantain tree.
15. In the good old days the boys on the coast ran away and
became sailors.
16. I was a favorite with the cooks, and so, although they
denied my cousins certain privileges of the kitchen, they
freely granted these to me.
17. The Norsemen called gold “the serpent’s bed.”
SUMMARY OF CASE RELATIONS
Nominative.
(1) Subject of a verb.
(2) Term of address.
(3) Exclamatory noun.
(4) Subjective complement of a verb.
(5) Appositive.
(6) Nominative absolute (see p. 237).
Possessive.
(1) Modifier of a noun.
Objective.
(1) Object of a verb.
(2) Object of a preposition.
(3) Appositive.
(4) Indirect object.
(5) Adverbial noun.
(6) Objective complement.
Make an original sentence to illustrate each of the case relations of a
noun.
XXXIX. PERSONAL PRONOUNS
=142.= Certain pronouns, as _I_, _you_, _he_, _it_, etc., show by their
form that they refer to the person speaking, the person spoken to, or the
person or thing spoken of.
The pronoun _I_ denotes the person speaking, and is said to be a pronoun
of the =first person=.
The pronoun _you_ denotes the person spoken to, and is said to be a
pronoun of the =second person=.
The pronouns _he_, _she_, and _it_ denote the person or thing spoken of,
and are said to be pronouns of the =third person=.
Such pronouns are called =personal= pronouns.
=143.= The noun that a pronoun stands for, whether it is expressed
somewhere in the sentence or merely understood, is called the
=antecedent= of the pronoun.
=144.= All the personal pronouns have several different forms, and if we
wish to speak our language correctly, we must know these forms and be
careful in their use. The personal pronouns are declined as follows:—
FIRST PERSON SECOND PERSON
_Singular_ _Plural_ _Singular_ _Plural_
_Nom._ I we you you
_Poss._ my, mine our, ours your, yours your, yours
_Obj._ me us you you
THIRD PERSON
_Singular_ _Plural_
MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER
_Nom._ he she it they
_Poss._ his her, hers its their, theirs
_Obj._ him her it them
=145.= There is another personal pronoun of the second person—_thou_.
It is not used in conversation nowadays, but is frequently found in the
Bible and in poetry. It is declined as follows:—
_Singular_ _Plural_
_Nom._ thou ye
_Poss._ thy, thine your, yours
_Obj._ thee you
=Summary.=—A =personal pronoun= is one that shows by its form whether it
denotes the person speaking, the person spoken to, or the person or thing
spoken of.
The personal pronouns are _I_, _thou_, _you_, _he_, _she_, _it_, and
their various case forms in the two numbers.
The =antecedent= of a pronoun is the word for which it stands.
=Exercise.=—Select all the personal pronouns. Tell from the form of each
its person and number, and, if it is a pronoun of the third person, tell
also its gender. Where it is possible, tell the antecedent of the pronoun.
1. Hide me in the oven.
2. First lay aside your black veil, then tell us why you put it
on.
3. While we were following the direction of his finger, a sound
of distant oars fell on our ears.
4. If you want a thing, and have no money to buy it, go without
it until you can pay for it.
5. Though the Jungle People drink seldom, they must drink deep.
6. The whelps were evidently very young, but their ears were
wide open, and they stood up on strong legs when the boy
touched them gently with his palm.
7. “Well,” said grandfather, “I tell you one thing; the game
will last me till that poor cat gets well again.”
8. They sent him for troops only the sweepings of the galleys.
9.
My driftwood fire will burn so bright!
To what warm shelter canst thou fly?
I do not fear for thee, though wroth
The tempest rushes through the sky.
10. Caught in a steel trap, she had gnawed off her own paw as
the price of freedom.
11. At recess he gave me the core of his apple, though there
were several applicants for it.
XL. USES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS
=146.= The personal pronoun, since it takes the place of a noun, has
almost all the uses of a noun. It may be,—
(1) The subject of a verb; as, “_I_ only know _I_ cannot drift beyond His
love and care.”
The subject of an imperative sentence is always the pronoun _you_,
_thou_, or _ye_, but this pronoun is seldom expressed; as, “Telegraph
for staterooms at once.”
(2) The base word of a term of address; as, “Ho, _ye_ who suffer, know
ye suffer for yourselves.”
(3) The subjective complement of a verb; as, “This man, good Ilderim, is
_he_ who told you of me.”
(4) The base word of an appositive phrase; as, “The fourth lackey, _he_
of the two gold watches, poured the chocolate out.”
(5) A possessive modifier; as, “All the harmless wood folk were _his_
friends.”
NOTE.—The possessive pronoun is often intensified by the
adjective _own_, which modifies the same noun that the
possessive pronoun modifies; as, “This is _my own_, my
native land.”
(6) The direct object of a verb; as, “The farm boy spreads the grass
after the men have cut _it_.”
(7) The object of a preposition; as, “What a new world did that party
open to _him_!”
(8) An indirect object; as, “Here will the cattle come to drink, and I
will kill _me_ a yearling heifer.”
=Exercise.=—Select and parse all the personal pronouns in the following
sentences. In parsing a personal pronoun we should tell its person,
number, gender, antecedent, case, and use in the sentence.
1. I verily believe that my ill looks alone saved me a flogging.
2. Taste the tamarisk, and you get the very flavor of the brine.
3. Then I swung my lasso, and sent it whistling over his head.
4. They worked together, read together, walked together,
planned together, she and her daughter, and in all things were
friends and companions.
5. Mother Wolf would throw up her head, and sniff a deep snuff
of satisfaction as the wind brought her the smell of the tiger
skin on the Council Rock.
6. The old crow spread the shells out in the sun, turned them
over, lifted them one by one in his beak, dropped them, nestled
on them as though they were eggs, toyed with them, and gloated
over them like a miser.
7. The spirits have spoken to Kotuko. They will show him open
ice. He will bring us the seal again.
8. The rank swamp grass concealed the nest where Raggylug’s
mother had hidden him.
9.
Across the lowly beach we flit,
One little sandpiper and I.
10. Up jumped Scarface, for it was he, and ran.
11.
And a voice that was calmer than silence said,
“Lo! It is I. Be not afraid.”
12. Nearly every cottage in England has its little garden full
of blooming plants and shrubs.
13.
“Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,—
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me.”
14. This is he that was spoken of by the prophet.
15. Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee
into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word.
16.
I called my servant, and he came;
How kind it was of him
To mind a slender man like me,
He of the mighty limb.
17. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
18. It is so slippery and shiny down here, and the stage is so
much too big for me, that I rattle round in it till I’m almost
black and blue.
19. These are they who have passed through much tribulation.
20. O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my
fathers, whence comes thy everlasting light?
=147.= Many errors are made in the form of personal pronouns.
(1) When a pronoun is used as the subject of a verb, it must have the
nominative form, hence the correct answer to the question, Who is there?
is _I_ (not _me_).
(2) When several pronouns are used as the subject of the same verb, the
pronoun of the second person should come first, and the pronoun of the
first person should come last. We should say,—
_You and he and I_ have been chosen.
_You and I_ were on time.
_He and I_ read the book.
Can you justify Whittier’s lines?
Ah, brother, only _I and thou_
Are left of all that circle now.
(3) For the subject of a sentence we may use the expressions _we boys_,
_we girls_, _we Americans_, etc.
_We girls_ bought the pictures.
_We boys_ set up the tents.
_We Baptists_ had a church supper.
(4) A pronoun used as the complement of an intransitive verb of being
must have the nominative form. We should say,—
Yes, it was _I_.
No, it was not _she_.
Perhaps it is _he_.
It is surely _they_.
(5) A pronoun used as object of a verb must have the objective form. We
should say,—
Mrs. Albee invited mother and _me_.
Did you see Julia and _me_ in the gallery?
Didn’t you expect _him and her_?
She will never suspect _you and me_.
That team can’t beat _us boys_.
(6) A pronoun used as object of a preposition must have the objective
form. We should say,—
Leo wrote first to _her_ and _me_.
Father will call for _you_ and _me_.
Between _you_ and _me_ he was afraid.
There is a great difference between Carrie and _me_.
They can never catch up with _us girls_.
=Exercise.=—Fill each blank in the following sentences with a pronoun
having the correct case form. Give your reasons.
1. Mother says that it was —— and not —— that paid off the
mortgage.
2. Who left the room first? ——, but Mary was close behind ——.
3. —— fellows are going to have a debating society.
4. The German teacher gave you and —— the same passage to
translate.
5. There must be no secrets between —— and ——.
6. When do you expect Grandmother and ——?
7. Perhaps —— girls are most to blame.
8. Nobody chose —— or ——, so —— and —— sat on the stairs and
talked.
XLI. USES OF POSSESSIVE PERSONAL PRONOUNS
=148.= When we studied the declension of personal pronouns, we learned
that all of them except _it_ and _he_ have two forms in the possessive
case. These forms are _my_, _mine_; _our_, _ours_; _thy_, _thine_;
_your_, _yours_; _her_, _hers_; and _their_, _theirs_. There is a
difference in the use of these two forms.
The pronouns of the first form,—_my_, _our_, _thy_, _your_, _her_,
and _their_, as well as _his_ and _its_, are used with nouns as
possessive modifiers. We say, _my father_, _our school_, _her hat_, _its
population_, etc.
=149.= The pronouns of the second form,—_mine_, _ours_, _thine_, _yours_,
_hers_, _theirs_, and also _his_, are used alone, that is, they are not
followed by a noun, the name of the thing possessed. We say, “_Mine_ is
too heavy,” when the object spoken of—a waterproof, for instance—is well
known by both speaker and listener. Or we say, “Her writing is clear,
but I like _his_ better,” where it is unnecessary to repeat the noun
_writing_ after _his_.
In the first sentence _mine_ is the subject of the verb is, and in
the second _his_ is the object of the verb _like_. We even find the
possessive form used as the object of a preposition; as, “If the book
isn’t in my desk, it must be in _yours_.”