"Nominative" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... word connected with the Tebetian word for water, and the Chinese shuy, and the Turkish su, signifying the same thing; but where is the resemblance between dzow and tide? Again, the word for bread in ancient Armenian is hats; yet the Armenian on London Bridge is made to say zhats, which is not the nominative of the Armenian noun for bread, but the accusative: now, critics, ravening against a man because he is a gentleman and a scholar, and has not only the power but also the courage to write original works, why did you not discover that weak point? Why, because you were ignorant, so here ye ...
— The Romany Rye • George Borrow
... made that the kind of speech which I put into David Claridge's mouth was not Quaker speech. For instance, they would not have it that a Quaker would say, "Thee will go with me"—as though they were ashamed of the sweet inaccuracy of the objective pronoun being used in the nominative; but hundreds of times I have myself heard Quakers use "thee" in just such a way in England and America. The facts are, however, that Quakers differ extensively in their habits, and there grew up in ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... Christ's blood, as is clear from what was said above (Q. 76, AA. 1, 2, 3). But in the form of the consecration of the bread, the body of Christ is expressly mentioned, without any addition. Therefore in this form the blood of Christ is improperly expressed in the oblique case, and the chalice in the nominative, when it is said: "This is the chalice ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas
... content, or in gross, the whole mass, is respectively plural or singular. It was therefore optional with Shakspeare to employ the word either as a singular or plural, but not in the same sentence to do both: here, however, he was tied {121} to the singular, for, wanting a rhyme to contents, the nominative to presents must be singular, and that nominative was the pronoun of contents. Since, therefore, the plural die and the singular it could not both be referable to the same noun contents, by silently substituting ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 197, August 6, 1853 • Various
... case with them is also obsolete; the dative supplies its place: they say the House 'to' a Man, instead of the House 'of' a Man. When used (sometimes in poetry), the genitive in the termination is the same as the nominative; so is the ablative, the preposition that marks it being a prefix or suffix at option, and generally decided by ear, according to the sound of the noun. It will be observed that the prefix Hil marks the vocative case. It is always retained in addressing ...
— The Coming Race • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... almost as difficult to learn as Chinese. Every noun has sixteen cases, and the suffixes alter so much, one hardly recognises the more complicated as the outcome of the original nominative. It takes, therefore, almost a lifetime to learn Finnish thoroughly, although the structure of their sentences is simple, and, being a nation little given to gush, adverbs and adjectives are ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie
... suddenly, in the midst of a dreadfully boggled sentence, after Geoff had beaten himself on every side of these walls of words in bewildering endeavours to find a nominative, suddenly sprang up to his feet. "Look here," he said, "I think I'll give ...
— A Country Gentleman and his Family • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
... of the relative, both nominative and accusative or dative, is not uncommon; and, until the reader becomes familiar with it, it often gives, especially if the suppression is that of a subject relative, a momentary, but only a momentary, check to ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson
... prisoner on the 28th of August. He was afterwards removed to Cape Town, and rooms were given him in the castle. Hostilities having happily terminated in Zululand, Sir Garnet Wolseley then started for Pretoria. He there finally set up the government of a Crown Colony with a nominative Executive Council ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 6) - From the Foundation of Cape Colony to the Boer Ultimatum - of 9th Oct. 1899 • Louis Creswicke
... "we should have, as the Germans have, either extant or obsolete," the "good," "the rich," (not that I quite understand this part of "Mr. HICKSON's" argument): and, lastly, I assert that I believe that Neues, in the phrase "Was giebt's Neues?" is not the genitive, but the nominative neuter, so that the phrase is to be literally translated ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 30. Saturday, May 25, 1850 • Various
... love a lass, She is so sweet and tender, It is sweet Cowslip's Grace In the Nominative Case. And ...
— Travels in England in 1782 • Charles P. Moritz
... (Int. to stud. Am. Lang.) a Ponka in order to say "a man killed a rabbit," would have to say "the man, he, one, animate, standing, in the nominative case, purposely, killed, by shooting an arrow, he, the one animate, sitting, in the objective case." "For the form of the verb to kill would have to be selected, and the verb changes its form by ...
— The Dakotan Languages, and Their Relations to Other Languages • Andrew Woods Williamson
... nominative of direct address, and phrases in the nominative absolute construction are cut ...
— English: Composition and Literature • W. F. (William Franklin) Webster
... as to the sense;—only it is not impossible that Shakespeare's dramatic language may allow of the word "brows" or "faces" being understood after the word "courtiers'," which might then remain in the genitive case plural. But the nominative plural makes excellent sense, and is sufficiently elegant, and sounds to my ear Shakespearian. What, however, is meant by "our bloods no more obey the heavens?"—Dr. Johnson's assertion that "bloods" signify "countenances," is, I think, ...
— Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher • S. T. Coleridge
... or pronouns for the purpose of denoting case is termed declension. There are three cases in the English language: the nominative, the possessive, and the objective; but nouns show only two forms for each number, as the nominative and objective cases have the ...
— Composition-Rhetoric • Stratton D. Brooks
... me go farther. However, to proceed—No, my dear Martha, ever since our most felicitous conjugation, I hardly know what the exemplary verb audio means. I could scarcely translate it. Ours is a truly grammatical union. Not the nominative case with verb—not the relative with the antecedent—not the adjective with the substantive—affords a more appropriate illustration of conjugal harmony, than does our matrimonial existence. Peace ...
— The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton
... participles as passives in Sec.Sec. 4, 59, 74, a thing common enough in Cicero; (2) the occurrence of quasi quem ad modum in Sec. 71; (3) of audaciter audacter in Sec. 72; (4) of tuerentur for intuerentur in Sec. 77; (5) of neutiquam in Sec. 42; (6) of the nominative of the gerundive governing an accusative case in Sec. 6. In every instance the notes will supply a refutation of the allegation. That Cicero should attempt to write in any style but his own ...
— Cato Maior de Senectute • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... the accusative case; and both of them have relation, and are joined unto the participle of the plural number having, intimating that divers do share in prophecy, pastor and teacher; divers in ministry, deacon and ruling elder. But all the other are expressed concretely, and in the nominative case, and in the singular number, and to every of them the single article is prefixed, translated He—He that teacheth—He that exhorteth—He that giveth—He that ruleth. Hence we have great cause to count ...
— The Divine Right of Church Government • Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London
... nominative. Now you may write, at the head of the first column, the word Nouns, and at the head of the second, Nom., for nominative. Then rule a line for the third column. What shall this contain?" "The declension." "Yes; and the fourth?" "Gender." ...
— The Teacher - Or, Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and - Government of the Young • Jacob Abbott
... is alive,' returned Mrs Wickam with an air of triumph, for it was evident. Miss Berry expected the reverse; 'and is married to a silver-chaser. Oh yes, Miss, SHE is alive,' said Mrs Wickam, laying strong stress on her nominative case. ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens
... cloud. My personality has the least possible admixture of individuality. I am to the great majority of men what the circle is to rectilinear figures; I am everywhere at home, because I have no particular and nominative self. Perhaps, on the whole, this defect has good in it. Though I am less of a man, I am perhaps nearer to the man; perhaps rather more man. There is less of the individual, but more of the species, in me. My nature, which is absolutely unsuited for practical life, shows great aptitude ...
— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... be either from the ancient English or the low Dutch; if the one, by tradition, if the other, from the use of it by medical men. Cancrum is an odd grammatical blunder; being, in reality, nothing but the accusative of Cancer, put instead of the nominative. The latter name was, as is well known, frequently applied by the older surgeons, in a vague manner, to any terrific and unmanageable ulcer; and, in particular, it was often applied to gangrene. The error appears to have been first made by Pearson, and copied by Mr. Cooper. ...
— North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 • Various
... names received not only an individual, but a sexual character. There was no substantive which was not either masculine or feminine; neuters being of later growth, and distinguishable chiefly in the nominative." (Chips, vol. ii., p. 55.) And this alleged necessity for a masculine or feminine implication is assigned as a part of the reason why these abstract nouns and collective nouns became personalized. But should not a true theory of these first steps in the evolution ...
— Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer
... Maria Saint, even when all human laws have suspended their action, still holds by her grammar, still must annex herself to le sexe noble. She still must follow citizen Anet as the feminine pronoun follows the masculine, or as a verb agrees with its nominative case in number and in person. But with what a lordly freedom from all obligation does citizen Anet, representative of this nobility of sex, accept the allegiance! The citizeness may "follow him," certainly,—so ...
— Women and the Alphabet • Thomas Wentworth Higginson
... regard to the plain, simple sentence, "yih kahkar takht uthaya," we have somewhere seen the following erudite criticism, viz.:—"With deference to Mir Amman, this is bad grammar. The nominative to kahkar and uthaya ought to be the same!!!" Now, it is a great pity that the critic did not favour us here with his notions of good grammar. Just observe, O reader, how the expression stands in the text: "yih kahkar takht uthaya," and you will naturally ask, "where is the ...
— Bagh O Bahar, Or Tales of the Four Darweshes • Mir Amman of Dihli
... that a man killed a rabbit, would have to say the man, he, one, animate, standing, in the nominative case, purposely killed, by shooting an arrow, the rabbit, he, the one, animate, sitting, in the objective case; for the form of a verb to kill would have to be selected, and the verb changes its form by inflection and incorporated particles to denote person, number, and gender ...
— On the Evolution of Language • John Wesley Powell
... And what is ascertained from co- ordination (smndhikaranya) is only that the cloth is a substance to which a certain colour belongs. The whole matter may, without any contradiction, be conceived as follows. Several words—having either the affixes of the oblique cases or that of the nominative case—which denote one or two or several qualities, present to the mind the idea of that which is characterised by those qualities, and their co-ordination intimates that the thing characterised by all those attributes is one only; and the ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut
... form for the nominative. Erinn is the genitive, but too long in use to admit of alteration. The ordinary name of Ireland, in the oldest Irish MSS., is (h)Erin, gen. (h)Erenn, dat. (h)Erinn; but the initial h is often omitted. See Max Mueller's ...
— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack
... solve. She got an old thumbed Butler's Grammar and tried hard to correct the vocables of her truant tongue. I am afraid she made poor progress. She had a way of defying that intolerable tyrant, the nominative singular, and put all her verbs in the plural, under an impression, not without example, that it was elegant language. She had enough hard work to do, poor girl! to have been quit of these mental troubles. Her brother was away, her parents were old, and all ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 31. October, 1873. • Various
... fact, a very large volume might be easily collected of such cases as are of ordinary occurrence. Casuistry, the very word casuistry expresses the science which deals with such cases: for as a case, in the declension of a noun, means a falling away, or a deflection from the upright nominative (rectus), so a case in ethics implies some falling off, or deflection from the high road of catholic morality. Now, of all such cases, one, perhaps the most difficult to manage, the most intractable, whether for consistency of thinking as to ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey
... name for a town, whether we regard it as a genitive singular, or as a nominative plural. The story goes, that the first settlers appointed a committee of one to name the place. The gentleman selected for this duty had been a schoolmaster, and he brought to bear upon the task all the learning appertaining to his former vocation. He desired to express in the name ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 • Various
... is somewhat wrong in his interpretation of the Duke of Buckingham's Motto. It is evident that both mottoes are to be read continuously, and that "souene" is the third person singular of a verb having "loyaulte" for its nominative case. It appears to me that the true reading of the word is "soutienne," and that the meaning of the motto is "My feelings of loyalty often sustain me in my duty to the King when I am tempted to join those who bear no good feeling towards ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850 • Various
... are formed from the nominative and from the genitive (or possessive) case of words belonging to these ...
— New Word-Analysis - Or, School Etymology of English Derivative Words • William Swinton
... ignorance, were perhaps conformity to good usage at the time. Their use of verbs is different from ours, particularly in the subjunctive mood, and in conjugation generally. They did not follow our rule in reference to number. When the nominative was a plural noun, or several nouns, they often employ the connected verb in the singular number, and vice versa. They were inclined to make construction conform to the sense, rather than to the letter. It is not certain that their usage, ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham
... much to be said for using the old-fashioned word Brahmin to denote the caste, for it is clear, though not correct. In Sanskrit there are several similar words which are liable to be confused in English. In the nominative case ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot
... used the dative for the nominative, I would have crossed his loof with a tight leathern strap, Mr. Saddletree; there is not a boy on the booby form but should have been scourged for such ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... Julia Manners (their latest noms de guerre will serve all nominative purposes as well as any other) had arrived at the same lowest level of female degradation by very different downward roads. Anna's father had been a country curate, unfortunate through life, because ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... agreeing with that in chap. xvi. (95) But the margin has it "of thy servant," which does not agree with the person of the verb. (96) So, too, chap. xvi:25 of the same book, we find, "As if one had inquired at the oracle of God," the margin adding "someone" to stand as a nominative to the verb. (97) But the correction is not apparently warranted, for it is a common practice, well known to grammarians in the Hebrew language, to use the third person singular of the active ...
— A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part II] • Benedict de Spinoza |
