Instead of _I_ a writer or speaker may use the plural _we_; and through
courtesy it came to be customary, except among the Friends, or in the
language of prayer and poetry, to use the plural _you_ instead of _thou_.
_The bear killed the man_. _The man killed the bear_. _The bear's grease
was made into hair oil_. In the first sentence the bear is represented as
performing an act; in the second, as receiving an act; in the third, as
possessing something. These different uses of nouns and pronouns and the
forms used to mark these uses constitute the modification called +Case+. A
noun used as subject is in the +Nominative Case+; used as object complement
it is in the +Objective Case+; and used to denote possession it is in the
+Possessive Case+.
Some of the pronouns have a special form for each case; but of nouns the
possessive case is the only one that is now marked by a peculiar form. We
inflect below a noun from the Anglo-Saxon, [Footnote: The Anglo-Saxon cases
are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative; the Latin are
nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, and ablative; the
English are nominative, possessive (genitive), and objective.
ANGLO-SAXON.
Hlaford, _lord_.
Singular. Plural.
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