English Dative case

1 english

1.1 set expressions
1.2 relic pronouns
1.3 modern english

english

the old english language, continued in use until after norman conquest of 1066, had dative case; however, english case system gradually fell disuse during middle english period, when accusative , dative of pronouns merged single oblique case used prepositions. conflation of case in middle , modern english has led modern grammarians discard accusative , dative labels obsolete in reference english, using term objective oblique.

set expressions

the dative case rare in modern english usage, can argued survives in few set expressions. 1 example word methinks , meaning seems me . survives in fixed form old english (having undergone, however, phonetic changes rest of language), in constructed [it] + me (the dative case of personal pronoun) + thinks (i.e., seems , < old english þyncan, seem , verb closely related verb þencan, think , distinct in old english; later merged think , lost meaning).

relic pronouns

the modern objective case pronoun whom derived dative case in old english, old english dative pronoun hwām (as opposed modern subjective , descends old english hwā ) — though whom absorbed functions of old english accusative pronoun hwone . cognate word wem (the dative form of wer ) in german. oed defines classical uses of word whom in situations indirect object not known – in effect, indicating anonymity of indirect object.

likewise, of object forms of personal pronouns remnants of old english datives. example, him goes old english dative him (accusative hine), , goes dative hire (accusative hīe). these pronouns not datives in modern english; used functions indicated accusative.

modern english

a grammatical object object of something, either object of preposition or object of verb. objects of verbs can either direct or indirect, while objects of prepositions neither direct nor indirect. indirect object of verb expressed between verb , direct object of verb: gave me book or wrote me poem.

an indirect object can re-worded prepositional phrase using or , no longer indirect object. example, gave book me , wrote poem me have same meaning examples above, adverbial prepositional phrases. of course not unusual 2 different grammatical structures can describe same situation; referring these prepositional objects mistakenly indirect objects common error.