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.