Grammatical Case (was: that long subject) War of Roses/Holmes?Figg/Walpurga

[Carol]

Catlady wrote:
> > I hope someone can explain this in a way that I can understand,
because my friend Lee only explains it in ways that I don't
understand. To me, the cases of English pronouns work like in this
simple sentence:
> > 
> > [Subject is subjective] [verb] [object is objective].
> > 
> > Exempli gratia: It bit me! I admired him. She defeated you. Thou
wast deceived by them.
> > 
> > "To be" is a verb. The word before "is" is the subject. The word
after "is" is the object. So why is there this weird unnatural rule
that the object of "is" should be in the subjective case?

Carol responds:

Not all verbs are the same. Setting aside transitive and intransitive
verbs (those that do and those that don't take a direct object even
when they express action), some verbs are action verbs and some are
linking verbs.

"Bite" is an action verb. "Me," the direct object or receiver of the
action, is consequently in the objective case.

Ditto for "admired," which may not be a visible action but is still
performed by the subject ("she," in this instance) and received by the
direct object ("him").

"Thou was deceived by them" is a bit different because while "thou" is
still the subject and therefore in the nominative or subjective case,
the sentence is in the passive voice, so the *subject* is the receiver
of the action (being deceived) and the doer of the action ("they") is
conveyed through a prepositional phrase, "by them" ("them" is in the
objective case because it's the object of a preposition). Put it in
active voice and you have "They deceived thee," which fits your
pattern, subject/verb/direct object.

However, "is" and other forms of "to be" ("am," "are," "was," "were"
and, if you want to include archaic forms, "art," "wast," "wert")
don't express action and never take an object. They merely *link* the
subject to further information about itself: "Her name is Mary;" "She
is a pretty girl;" "She is married," etc. If what follows the verb is
a noun, it's called a predicate nominative because it *renames* the
subject ("nomen" means "name," as does "noun"). "Mary" renames "name":
"girl" renames "Mary"). If what follows is an adjective, it's called a
predicate adjective (for obvious reasons).

Here's a website (not Wikipedia!) that explains it all in an enjoyable
way, and even brings in words other than the "to be" verbs that can
function as linking verbs and therefore take the subjective rather
than the objective case:

http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/linkingverb.htm

Given the concept of linking verbs, BTW, you (generic "you") would
think that "it is I" would be the natural construction, with the
expletive "it" being the subject and "I" being a predicate nominative
(and therefore in the nominative aka subjective case). However,
linguistic development isn't always logical, and English doesn't
always follow its own rules, some of which (like the rules against
double negatives and double comparison) were imposed on English by
prescriptive grammarians attempting to make it logical. 

Anyway, "That was she" is technically correct (although very formal),
"that" being a demonstrative pronoun acting as the subject and "she"
being a predicate nominative. "It is I" is a bit trickier since "it"
is an expletive with no semantic meaning, only grammatical meaning (as
in "it is raining"), but the constructions are so similar that most
people wouldn't differentiate between them.

At any rate, "is" doesn't take an object. It takes a predicate
nominative or a predicate adjective or a similar construction. Nothing
*happens* to the noun or other word that follows a linking verb so it
can't be an object, direct or indirect. The verb merely *links* the
subject to a word or phrase that provides additional information about
the subject: "This post is confusing," for example, or "Today is the
sixteenth of June." 

Carol, fearing that she's muddied the waters rather than clearing them up