ABSTRACT
Sonnenschein recognizes "adverbial" uses of both cases, but it is not possible to discover any reasons for the distribution. " Near him "--dative, why 1 If because of OE. syntax, then him in to him, from him should also be a dative; here, however, it is said to be an accusative because of the fiction that all prepositions take the accusative, but why is it not the same with near, which is recognized as a preposition by the NED t "He blew his pipe three time.! "-accusative, why! (In OE. it would be a dative.) And thus we might go on, for there is nothing to justify the perfectly arbitrary assignation of words to one or the other case. The rules have to be learned by rote by the pupils, for they cannot be understood.
