Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
DATIVE CASE
is the grammatical case that marked Old English (and Latin) nouns and pronouns functioning as indirect objects or the objects of certain prepositions. Today the preposition to accomplishes periphrastically the dative function as indirect object, as in I gave the keys to him, or syntax does the job alone by putting indirect object before direct object: I gave him the keys. In today’s English, only the pronouns inflect for the dative, but that case is now an all-purpose dative-accusative, often called the objective case. Its forms are me, you, him, her, it, us, you, and them.
