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[fluffytwo]

Apparently on the BBC quiz show Decimate today there was a question about grammar, which asked 'Which case is used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb?

Dative,
Accusative, or
Genitive?'

Is that a trick question or just a plain incorrect question? It doesn't make much sense to me.

The "correct" answer by the way (as if I really need to supply it!) was Accusative.

[scot47]

Also called the Objective. "Accusative" is for the Latin Scholars in our midst.

[fluffytwo]

Regardless of what the case gets called (and 'objective' may not have quite caught on yet, perhaps partly due to that word having a more general use and meaning in the wider language than the more specialized 'accusative'), it does apply or has been applied to English and not just Latin grammar (though I'm sure in at least somewhat differing ways). This was after all a quiz show aimed at an English-speaking audience potentially schooled in "traditional~mainstream" grammar.

The question then is whether it makes any sense to say or imply that the (direct) object in English is (always) marked with accusative case.

The answer would have to be no, as the only nouns that are thus marked (when either the direct object of a monotransitive verb e.g. He shot him, or the indirect object of a ditransitive e.g. She shot him a glance) are the object forms of the personal pronouns. All other nouns show no such marking between subject and object roles (e.g. He shot a bird; A bird shot past the window).

So even for a crappy quiz show it wasn't a very good question. If I were the one writing this sort of question I'd have phrased it thus: 'Which case is used to mark a particular class of objects of transitive verbs?', or indeed 'Which particular class of objects in English are marked by the accusative, that is, objective case?'.