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In the following sentences from Wren & Martin's High School English Grammar & Composition, the objective form is used. I could not think of the rule that governs this sort of usage.

"HER (not she), who had been the apple of his eye, he now began to regard with something like distrust. HIM (not he), who had always inspired in her a respect which almost overcame her affection, she now saw the object of open pleasantry."

choster
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Abdul Ahad
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    You cannot think of a rule that governs using the object form for the object of a sentence? – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 15 '18 at 21:20
  • It would really help to cite the source of these sentences. – J. Taylor Feb 15 '18 at 21:20
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    @J.Taylor He, who had always inspired in herself a respect which almost overcame her affection, she now saw the object of open pleasantry appears to be from Pride & Prejudice. So it's Wren & Martin saying Jane Austen has it wrong. – choster Feb 15 '18 at 21:28
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    @ choster Thank you. I believe Austen had it right. – J. Taylor Feb 15 '18 at 21:32
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    @J.Taylor If we go by prescriptive rules of grammar, then no, Austen had it wrong. Removing the injected relative clause, she wrote “She he now began to regard with something like distrust”, which is a fronted version of “She now began to regard he with something like distrust”—the latter very clearly ungrammatical. The only justification for the subject form in Austen’s version is the distance between the fronted pronoun and the rest of the sentence, which is something that tends to wreak havoc on things like case assignment and verb agreement. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 15 '18 at 21:52
  • So why use her instead of she, in basic grammatical terms please – Abdul Ahad Feb 15 '18 at 21:57
  • It's essentially just an unusual OSV sentence. 'Him[,] I despise.' – Edwin Ashworth Feb 15 '18 at 22:08
  • @Janus Bahs Jacquet you are quite right in a textbook sense. If I were to recite those lines fronted by an object form, I might choke. But, this is not recitation, and, I would do well to be more careful. Thank you. – J. Taylor Feb 15 '18 at 22:50
  • He had always inspired in her… She now saw him [as] the object… – Will Crawford Feb 16 '18 at 02:56
  • In other words, the whole phrase "He, who …" is the object, not just the pronoun (which is the subject of the phrase, and thus well ought to be he rather than him). I despise Austen for introducing so many phrases with not but that [person] ..., but in this case it’s not “ungrammatical” at all. – Will Crawford Feb 16 '18 at 03:00
  • The sentences are rather convoluted, with the direct objects at the beginning, but are "correct" in their use of the objective form. They would be easier to understand if written "He now began to regard her (who had been the apple of his eye) with something like distrust." Likewise, the second sentence would have been easier to understand if it were written "She now saw him (who had always inspired in her a respect which almost overcame her affection) as the object of open pleasantry." It would be possible to replace the parentheses in my sentences with dashes or even with commas. – tautophile May 04 '18 at 20:41

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One says "She saw him", not "She saw he." "Him" is the object of the verb "saw".

Michael Hardy
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