Case
Case is a grammatical category determined by the syntactic or semantic function of a noun or pronoun .
The term case has traditionally been restricted to apply to only those languages which indicate certain functions by the inflection of:
- nouns
- pronouns
- noun phrase constituents, such as adjectives and numerals
The term is sometimes extended to include such functions expressed by adpositions .
(Latin)
The Latin sentences Canis hominem mordet ‘Dog bites man’ and Canem homo mordet ‘Man bites dog’, illustrate that differing case endings express the differing functions of the nouns in Latin.
(Japanese)
In the following sentence, case is indicated by the case markers ga, ni, and o:
- John ga Mary ni hon o yatta
- John NOMINATIVE Mary DATIVE book ACCUSATIVE gave
- ‘John gave Mary a book.’
Pei, Mario A., and Frank Gaynor. 1954.A dictionary of linguistics. New York: Philosophical Library.
Mish, Frederick (editor). 1991.Webster's ninth new collegiate dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster. 1,564 pages. 0877795088; indexed 0877795096; deluxe 087779510X.
Kuno, Susumu. 1973.The structure of the Japanese language. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Crystal, David. 1980.A first dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Andrews, Avery. 1985. "The major functions of the noun phrase." In Shopen 1985b
Anderson, Stephen R. 1985. "Inflectional morphology." In Shopen 1985d
Broader Terms
More specific terms
- NT2 ↓ Abessive Case
- NT2 ↓ Ablative Case
- NT2 ↓ Absolutive Case
- NT2 ↓ Accusative Case
- NT2 ↓ Allative Case
- NT2 ↓ Benefactive Case
- NT2 ↓ Causative Case
- NT2 ↓ Comitative Case
- NT2 ↓ Dative Case
- NT2 ↓ Delative Case
- NT2 ↓ Elative Case
- NT2 ↓ Equative Case
- NT2 ↓ Ergative Case
- NT2 ↓ Essive Case
- NT2 ↓ Genitive Case
- NT2 ↓ Illative Case
- NT2 ↓ Inessive Case
- NT2 ↓ Instrumental Case
- NT2 ↓ Lative Case
- NT2 ↓ Locative Case
- NT2 ↓ Nominative Case
- NT2 ↓ Partitive Case
- NT2 ↓ Prolative Case
- NT2 ↓ Superessive Case
- NT2 ↓ Translative Case
- NT2 ↓ Vocative Case
Related terms
- RT⇆ Adposition
- RT⇆ Agreement
- RT⇆ Direct Object
- RT⇆ Inflection
- RT⇆ Inflectional Affix
- RT⇆ Inflectional Category
- RT⇆ Noun
- RT⇆ Oblique Object
- RT⇆ Pronoun
- RT⇆ Subject
- ExactMatch: https://glossary.sil.org/term/case
