Charles Fillmore developed the theory of grammatical cases in the 1960s. He proposed that verbs have semantic cases associated with them like Agent, Objective, Dative, etc. Sentences are analyzed based on the case relationships between verbs and nouns. Fillmore also founded the FrameNet project which links words to semantic frames and corpus examples. FrameNet data is widely used in natural language processing.

1. Charles Fillmore's
gramatical cases
EDITH CAVAZOS
KARLA LEAL
JOCELYN RODRÍGUEZ

2. About Charles Fillmore:
 Charles J. Fillmore (born 1929) is an American
linguist, and an Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at
the University of California, Berkeley. He received his
Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in
1961.
 Dr. Fillmore has been extremely influential in the
areas of syntax and lexical semantics. He is
especially influential on analyses of the relation
between word meaning and syntactic patterns.

3. About Charles Fillmore:
 He was a proponent of Noam Chomsky's
theory of generative grammar during its
earliest transformational grammar phase. In
1963, his seminal article The position of
embedding transformations in a Grammar
introduced the transformational cycle,
which has been a foundational insight for
theories of syntax since that time.

4. Grammatical Cases
 Grammar case: A form of grammar in which
the structure of sentences is analyzed in terms
of semantic case relationships.
 Associated with each verb sense is a set of
cases. Some of the cases are obligatory and
others are optional. A case is obligatory if the
sentence would be ungrammatical if it were
omitted. For example, John gave the book is
ungrammatical.

5. Grammatical cases:
 The theory has been applied in Ph. D dissertations to English, to
teaching English as a foreign language and to child language
acquisition.
 Fillmore’s paper is described as ‘a universal underlying set of case-like
relation that play role in determining syntactic and semantic relations
in languages’
 Own approach as one based upon two principles:
 1. the syntax
 2. covert categories

6. Grammatical cases
 By ‘centrality of syntax’ Fillmore means an approach which Works
downward from the morphological form; categories’. Fillmore is
referring to the meaning use of traditional case categories.
 Semantic formation rules. the Deep structures generated by the
1968 case grammar model characterized by the following features:
1. the sentences is
initially separated
into a proposition
and a modality
2. The proposition consists
of a verb and a series of
cases ordered from right-
to-left
3. prepositions or case
markers occur in the
Deep structure.

7. Rules:
 The sentence (S) consists of a proposition (P) and a modality (M)
 Proposition is ‘a tenseless set of relationships involving verbs and nouns’
 Modality ‘includes such modalities on the sentence –as-a-whole as
negation, tense, mood, and aspect’
Rule 1: S M + P

8. Rules:
 The proposition (P) consists of a central verb (V) and a series of case-marked
noun phrases (C). The verb is placed in the leftmost position and associated
cases are listed in a right-to-left order with the most probable subject choice to
the far right in the Deep structure. According to Fillmore at least one case
category must be chosen, and no case category appears more tan once’
Rule 2: P V + C + C

9. Rules:
 Each case- marked noun phrase (C) consists of a case marker (K) and a
noun phrase (NP) with the case marker preceding the noun phrase in Deep
structure. The case marker is a universal element of language which may be
realized a preposition, postposition, or case affix.
Rule 3: C  K + NP

10.  In the generation of the base structure for sentence these three rules are
applied in order. One or more concrete cases, such as Agent, Object,
Instrumental, are substitute for the case categories in rule 2. Concrete case
markers proper to these cases are enters under the case marker (K) in rule 3.
 Rule 1: S M + P
 Rule 2: P V + C + C
 Rule 3: C  K + NP

11. Example:
 Each case occurs in the Deep structure
with its case marker and a noun phrase.
In English the case markers are
proposition. The case marker for Agent is
by, for instrument is with, and for object is
(/). When the phrase structure rules are
applied the lexical verb is listed under the
V node and tense is entered under the
modality constituent. The cases are listed
right-to-left with their case markers.

12. Case system
 Case grammars have a case system which consists of (1)
a small number of cases, (2) which are sufficient for the
classification of the verbs in a language, and (3) which
have cross language validity (Fillmore 1975:7).
 These cases are arranged according to a subject choice
hierarchy.

13. Case system
 These seven cases below constitute the essential case
system of the 1968 model.
 1. Agentive (A) The Agentive case is 'the case of the (typically animate)
perceived instigator of the
action identified bye the verb. The Agentive is listed as typically animate in
order to include the possibility of considering nouns like robot' and 'nation' as
Agents. The Agentive case is marked with the preposition by, as in:
John/broke/the window. A=S
A V O
The window/was broken/by John. A=PP
O V A

14. Case system
 2. Instrumental. The Instrumental case is 'the case of the inanimate force or object
casually involved in the state or action identified by the verb. The Instrumental
case may occur as the subject of the verb, as the direct object of the verb 'use',
and also in prepositional phrases. The typical case marking for the Instrument case
is the preposition 'by' if there is no Agent present in the structure and is the
preposition 'with' if there is an Agent present, as in:
The hammer/broke/the window. I=S
I V O
John/used/a hammer. I=DO
A V I
The window/was broken/with a hammer. I=PP
O V I
The window/was broken/by the storm. I=PP
O V I

15. Case system
 3. Dative. The Dative case is 'the case of the (animate) being affected by the
state or action identified by the verb. The Dative case may occur as the subject,
direct object, or indirect object of non-action verbs; it may also occur as the
indirect object of state or action verbs but is not simply an indirect object. The
Dative case is typically marked with the preposition 'to' as in:
John/believed/the story. D=S
D V O
The book/was boring/to John. D=IO
O V D
The movie/pleased/John. D=DO
O V D
John/gave/the book/to Mary. D=IO
A V O D

16. Case system
 4. Objective. The Objective case is 'the semantically most neutral case, the case of
anything representable by a noun whose role in the action or state identified by the
verb is identified by the semantic interpretation of the verb itself. The objective case
may occur as either subject or object with non-action verbs and as the direct object
of action verbs. Fillmore adds that sentences may be embedded only under the O
case as in:
The story/is true. O=S
O V
John/liked/the movie. O=DO
D V O
Mary/opened/the door. O=DO
A V O
We/persuaded/John/he could win. O=Sent
A V D O=S

17. Case system
 5. Factitive. The factitive case is “the case of the object or being resulting from the
state or action identified by the verb or, or understood as part of the meaning of the
verb”. The Factitive case is used to distinguish the EFFECT OBJECT, which does not exist
prior to the verbal action, from the AFFECTED OBJECT, which preexists and is acted
upon. The Factitive is also used for cognate object constructions. Since this case may
never occur as subject it is not listed as part of the subject choice hierarchy. Case
marking for the Factitive case is 0, as in sentences:
John / built. F= Effected O
A V
Mary / make / a dream. F= Cognate O

18. Case system
 6. Locative. The locative case is “the case which identifies the place or spatial
orientation of the state or action identified by the object. Locative includes both
stative and directional locatives when the locational and directional elements do not
contrast” Locative prepositions are those choices occasionally dictated by the
character of the verb itself. The stative prepositions at, in, occur with state verbs; the
directional prepositions to, into/ out of occur with the motion verbs.
The toys / are / in the box L=PP
O V L
John/ sprayed / the wall / with paint L=DO
D V L O

19. Case system
 7. Comitative. This case is not defined. From the examples given it seems to be a case
used to express accompaniment. The propositional is with. This case may become the
subject of the verb have as in sentences.
The childen / are / with Mary C=PP
O V C
Mary / has her children / with her C=S
C V C-copy

20. Also…
 In the 1980s Fillmore became increasingly
interested in synergies between lexical
semantic theory and lexicography; he and Sue
Atkins began writing about the "dictionary of
the future", in which every word would be
linked to corpus examples. This culminated in
1997 in his founding of the FrameNet project at
the International Computer Science Institute in
Berkeley

21. FrameNet
 FrameNet data is widely used in
computational linguistics, natural
language processing, and artificial
intelligence, and there are now parallel
projects to create FrameNets for many
other languages, including Spanish,
German, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian,
and Chinese.

22. Bibliography
 http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/icsi/blog/chuck-fillmore-dies-at-84
 http://www-
rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/305_html/Understanding/CaseGram1.html
 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com
 http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=S_lRAXSpymkC&pg=PA1&l
pg=PA1&dq=case+grammar+by+charles+fillmore&source=bl&ots=
CHGcvfPVLN&sig=8ikSYkSCCccRrcU8nWIuLs4f0xI&hl=es-
419&sa=X&ei=ZRt4U93CO4ehogT83IC4Bw&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAg#v=
onepage&q=case%20grammar%20by%20charles%20fillmore&f=fal
se