The category of case in English

1. THE CATEGORY OF
CASE IN ENGLISH
Prepared by Aleksandra Khramovich

2. Definition of case
■ Case is usually regarded as a
morphological form of a declinable word
used to express a certain meaning or to
denote a certain relation to other words
[C.T. Onions].

3. Number of Cases
Representatives of universal grammar speak of 6 cases.
J.C. Nesfield mentions 5 cases:
■ nominative,
■ vocative,
■ accusative,
■ genitive,
■ dative.

4. ■ When a noun is used as subject, it is said to be in the nominative case,
e. g.: Rain falls (J. C. Nesfield).
■ When a noun is used for the sake of address, it is said to be in the vocative
case,
e.g.: Are you coming, my friend? (J. C. Nesfield).
■ When a noun is a direct object, it is said to be in the accusative case,
e. g.: Mary took the money (M.Vince, K. McNicholas).
■ When a noun is an indirect object, it is said to be in the dative case,
e. g.: I gave the boy a penny (J. C. Nesfield).

5. The majority of linguists recognize the
existence of 2 cases in Modern English:
common and genitive
■ Suddenly the weather changed (L. Untermeyer) - subject.
■ He touched my hand (G. Jones) - direct object.
■ The grocer gave the baby a stick ofcandy … (H. Garland) - non-prepositional indirect
object.
■ Mrs. Hall did not ask about her affairs (H. Garland) - prepositional indirect object.
■ He was a shy man (B. MacLeverty) - predicative.
■ She's in the souvenir shop (EnglishCourse) - attribute.
■ He had not seen Mabel for seven years (W.S. Maugham) - adverbial.

6. Genitive case
■ My sister's little girl fell downstairs (J. Cheever).
■ Even grandmothers' dreams don't always come
true… (D. H. Lawrence).
■ The children's toys are new (R. Quirk et al.).

7. Meaning of the Genitive Case
■ The central meaning of the genitive case is that
of possession.
e.g.:Vinny would inherit her mother's money (D.
H. Lawrence).

8. ■ 1. Possessive genitive, e. g.:
Mrs. Johnson's passport - Mrs. Johnson has a passport (R. Quirk et al.).
■ 2. Subjective genitive, indicating the doer of the action, e.g.:
the people's choice -The people chose (S. Greenbaum).
■ 3. Genitive of source, denoting such relationships as authorship and origin.
Cf.:
the general's letter ->The general wrote a letter (R. Quirket al. ).
■ 4. Objective genitive, indicating the object of the action, e.g.:
Kennedy's assassination - Somebody assassinated Kennedy (S. Greenbaum).

9. ■ 5. Temporal genitive, denoting a period of time, e. g.:
ten days' absence ->The absence lasted ten days (R. Quirket al. ).
■ 6. Equational genitive, establishing the identity of the referent, e. g.:
a mile's distance -The distance is a mile(L. S. Barkhudarov).
■ 7. Genitive of destination, e. g.:
a women's college - a college for women (R. Quirk et al.).

10. Types of Nouns Used in the Genitive
Case In Old English
■ 1. Personal names, e. g.: GeorgeWashington's statue (R. Quirk et al.).
■ 2. Personal nouns, e. g.: the boy's new bicycle (R. Quirk et al. ).
■ 3. Animal nouns, in particular those denoting 'higher animals e. g.: the horse's tail (R.
Quirk et al.).
■ 4. Collective nouns e.g.: the government's economic plans (R. Quirk et al.)
■ 5. Geographical names:
continents: Europe's future, countries: China's development.
■ 6. Locative nouns denoting regions, institutions, heavenlybodies, etc. e. g.:
the world's economy(R. Quirk et al. ),the Club's pianist (R. Quirk et al.).

11. Use of the Genitive Case
■ Dependent genitives are used with the nouns theymodify and come
before them, e. g.:
He stared at his aunt's face (J. C. Oates).
■ Cf.:
My car is faster than John's (R. Quirk et al.).
Mary's was the prettiest dress (R. Quirk et al.).

12. DifferentApproaches to the Study of
Case
Ch.J. Fillmore singles out 7 semantic cases:
■ 1. Agentive, e. g.:
John opened the door (Ch.J. Fillmore).
The door was opened by John (Ch.J. Fillmore).
■ 2. Instrumental, e.g.:
The key opened the door (Ch.J. Fillmore).
John opened the door with the key (Ch.J. Fillmore).
John used the key to open the door (Ch.J. Fillmore).

13. ■ 3. Dative, e. g.:
John believed that he would win (Ch.J. Fillmore).
We persuaded John that he would win (Ch.J. Fillmore).
It was apparent to John that he would win (Ch.J. Fillmore).
■ 4. Factitive, e. g.: John built the house (Ch.J. Fillmore).
■ 5. Locative, e. g.: Chicago is windy (Ch. J. Fillmore).
It is windy in Chicago (Ch.J. Fillmore).
■ 6. Benefactive, e. g.: Jennie got skipping-ropes for the twins that day…
(M. Spark).
■ 7. Objective, e. g.: John opened the door (Ch.J. Fillmore).The door was
opened by John (Ch.J. Fillmore).

14. ■ Thank you for attention!