The category of case

1)Case expresses the relation of a word to another word in the word-group or sentence (my sister’s coat). This category is logical because it correlates with the objective category of possession. Case is based on a binary privative opposition – common case, and possessive case. It’s a traditional view point called- limitive case theory.

However there is no common view point about the case parade in modern English. There are semantic and formal theories.

2) According to the semantic view point the number of cases is indefinite. According to Подебня one case should have only one meaning. And if we find specific meaning of the noun it should be called a separate case no matter how it’s expressed

Genitive case: 1) стакан воды- partitive case (relation between the thing and the whole)

2) приезд брата (subjective case)

3) наказание брата(objective case)

 

3) Prepositional theory (indefinite 6, 4 cases)

In many languages case relations are supported by prepositions (ходить в школу). Those linguists who speak about prepositions as markers of case state that every preposition in all its meaning should be called a separate case (to open the door with a key; to be satisfied with answer)

6 cases paradigm in English is based on the analogy with Latin. Universal relations expressed by the Latin case relations also in English. But the means of expression are quite different. Not only –‘s inflection, but also prepositions and word order are taken into consideration as markers

1. Nominative- word order (the first position in the sentence)

2. Genitive- -‘s of

3. Dative- to, word order (Write a letter to a friend. Write the friend a letter)

4. Accusative –word order (the boy met a girl)

5. Instrumental – with, by (By Lermontov)

6. Wocative(звательный)- (Tom, will you go…)

4) substitution theory – this theory is connected with substitution of nouns by corresponding pronouns. It includes – 3 cases.

1) Possessive- they differentiate the subject and the object. The subject is called –nominative case(I, he, she, we), and object – (him, her)- objective case

5) postpositional theory (Воронцова)-no case as a morphological category at all. According to this view point morpheme –‘s isn’t as inflection because of its separate position with a noun. One more argument for that is that in many cases this morpheme can belong not to one word but to a word combination (The [Queen of England]’s residence. In such examples –‘s is referred not to one word but to a word combination which cannot have inflections. The role of this morpheme is the same as in preposition of. So Воронцова calls this element a syntactic postposition. Morphologically the noun itself isn’t marked so case as a morphological category doesn’t exist.

However the most popular case theory singles out 2 cases and the marked member is narrower than the unmarked. The unmarked common case can function as all sentence parts. And in combination with prepositions it can express all kinds of combinations.