Grammatical case

The case [ ka ː zʊs ] ( Pl: case with long u [ ka ː ː to s] ) (also the case) is a grammatical category of nominal parts of speech.

• 3.1 The case system in standard German
• 3.2 case in the German dialects 3.2.1 General
• 3.2.2 The case system in Alemannic

• 4.1 Development of the case system in the daughter languages
• 4.2 The case systems of Indo-European languages ​​in detail 4.2.1 The case in the (old) Greek
• 4.2.2 The case in Latin and in the Romance languages 4.2.2.1 Latin
• 4.2.2.2 Romance Languages

• 4.2.3.1 Dutch
• 4.2.3.2 Low German

Etymology

The term case comes etymologically from the Latin word ' casus ' ( "case" ). This word is a loan word from the Greek word ptosis ( πτῶσις ) ( ' case '). The Greek grammarian Dionysius Thrax had referred interpreted ( somewhat like today in the Dependency Grammar ) and this as ' ptosis ' nouns as the verb ' falling ' ( ' dependent ').

Term

The term " case " is ambiguous.

Morphological case

In a narrow sense, with " case " of the morphological case meant that the " case marking by grammatical morphemes ". In the morphology of the case is a morphological category which is characterized by a system of opposed rows of molds, said molds representing the relationship of an object to other objects in a given situation. This corresponds to the prevailing definition of the case as

This morphological Kasusbegriff lends itself to the German linguistics, as the German still knows a pronounced inflection in the nominal parts of speech. In German, the gender and number are identified morphologically in the declination with the case also at the same time.

Apply to the morphological case ( in German ) usually congruence and Directorate.

( " The car of Müller " example) distinguished: In the traditional Duden grammar for German between a pure Flexionskasus (example " miller auto " ) and a prepositional.

From the Greek division into casus rectus ( nominative, vocative ) and casus obliquus originates ( dependent on the verb case, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative ).

Further classifications are in the lexical and structural case ( as in generative syntax) and in syntactic and semantic case.

Typically wearing a word only one case marking, in some languages ​​, there are also words with two or more case marking ( Suffixaufnahme ).

Abstract case

Regardless of morphological realization can be the case abstractly defined as " grammatical category of nominal parts of speech ... that serves the grammatical organization of the sentence by the syntactic role of noun groups is marked. ".

This Kasusbegriff offers himself " for not inflecting languages ​​like English and French (on), in which syntactic functions are primarily encoded by word order and sentence structure ." An abstract Kasusbegriff is used in comparative philology.

As a brand of abstract case also the Kasusbegriff the Kasusgrammatik can be viewed.

Deep cases for the purposes of Kasusgrammatik

The Kasusgrammatik labeled " case " ( deep cases ) the " semantic / thematic relations / roles" or " abstract logical- semantic relation between the noun phrase and verb".

The case of the system in the German language

The case system in standard German

The German language has four cases (case ):

• The nominative case first, "Who - or -what- case "
• The genitive, Case 2, " Wes ( sen) Case"
• The dative, Case 3, " Who - case "
• The accusative case 4, " Wen- or -what- case ".

For example, in the sentence:

The woman the subject ( = complement in the nominative case ), her brother, the indirect object ( = addition in the dative ), the hat, the accusative ( = complement in the accusative ) and her husband, the genitive attribute.

In feminines, Neutra, and strongly masculine deklinierenden can be found at most in the genitive singular and dative plural in a case diffraction, ie a change of word form by appending a suffix to the stem and the plural stem. The dative singular of strong masculines and neuters was often inflected in the 20th century: the man. In some phrases of this state is obtained: In real man a child is hidden: the want to play. ( Friedrich Nietzsche). Weak masculine nouns and adjectives and participles have all substantivized in other case inflections ( the people, the messenger, with the most beautiful, for the educated ). The progressive loss of the endings in turn is the cause of the collapse of homonymous case, as in English and Low German ( see below). The German seems to be on the way, also the genitive as Objektkasus ( " I am ashamed of his" ) and the dative to lose and thus form a case system like English (language drift). The positions marked not by suffixes cases, the articles show the case of the corresponding word.

Case in the German dialects

General

In many German dialects the case system is easier than in High German. So the genitive is often used in the German dialects before only in fixed phrases. It is usually replaced by a combination of preposition and noun. Example: my parents' house is replaced by the house of my parents or my parents their house.

In some dialect areas coincide nominative and accusative, dative and accusative in other ( this Gemeinschaftskasus it means battery or dative object case). In some areas, the distinction between all three case remains intact, in others the distinction between all three case disappears completely, so that there arises a Einheitskasus from nominative, dative and accusative.

In the case in the German dialects, one must distinguish between the different parts of speech (article, adjective, noun and personal pronouns ) and between the three grammatical genders ( genera ). For example, the masculine form (high German of ) behaves when certain items differently than the feminine and neuter form ( or vehicle ).

The case system in Alemannic

The Alemannic dialect is a composite of the Upper German language, which knows very little cases. Here the cases based on a Lucerne dialect are demonstrated. There is no uniform identification of the cases in the Alemannic, as they may be in the various dialects sometimes very different. In fact, in conservative Alemannic dialects, the case system is sometimes still get a lot better about the Walliser German.

Nouns

The forms of the nominative and the accusative are identical in all generations. The dative is used "in the / i de " as an article. The word itself does not change.

The genitive must be listed separately. Actually a genitive does not. Therefore, the few verbs that still require a genitive object in standard German omitted in the Alemannic or are listed with appropriate prepositions.

Example:

He therefore made ​​up of the dative, followed by a possessive pronoun. In the far right column is specified, which genus has the following word. Depending on the possessive pronoun also changes. In the plural, there is only a possessive pronoun, which is why the Geni plural are not listed individually. This form of the genitive, which actually is none yes indeed, can only be applied to genitive attributes. As a genitive object is not to be used. It exists also in standard German, but is now used only very rarely. So they must be translated ( the gender of the reference word is shown in brackets ):

Moreover, in the Alemannic exists a second form. This form is available in Standard German and is used more often today.

This form of a reconstructed genitive is composed of the preposition " of " the article (for masculine nouns and netrum fused together ) and the actual attributive noun together. The reference word appears before the " genitive ". The genus and the number of the reference word play no role in this case. This form is to translate:

The case system in the Indo-European language area

The Urindogermanische knew eight or nine cases:

• Nominative
• Genitive or genitive
• Dative
• Accusative
• Ablative
• Instrumental
• Allative or direktiv ( uncertain)
• Vocative
• Locative.

Development of the case system in the daughter languages

The resulting therefrom languages ​​( Baltic, Slavic languages ​​, as well as Latin or Greek) this completely or only partially preserved (partly under other names ). Also, the German had until about a thousand years still an instrumental -case.

Man to compare the development of the case forms of the reconstructed proto-language to date in the table below using the example of Omens 'Wolf ':

The thematic vowel o = merges in the Indo-European daughter languages ​​with case endings often to a new suffix.

The case systems of Indo-European languages ​​in detail

The case in the (old) Greek

Of the eight case of Indo-European have been preserved in ancient Greek five: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and vocative ( form of address ). After their use, numerous different Kasusfunktionen be distinguished. The ancient Greek case system is similar in its main features the German. For details, see Ancient Greek language.

The case in Latin and in the Romance languages

Latin

The Latin has five distinct case: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and ablative. Then there is the vocative, which, however, only to a single class in the singular masculine noun has its own form, otherwise he is always equal to the respective nominative. When a / o- class city names also appear remnants of the locative. For details, see Latin grammar.

Romance Languages

"The loss of morphologically marked case is one of the most important typological features that distinguish the Romance languages ​​from Latin. "

In place of a Flexionskasus enters prepositional. In Old French there was a Zweikasussystem.

• Example: Instead of (Latin ) "homo homini lupus " ( Spanish). " El hombre (it) un lobo para el hombre "

Remains of a morphological case can be found in the Romance language in the personal pronouns. Only in Romanian there is still " a rudimentary case system ".

The case in the Germanic languages

Of the eight Indo-European case only six continued in Primitive Germanic; of these forms in turn go to the successor language gradually lost more and more:

Dutch

In the Dutch case system has almost vanished. For nouns and adjectives, there is no distinction between the case more. In the personal pronouns, there is the distinction between subject and object case case, for example, ik ( 'I', the subject case ) - mij, me ( " I " or " me," object case). This is me the unstressed form of mij.

Occasionally, before the remains of other Kasusunterscheidungen. In the written language, there is the personal pronoun of the third person plural, the distinction between hen and hun. This difference is in the written language but rarely made and does not occur in the spoken language. More Kasusunterscheidungen occur in fixed expressions and archaisms.

Examples:

• Van de koele mers of doods - " From the cool lakes of death," genitive in a book title by Frederik van Eeden
• Woordenboek Nederlandsche Taal - " Dictionary of the Dutch language ," genitive
• Ter dood veroordeeld - " sentenced to death ", dative
• Mijns inziens - " I know, " genitive
• Ontferm u onzer - " have mercy on us ", genitive

Low German

The feminine and the neuter definite article have a Einheitskasus in the Low German language area. One exception is in the neuter Articles solid forms such as To'n Bispill (for example) in which can still be found from earlier language stages a dating relic. The masculine definite article has only a small part of the language area (namely in South Schleswig ) Einheitskasus the nominative - accusative - dative.

A Low German example of the existing opposition nominative object case ( battery dative ) in the male noun is the following:

More Kasusrelikte can be found in the genitive. In the western language area, there are probably influenced by the Dutch, forms like s'Avends ( of the evening ).

The case in the Slavic languages

The Slavic languages ​​can be divided into two groups according to the number of the case.

• In Bulgarian and Macedonian, there are 3 case in pronouns, while the nouns no more cases exist but one more ( Macedonian ) or less ( Bulgarian) used vocative.
• All other Slavic languages ​​have 6 or 7 case. Slovenian, Russian and Lower have 6 case.
• Croatian, Bosnian Serbian, Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian have 7 case.

The case in the Baltic languages

The two Baltic languages ​​differ in the number of cases.

• Lithuanian has 7 cases. Although the number of cases is consistent with the neighboring Polish, but Polish and Lithuanian are not particularly closely related. (Polish was in Lithuania, however, for centuries the most important cultural language. ) In Altlitauischen however, there were additional (possibly Finno- Ugrian influence newly formed ) cases, so-called secondary local cases, which have been preserved in some dialects to this day.
• Contrast, Latvian has only 6 cases, although it is mentioned in some sources as the instrumental case 7. But it is same in the singular and in the plural with the accusative with dative and is therefore no longer included in newer books.

Case in the languages ​​of the world

Non - Indo-European languages ​​(eg Finno- Ugric ) know in some cases significantly more cases than the Indo-European languages ​​. In Estonia, there are for example 14, in 15 Finnish, in Wepsischen 24, and in Hungarian, depending on count between 0 and 31

However, it is quite difficult to give the concept of a universal definition. Some experts doubt that he ( for example, English or Hungarian) is applicable to all languages.

The following list is not complete and set to a logical functions of several case may overlap to the other. A set of roller ( actant ), which is completed in one language by one of the listed case may be completed in another by another - usually knows them then only one of the two.

Case and adpositions in language typology

In the languages ​​of the world shows that a part of the languages ​​used case marking, where another part of adpositions ( pre-or postpositions ) are used, ie, the difference between the two strategies often manifests itself only in morphology, but not in the function (semantics). Some contemporary Sprachtypologen therefore the engl. Term flag or flagging ( " flag " or " flagging " ) used to combine the two phenomena in terms of their semantics under a generic term.