Editing Grammatical case (section)

== Indo-European languages ==
[[File:E7127-Balakhna-500-Years.jpg|thumb|On this sign in Russian memorializing an anniversary of the city of [[Balakhna]], the word ''Balakhna (''{{Langx|ru|Балахн'''а'''}}'')'' on the right is in the nominative case, whereas the word ''Balakhne (''{{Langx|ru|Балахн'''е'''}}'')'' is in the dative case in ''Balakhne 500 Let'' ('Balakhna is 500 years old', literally '[There is] 500 years to Balakhna') on the front of the sign. Furthermore, ''let'' is in the genitive (plural) case.]]

Although not very prominent in modern English, cases featured much more saliently in [[Old English language|Old English]] and other ancient [[Indo-European languages]], such as [[Latin]], [[Old Persian]], [[Ancient Greek]], and [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]]. Historically, the Indo-European languages had eight '''morphological cases''', although modern languages typically have fewer, using prepositions and word order to convey information that had previously been conveyed using distinct noun forms. Among modern languages, cases still feature prominently in most of the [[Balto-Slavic languages]] (except Macedonian and Bulgarian<ref>[https://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/slavic_languages.jsp Slavic Languages] on quickia.com {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091121155741/http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/slavic_languages.jsp |date=2009-11-21}}</ref>), with most having six to eight cases, as well as [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[German language|German]], [[irish language|Irish]] and [[Modern Greek]], which have four. In German, cases are mostly marked on articles and adjectives, and less so on nouns. In Icelandic, articles, adjectives, personal names and nouns are all marked for case, making it the most conservative [[Germanic languages|Germanic language]].

The eight historical Indo-European cases are as follows, with examples either of the English case or of the English syntactic alternative to case:
{{clear}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Case
!Indicates
!Sample case words
!Sample sentence
!Interrogative
!Notes
|- 
|[[Nominative case|Nominative]] 
|[[Subject (grammar)|Subject]] of a [[finite verb]]
|we
|'''''We''' went to the store.''
|Who or what?
|Corresponds to English's [[subject pronoun]]s.
|-
|[[Accusative case|Accusative]]
|[[Direct object]] of a [[transitive verb]]
|us,<br>for us,<br>the (object)
|''The clerk remembered '''us'''.''

''John waited '''for us''' at the bus stop.''

''Obey '''the law'''.''
|Whom or what?
|Corresponds to English's [[object pronoun]]s and preposition ''for'' construction before the object, often marked by a definite article ''the''. Together with dative, it forms modern English's [[oblique case]].
|-
|[[Dative case|Dative]]
|[[Indirect object]] of a verb 
|us,<br>to us,<br>to the (object)
|''The clerk gave '''us''' a discount.''

''The clerk gave a discount '''to us'''.''

''According '''to the law'''...''
|Whom or to what?
||Corresponds to English's [[object pronoun]]s and preposition ''to'' construction before the object, often marked by a definite article ''the''. Together with accusative, it forms modern English's [[oblique case]].
|-
|[[Ablative case|Ablative]]
|Movement away from
|from us
|''The pigeon flew '''from us''' to a steeple.''
|Whence? From where/whom?
|
|-
|[[Genitive case|Genitive]]
|Possessor of another noun
|'s,

of (the)
|'''''John's''' book was on the table.''

''The pages '''of the book''' turned yellow.''

''The table is made '''out of wood'''.''
|Whose? From what or what of?
|Roughly corresponds to English's [[possessive]] (possessive determiners and pronouns) and preposition ''of'' construction.
|-
|[[Vocative case|Vocative]]
|Addressee
|John
|'''''John''', are you all right?''

''Hello, '''John!'''''

'''''O John''', how are you!'' (archaic)
|
|Roughly corresponds to the archaic use of "O" in English.
|-
|[[Locative case|Locative]]
|Location, either physical or temporal
|in Japan,

at the bus stop,

in the future
|''We live '''in Japan'''.''

''John is waiting for us '''at the bus stop'''.''

''We will see what will happen '''in the future'''.''
|Where or wherein? When?
|Roughly corresponds to English prepositions ''in'', ''on'', ''at'', and ''by'' and other less common prepositions.
|-
|[[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]
|A means or tool used in/while performing an action
|with a mop,

by hand
|''We wiped the floor '''with a mop'''.''

''This letter was written '''by hand'''.''
|How? With what or using what? By what means?
|Corresponds to English prepositions ''by'', ''with'' and ''via'' as well as synonymous constructions such as ''using'', ''by use of'' and ''through''.
|}

All of the above are just rough descriptions; the precise distinctions vary significantly from language to language, and as such they are often more complex. Case is based fundamentally on changes to the noun to indicate the noun's role in the sentence – one of the defining features of so-called [[fusional languages]]. [[Old English]] was a fusional language, but Modern English does not work this way.

===Modern English===
Modern [[English language|English]] has largely abandoned the inflectional case system of [[Proto-Indo-European]] in favor of [[analytic language|analytic]] constructions. The [[personal pronoun]]s of Modern English retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class (a remnant of the more extensive [[Old English declension|case system of Old English]]). For other pronouns, and all nouns, adjectives, and articles, grammatical function is indicated only by [[word order]], by [[preposition]]s, and by the "[[Saxon genitive]]" (''-'s'').{{efn|The [[English possessive#Status of the possessive as a grammatical case|status of the possessive]] as an affix or a clitic is the subject of debate.<ref name="Hudson 2013">{{cite book |isbn=9789027273000 |date=2013 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |title=Morphosyntactic Categories and the Expression of Possession |editor1-last=Börjars |editor1-first=Kersti |editor2-last=Denison |editor2-first=David |editor1-link=David Denison |editor3-last=Scott |editor3-first=Alan |chapter=A cognitive analysis of John's hat |last1=Hudson |first1=Richard |author-link1=Richard Hudson (linguist) |pages=123–148}}</ref><ref name=" Börjars 2013">{{cite book |isbn=9789027273000 |date=2013 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |title=Morphosyntactic Categories and the Expression of Possession |editor1-last=Börjars |editor1-first=Kersti |editor2-last=Denison |editor2-first=David |author-link1=David Denison |editor3-last=Scott |editor3-first=Alan |chapter=Expression of Possession in English |last1=Börjars |first1=Kersti |last2=Denison |first2=David |editor1-link=David Denison |last3=Krajewski |first3=Grzegorz |last4=Scott |first4=Alan |pages=149–176}}</ref> It differs from the noun inflection of languages such as German, in that the genitive ending may attach to the last word of the phrase. To account for this, the possessive can be analysed, for instance as a clitic construction (an "enclitic postposition"<ref name="Quirk group genitive">{{cite book |quote=[the ''-s'' ending is] more appropriately described as an enclitic postposition' |page=[https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir/page/328 328] |last1=Quirk |first1=Randolph |author-link1=Randolph Quirk |last2=Greenbaum |first2=Sidney |author-link2=Sidney Greenbaum |last3=Leech |first3=Geoffrey |author-link3=Geoffrey Leech |last4=Svartvik |first4=Jan |year=1985 |title=A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language |location=Harlow |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-51734-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir/page/328}}</ref>) or as an inflection<ref name="Oxford English Grammar, Case">{{cite book |quote=In speech the genitive is signalled in singular nouns by an inflection that has the same pronunciation variants as for plural nouns in the common case |pages=109–110 |last1=Greenbaum |first1=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Greenbaum |title=The Oxford English Grammar |year=1996 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-861250-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=In writing, the inflection of regular nouns is realized in the singular by apostrophe + ''s'' (''boy's''), and in the regular plural by the apostrophe following the plural ''s'' (''boys{{'}}'') |last1=Quirk |first1=Randolph |last2=Greenbaum |first2=Sidney |last3=Leech |first3=Geoffrey |last4=Svartik |first4=Jan |title=A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language |url=https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir|url-access=registration |publisher=Longman |year=1985 |page=[https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir/page/319 319]}}</ref> of the last word of a phrase ("edge inflection").<ref name="Huddleston phrasal genitive">{{cite book |quote=We conclude that both head and phrasal genitives involve case inflection. With head genitives it is always a noun that inflects, while the phrasal genitive can apply to words of most classes. |pages=479–481 |chapter=Nouns and noun phrases |last1=Payne |first1=John |last2=Huddleston |first2=Rodney |author-link2=Rodney Huddleston |editor1-last=Huddleston |editor1-first=Rodney |editor1-link=Rodney Huddleston |editor2-last=Pullum |editor2-first=Geoffrey |editor2-link=Geoffrey Pullum |title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge; New York |isbn=978-0-521-43146-0}}</ref>}}

Taken as a whole, [[English personal pronouns]] are typically said to have three morphological cases:

* The ''[[nominative case]]'' (''[[subjective pronouns]]'' such as ''I'', ''he'', ''she'', ''we''), used for the subject of a [[finite verb]] and sometimes for the [[complement (linguistics)|complement]] of a [[copula (linguistics)|copula]].
* The ''[[oblique case]]'' (''[[object pronoun]]s'' such as ''me'', ''him'', ''her'', ''us''), used for the direct or indirect [[object (grammar)|object]] of a verb, for the object of a preposition, for an absolute disjunct, and sometimes for the complement of a copula.
* The ''[[genitive case]]'' (''[[possessive pronouns]]'' such as ''my/mine'', ''his'', ''her/hers'', ''our/ours''), used for a grammatical possessor. This is not always considered to be a case; see {{slink|English possessive|Status of the possessive as a grammatical case}}.

Most English personal pronouns have five forms: the nominative case form, the oblique case form, a distinct ''[[reflexive pronoun|reflexive]]'' or ''intensive'' form (such as ''myself'', ''ourselves'') which is based upon the possessive determiner form but is coreferential to a preceding instance of nominative or oblique, and the possessive case forms, which include both a ''[[determiner (linguistics)|determiner]]'' form (such as ''my'', ''our'') and a predicatively-used ''independent'' form (such as ''mine'', ''ours'') which is distinct (with two exceptions: the third person singular masculine ''he'' and the third person singular neuter ''it'', which use the same form for both determiner and independent [''his car'', ''it is his'']). The interrogative personal pronoun ''who'' exhibits the greatest diversity of forms within the modern English pronoun system, having definite nominative, oblique, and genitive forms (''who'', ''whom'', ''whose'') and equivalently-coordinating indefinite forms (''whoever'', ''whomever'', and ''whosever''). The pronoun "where" has a corresponding set of derived forms (''whither'', ''whence''), but they're considered archaic.

Although English ''pronouns'' can have subject and object forms (he/him, she/her), ''nouns'' show only a singular/plural and a possessive/non-possessive distinction (e.g. ''chair'', ''chairs'', ''chair's'', ''chairs'''); there is no manifest difference in the form of ''chair'' between "The chair is here." (subject) and "I own the chair." (direct object), a distinction made instead by word order and context.