The category of case

Case is the immanent morphological category of the noun manifested in the forms of noun declension and showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena. This category is expressed in English by the opposition of the form s, usually called the possessive case or the genitive case. The genitive of the bulk of plural nouns remains phonetically unexpressed; thereby the apostrophe acquires the force of grammatical hieroglyph.

There are 4 views on the problem of the general case. The first view is the theory of positional cases; it is connected with the old grammatical tradition. Linguistic formulations of it may be found in the work of Nesfield, Bryant. According to the theory the unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases according to the functional positions occupied by the noun in the sentence. Thus the English noun like in Latin grammar would distinguish beside the genitive case purely positional cases: nominative, vocative, dative and accusative. The fallacy of the positional case theory is quite obvious. It substitutes the functional characteristics of the part of the sentence for the morphological features of the word class, since the case form is the variable morphological form of the noun. Case forms serve as means of expressing the functions of the noun in the sentence and not vice versa.

The second view is the theory of prepositional cases. According to it, combinations of nouns with prepositions should be understood as morphological case form. To these belong first of all the dative case (to + noun, for + noun) and the genitive case (of + noun). The prepositional cases are generally taken as coexisting with positional cases, together with the classical inflexional genitive completing the case system of the English noun. As is well known from noun-declensional languages, all their prepositions and not only some of them do require definite cases of nouns. Any preposition by virtue of its functional nature stands in the same general grammatical relation to the noun. It should follow from this that all the other prepositional phrases in English must be regarded as analytical cases. As a result of it the total number of additional name of prepositional case will run into dozens upon dozens.

The third view of the English noun case recognizes a limited inflexional system of two cases in English. It was formulated by Sweet, Jesperson and developed by Smirnitsky and Barkhudarov.

The fourth view of the English noun cases approaches the English noun as having completely lost the category of case in the course of its historical development. All the nounal cases are considered to be extinct. And what is called the genitive case is in fact a combination of a noun with a postposition. Thus this view advanced by Vorontsova may be called the postpositional theory. The following two reasons should be considered as the main ones of the postpositional theory substantiating the positional theory:

1) the postpositional element –sis loosely connected with the noun and can be used with the whole word-groups (Somebody else’s daughter);

2) parallelism of functions between the possessive postpositional constructions and the prepositional constructions.

The theory of possessive postposition fails to take into account achievements of the limited case theory. The latter has demonstrated that the noun form with – s is systemically contrasted against the unfeatured form of the noun which makes the correlation of the nounal forms into a grammatical category. The solution of the problem is to be thought on the ground of a critical syntax of the positive statements of two theories. A two case declension of nouns should be recognized in English with its common case as a direct case and its genitive case as the only oblique case. The case system in English is founded on a particle expression. The particle nature of apostrophe s is evident from the fact that it is added in postposition both to individual nouns and to nounal word-groupings. Thus two subtypes of the genitive in English are to be recognized:

1) the word genitive;

2) the phrase genitive.

Both of them are not inflexional but particle case forms.

The English genitive expresses a wide range of relational meanings and the following basic semantic types of the genitive can be pointed out.

1) The genitive of possessor. Its constructional meaning will be defined as inorganic possession (Peter’s look);

2) The genitive of integer. The meaning of organic possession (Ivan’s voice). Its subtype expresses a qualification received by the genitive referent through the head-word (the computer reliability);

3) The genitive of agent. This form renders an activity or some broader processual relation with the referent (Lisa’s laugh). This type of genitive expresses the recipient of the action or process denoted by the head noun. The subtype expresses the author of the referent of the head-noun (Beethoven’s sonatas);

4) The genitive of patient expresses the recipient of the action or process denoted by the head-noun (the champion’s sensational defeat);

5) The genitive of adverbial denotes adverbial factors relating to the referent of the head-noun, mostly the time and place of the event (the evening’s newspaper)

6) The genitive of quantity denotes the measure or quantity relating to the referent of the head-noun (two months’ time).

Exercises:

1. Give the plural of the nouns:

case, fuse, bridge, stick, bush, essay, army, hero, alumnus, crisis, child, leaf, ox, diagnosis, fish, tooth, mouse, salmon, formula, hundred, staff, cattle, man. goose, calf, deer, life

2. Identify the meaning of the genitive:

- the girl’s face

- a minute’s hesitation

- a summer’s day

- her two children’s clothes disappeared

- she had to buy fifty pound’s worth

- Jack’s voice

- the family’s car was found abandoned

- Martha’s courage failed her

3. Give the feminine of the noun. What way of specification did you use?

a) father –

b) waiter –

c) spokesman –

d) son –

e) bull –

f) uncle –

g) actor –

h) master –

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1701