Case role
Case Singular form Plural form
Nominative nominativus somnus somni
Accusative accusativus somnum somnos
Genitive genitivus somni somnorum
Dative dativus somno somnis
Ablative ablativus somno somnis
Locative locativus somni somnis
Vocative vocativus somne somni
Morphological case -- Linguistic typology of morphological case
Case can be further divided into two categories : grammatical cases and semantic cases . Examples of grammatical cases are nominative case , accusative , dative , and ergative . These typically code core grammatical relations which are semantically dependent on the verb , such as subject and object . Semantic ( or adverbial ) cases are instrumental , comitative , and locative cases . These are semantically richer and less dependent on the verb . There exists cases , such as dative , that are borderline between these two categories , having both semantic and grammatical case features . [ 11 ] Eight commonly seen cases ( Indo-European case ) : ( *Precise description of the above cases vary cross-linguistically . ) Ergative case It has been suggested that the lexical case associated with agents is the ergative ( ERG ) lexical case : This case ERG identifies the noun as a subject of a transitive verb in languages that allow ergative case . The correlation demonstrated between the ergative case and the theta role of agent is not a perfect correlation : It is as closely correlated as the relationship between dative case and the theta role goals/ experiencers . [ 3 ] : p.3 There are two types of Ergative languages 1 ) languages that allow and 2 ) those that prohibit ergative subjects in intransitive clauses . [ 3 ] : p.19 There can be a distinction made between ergative and accusative type languages with respect to the type of subject and object markings they will display . [ 13 ] This distinction is characterized by the type of clauses a language allows , such as ergative , absolutive , accusative , and nominative . The distinction made between language type and clause type is illustrated in the table below : [ 13 ] : p.158 Clause type Language type Ergative Accusative Transitive Erg-Abs Nom-Acc Intransitive Abs Nom Case assignment The typological differences among languages has been shown to be the consequence of differences in whether ergative , dative , or other individual case assignment is optional or obligatory in a language ( although , the ergative-accusative case pattern does seem to be universally blocked ) . [ 3 ] To represent that a particular case is a lexical case , it must be shown that it is theta related . This means that lexical case can not be assigned to a noun phrase by a verb unless the verb also assigns a theta role to that same noun phrase . Not all lexical cases have the same associated theta role . For example , the dative case and the goal/experiencer theta role ; not all , and not only , noun phrases with the theta-role goal/experiencer get marked with the dative case . The class of verbs that mark their subjects with a particular lexical dative case is similar across languages , but the inclusion in this verb class is not completely predictable . Lexical cases such as nominative usually mark predictable theta roles , but there is a substantial amount of characteristic behaviour involved indicating that a verb 's ability to assign a lexical case to one of its arguments must be specified in that verb 's lexical entry . [ 3 ] : p.11 Once a verb marks its subject with a given lexical case , such as nominative , that verb can not assign structural accusative case to its object . [ 3 ] : p.20 Example of transliterated Japanese morphologically overt case assignment . The dative particle '-ni ' assigns a recipient case role to the NP 'neko ' , and the accusative particle '-o ' assigns a theme case role to the NP 'sakana ' . Morphologically overt case assignment In languages with case marking of explicit morphology , any nominal that is morphologically capable of showing case morphology is obligated to do so . This observation can be stated explicitly by what is referred to as the Case Filter . [ 12 ] Case Filter can be further described as being an abstract Case hypothesis that stipulates all lexical noun phrases are assigned a specific Case regardless if this Case manifests at the surface level : If this lexical NP does not have a Case marking at surface structure , then the sentence that contains it is considered ungrammatical . [ 12 ] [ 14 ] Case theory includes an inventory of structural Case and a series of lexical cases that are assigned ( in all languages ) at the level of the deep structure in conjunction with theta role assignment . [ 3 ] : p.3 ( i ) V ( verb ) and P ( preposition ) assign accusative case to an NP complement Accusative case is assigned to the complements of V and in some instances P ( ii ) N ( noun ) and A ( adverb/adjective ) do not assign accusative case ( to an NP complement ) Accusative case is not found on the complement of either N or A Application of these accusative case assignment rules can be seen in the following examples : Examples ( 4a ) Complement to V ( accusative ) [ VP scripsit libr-um ] wrote book-ACC ( 4b ) Complement to P ( accusative ) [ PP ad Hispani-am ] to Spain-ACC For the morphologically rich case language of Latin , there are seven cases for Latin Nouns . The following table demonstrates Latin case morphology assignment for a masculine noun somnus meaning 'sleep ' . [ 16 ]
Case roles, according to the work by Fillmore (1967), are the semantic roles of noun phrases in relation to the syntactic structures that contain these noun phrases. The term case role is most widely used for purely semantic relations, including theta roles and thematic roles, that can be independent of the morpho-syntax. The concept of case roles is related to the larger notion of Case (with a capital letter C) which is defined as a system of marking dependent nouns for the type of semantic or syntactic relationship they bear to their heads. Case traditionally refers to inflectional marking. The relationships between nouns and their containing structures is one of both syntactic and semantic value. The syntactic positional relationships between forms in sentences varies cross-linguistically and allows grammarians to observe semantic values in these nouns by examining their syntactic values. Using these semantic values gives the base for considering case role in a specific language. Case theory includes, in addition to its inventory of structural cases, a series of lexical cases that are assigned at deep-structure in conjunction with theta role assignment. In addition to its relation to Case (case based on syntactic structures), these semantic notions of case role are closely related to morphological case as well.