The category of case

The category of case of nouns is the system of opposemes (such as girl – girl’s in English, хата – хати – хаті – хату – хатою – (на) хаті – хато in Ukrainian) showing the relations of a noun to other words in speech. Case relations reflect the relations of the substances the nouns name to other substances, actions, states, etc. in the world of reality. Case is the grammatical form of a noun, which reveals its relation towards other words fulfilling the functions of parts of the given sentence (Відмінок - це граматична форма іменника, яка передає його відношення до інших слів, що виступають у функції членів цього речення).

Case is one of those categories which show the close connection (a) between language and speech, (b) between morphology and syntax:

a) A case opposeme is, like any other opposeme, a unit of the language system, but the essential difference between the members of a case opposeme is in their combinability in speech. This is particularly clear in a language like Ukrainian with a developed case system. Compare, for instance, the combinability of the nominative case and that of the oblique/indirect cases. See also the difference in the combinability of each oblique case (непрямий відмінок): схвалювати вчинок, не схвалювати вчинку, дивуватися вчинку/вчинкові, захоплюватись вчинком, etc.

We can see here that the difference between the cases is not so much a matter of meaning as a matter of combinability. It can be said that вчинок – вчинку – вчинкові – вчинком, etc. are united paradigmatically in the Ukrainian language on the basis of their syntagmatic differences in speech. The same is true for the English case opposeme.

b) Though case is a morphological category it has distinct syntactical significance. The common case grammemes fulfill a number of syntactical functions not typical of possessive case grammemes, among them the functions of subject and object. The possessive case noun is for the most part employed as an attribute.

All case opposemes are identical in content: they contain two particular meanings, of “common case” and “possessive case” united by the general meaning of the category, that of “case”. There is not much variety in the form of case opposemes either, which distinguishes English from Ukrainian.

An English noun lexeme may contain two case opposemes at most (man – man’s, men – men’s). Some lexemes have but one opposeme (England – England’s, cattle – cattle’s). Many lexemes have no case opposemes at all (book, news, foliage). That is not true for the Ukrainian language.

Thus, -’s is the only positive case morpheme of English nouns. It would be no exaggeration to say that the whole category depends on this morpheme [24; 59–61]. This can be explained by the fact that in English the category of case is the remnants of the former inflexional structure and is represented by a rather small number of forms. The linguistic literature abounds in discussions concerning the existence of the case category in the sphere of the English noun as well as concerning the system of its case forms. Nevertheless, traditional school grammars express the view that modern English has two noun cases: the Common Case (загальний відмінок) and the Possessive Case (присвійний відмінок, інколи називають родовий).

The common case – is the form in which the English noun can fulfill functions of almost all parts of a sentence. It is by itself the pure base (він являє собою “чисту основу”) of the word without endings (or otherwise the base with the “zero ending”). Since the common case of nouns performs a big number of functions and is poor in its morphological expression (бідність морфологічного оформлення), its meaning can be clarified by syntactic means: the word order and the usage of prepositions. Merely judging from the fact that the noun stands before the verb-predicate we perceive it as a subject, and when it stands after the verb – as an object or the nominal part of the compound predicate (depending on the type of the verb).

The possessive case has a very narrow sphere of usage: the noun in this case fulfills the function of only one part of the sentence – the attribute, thus only such a kind of attribute which expresses the belonging or the size (приналежність чи розмір). It is expressed by only one ending -s. The separate form of the possessive case exists practically only in the singular. In the plural only a few nouns have the possessive case. These are nouns that do not have the ending - s, e.g.: children’s. The rest of nouns do not have a separate form of the possessive case in the plural. Usually the idea of possession is expressed by placing the form of the common case plural before the modified noun, as it happens while using the noun in the attributive function. The usage of apostrophe is a mere formality and does not belong to the language facts. Compare, e.g.: student’s society (студентське товариство/ товариство студентів) and Brains Trust (мозковий трест/ трест мізків, тобто об’єднання людей видатних розумових здібностей).

The range of meaning of the possessive case is incomparably narrower than that of the common case. Yet linguists point out a number of meanings a “possessive case” noun may express in speech:

1) possession, belonging (Peter’s bicycle);

2) personal or social relations (Peter’s wife);

3) authorship (Peter’s poem);

4) origin or source (the sun’s rays);

5) kind or species (ladies’ hats);

6) the relation of the whole to its part (Peter’s hand);

7) subjective relations (Peter’s arrival);

8) objective relations (Peter’s being sent);

9) characteristic (her mother’s care);

10) measure (a night’s reflection; a mile’s distance) [24; 70].

Not all the nouns in English have the possessive case. Only the names of living beings and the names of lifeless/inanimate objects, meaning the size: the time interval (проміжок часу) (a week’s leave – тижнева відпустка), the distance (a mile’s distance – відстань в одну милю), the weight (a ton’s weight – вага в одну тону), the cost (a dollar’s worth – вартість в один долар). The names of countries, cities and ships as well as the words: world, country, city, ship, also have the form of the possessive case. Sometimes there can be met the possessive case of some other inanimate objects with the meaning the relation of the whole to its part: the car’s lights, the chair’s arm etc. the majority of English nouns is used in the common case that is in fact it is indeclinable.

The English possessive case has two main usages: a) the dependent possessive case (залежний присвійний відмінок), which always fulfills the function of the attribute and the b) independent possessive case, which is used independently without the noun that follows it (very often these nouns could be the words: house, office, shop, e.g.: at my friend’s, to the baker’s (до крамниці булочника).

The dependent possessive case usually renders the meaning of belonging to something (the doctor's house), the meaning of size or of the relation of the whole to its part (the girl’s hand); sometimes it can have the subjective meaning regarding the word modified (John’s activity, my brother’s arrival) or in some cases the objective one (Mike’s trial – суд над Майком).

The independent possessive case has most frequently the meaning of place (at the chemist’s) and very seldom the meaning of belonging (It is my uncle’s).

A very specific feature of English is the so-called group possessive case (груповий присвійний), when the ending of the possessive case serves not for one word but for a word combination, e.g.: Peter and Helen’s flat, Prime Minister of England’s residence, somebody else’s book. Some linguists think that this happens due to the analytic character of the English language where very often a group of words can acquire characteristics of the complex word.

The peculiarity of the English possessive case is that it is usually placed before the noun whereas the Ukrainian attribute in the genitive case is usually placed after the noun. Also the English possessive case corresponds not only to the form of Ukrainian genitive case (зошит студента, день відпочинку) but also to the form of Ukrainian possessive adjectives (батьків капелюх, братова книжка).

In Ukrainian the noun has a very complicated system of declension (система відмінювання). This system consists of six cases: the nominative case, the genitive case, the dative case, the accusative case, the instrumental case and the local or locative case. Besides, all the nouns that are the names of living beings and the names of lifeless objects, used in the transferred meaning or personified, have the seventh case – the so-called vocative form (клична форма), which is used at addressing: брате, земле. This system of declension is still more complicated by the fact that some nouns in one and the same case can have different endings. These endings can not be semantically differentiated, e.g.: у гаю, у гаї, батькові, батьку but sometimes they can somehow alter the meaning of the word, e.g.: листопада (the month)and листопаду (the season of the year).

In Ukrainian the category of case is purely grammatical. Case forms are the means of connection of nouns with other words. Each case is the unity of form and meaning.

The nominative case of the noun is called the direct case. The term “direct” denotes the independence of the noun’s usage from its connection with other words. Its usage is very limited. The nominative case performs the function of a subject (підмет), being the logical subject (суб’єкт) in the sentence: “ А Рось кипіла в кам’яному ложі ” (Л. Костенко). In passive constructions it is used as an object (Туман розгонився вітрами по долині). It can also function as a nominative part of a compound nominal predicate (Слава – зрадлива річ) or as a main member of the nominative sentence (“ Заслання, самота, солдатчина …” – (Л. Костенко)). Sometimes it can fulfill the function of detached apposition (відокремлена прикладка – Мінна знайшла будинок, невеличкий гарненький котедж, захований подалі від вулиці).

The rest of cases are indirect, being used with prepositions or without them. Indirect cases can be used as secondary parts of the sentence: the object, different types of circumstances, sometimes attribute.

The genitive case has the following meanings:

– belonging to some person or thing (батько Миколи, властивість цементу);

– objective relations (не дістав паперу);

– the part of the whole or its incompleteness (налити води, цех заводу);

– circumstantial meanings: a) dates (1990 року); b) special relations (наблизились до ставу); c) time relations (протягом тижня); d) cause relations (крикнув з переляку).

The dative case denotes a person for whom or because of whom a certain action takes place (служіння народові, привіт другові); possession (пам’ятник Іванові Франку); the subject of the action in the impersonal sentence (Кому-кому, а йому тільки цього й треба було).

The accusative case has, first of all, the objective meaning (as a direct object with transitive verbs) (передплатити пресу, вимкнути світло). Used as an object in prepositional constructions it denotes the space as the direction of movement (в’їхати в ліс, стріляти в небо), also an object (дбати про дітей, кинути об землю).

The instrumental case abounds in meanings which can be the following:

– objective (копати лопатою, міряти метром);

– circumstantial (їхати дорогою, плисти морем);

– denoting the accomplice of the doer of some action (батько з дочкою, мати з немовлям);

– expressing the nominal part of the compound nominal predicate (стати парубком, зробитися хмаркою);

– denoting the subject in one-member sentence (односкладне речення) (гуртожиток заселено студентами).

The locative case is always used with a preposition. The most important meanings are circumstantial (ходити по березі, говорити по щирості), or that of an object (кохатися в мистецтві, гратися на почуттях); much more rarely attributive meanings are used (баба по матері, товариство по духу).

The vocative case denotes the addressing to some person or personified object or any creature (мамо, брате, лисичко, кицю; Поезіє, сонце моє оранжеве! (І. Драч)) [15; 121–122].

The mentioned above six cases have peculiar endings for all the nouns of the Ukrainian language. According to the type of ending there are differentiated four declensions of Ukrainian noun:

The first declension – includes nouns of the feminine gender with the nominative case singular ending – а, -я (наука, земля), and some group of nouns of the masculine gender and the common case (спільного роду) (Микола, Ілля, голова, суддя).

The second declension – includes the biggest part of nouns of the masculine and the neuter gender. Only those nouns of the masculine gender which have the final hard consonant or softened consonant and those having the ending –й, -о (робітник, ключ, день, чай, батько) belong to this declension. Among the neuter gender nouns this declension includes all the nouns ending in -о, -е, -я (except those that acquire the suffixes -ят, -ен in indirect cases), the latter usually have the doubling of the final consonant of the stem (озеро, дерево, поле, бажання, обличчя).

The third declension – includes all the nouns of the feminine gender with the hard or the soft final consonant (ніч, любов, тінь, радість) and the noun мати, which in indirect cases acquires the suffix -ер (матері).

The fourth declensio n – includes the nouns of the neuter gender with the endings - а, -я, denoting the names of little according to their age creatures/beings or some minute things as well as the noun ім’я. In indirect cases these nouns have the suffix - ат, -ят and the noun ім’я has the suffix - ен: теля – теляти, лоша – лошати, ім’я – імені.

The peculiar feature in the system of declensions of modern Ukrainian nouns is the dative case, which, being the analytical form, creates the common paradigm of the noun alongside with other synthetic forms. This case form always has a preposition of place на or в in its structure and a special form of a noun bound with it.

Due to such richness of case endings the noun in Ukrainian is always distinctly expressed from the morphological point of view and the meaning of its many forms is easily determined even beyond the sentence limits, that is why the importance of syntactic means in the grammatical expression of the noun is not a substantial one.