Grammatical categories of the Noun: Case

Generally, Case is defined as a morphological category manifested in the form of a noun declension showing the relations of a nounal reference to its neighbours, i.e. other objects of the reality.

The case system in Russian is specified by its peculiarity in its nomenclature, meaning of case forms and their functions. Nouns have marked oppositions in the Nominative (книга, день, стол, окно), Genetive (книги, стола, окна, дня), Dative (книге, столу, окну, дню), Accusative (книгу, стол, окно, день), Instrumental (книгой, столом, окном, днем), Vocative (книге, столе, окне, дне). Thus in Russian there is a great variety of paradigmatic lines expressing case distinctions due to the diversity of inflexions typical of the synthetical Russian, being under the influence of gender (masculine, feminine, neuter, e.g. стола/ом/у, ночь/и/ю/, поле/ем/ю) and number (стульями, стульям, ночам, ночами, ночью, полем, полями).

In the analytical English prepositional declension is obvious, which means that grammatical connections, expressed by cases in Russian, are indicated by prepositions: e.g. a trip to the countryside, a letter from Moscow (Dative), the book for the friend, a litre of petrol, a packet of biscuits (Genetive), the picture on the wall, magazines about adventure, a job at the office (Vocative). It is to be noted that the nouns in the given word groups, except Genetive, are characterized by a zero morpheme and belong to the Common case, but the Common case on its own cannot express relations between nouns; the meaning of the whole phrase can be deduced on account of the preposition and the syntactic position of the noun. So the English noun in the Common case, alone or preceded by a preposition, will be found in contexts similar to those in which there will be different cases in Russian: The boy was reading a book – Мальчик…/ I gave the book to the boy – …мальчику/ I saw a boy there – …мальчика… / I went out with a boy – …мальчиком/ I spoke to her about the boy – …мальчике.

In terms of the comparison, it may be assumed that relations between things are denoted by morphological oppositions of synthetical case forms in Russian and by arrangement of words, prepositions and agreement in English.

Paradigmatically, as an unmarked member, with a zero inflexion, the Common case is opposed to the Genitive case marked by the junction ’s/’, the term of which is preferable to the Possessive case, as long as ‘possessiveness’ expressed by the Genitive does not only show ‘sth belonging to sbd’ but a wider variety of meanings such as: dwelling places and environment (the apartment’s rooms, the garden’s blossom, the river’s banks, the sky’s blue), certain social units and organizations (the nation’s security, the faculty’s chair, the group’s findings), social, political, economic phenomena (big business’s failures, the economy’s advance, the campaign’s success), events in the field of arts and sports (the play’s style, the film’s merits, the game’s popularity, hockey’s fame), time and space relations (a week’s time, a moment’s silence, five minutes’ walk, yesterday’s rain).

Another striking feature of English paradigm is that inflectional Genitive runs counter to the prepositional Genitive ‘of-phrase’, demonstrating virtually the same functional semantics: his sister’s arrival – the arrival of his sister, London’s museums – the museums of London, the company’s future – the future of the company, the children’s education – the education of the children. However, the ‘of-phrase’ is widely current just only in these types of structures: the idea of quantity (piece of bread, lump of sugar, cup of tea, two kilos of carrots), position in space or direction (within 10 miles of London, south of Moscow, the city of Rome, in the middle of the night, at the beginning of the month), condition or function of sth (purchasing power of people, the rise of charge, the lives of women, the level of unemployment, the qualitative condition of society), composition or measure (a group of children, a herd of cattle, a flock of birds, the day of the meeting, abundance of rivers, a number of investigations, the side of the house, span of ten years), package or piece of sth (a bowl of rice, a bar of chocolate, a tin of fish, a carton of juice, a jar of jam).

Under the mentioned circumstances, the recognized two case declension of nouns displays that analytical tendencies prevail over synthetical word forms, indicating the position of a noun with reference to the other components of the situation.

Key words:

grammatical category of case грамматическая категория падежа

noun declension склонение существительного

nounal reference соотнесенность существительного

case system падежная система

Nominative Именительный падеж

Genetive Родительный падеж\Генетив

Dative Дательный падеж

Accusative Винительный падеж

Instrumental Творительный падеж

Vocative Предложный падеж

gender род

masculine мужской

feminine женский

neuter средний

Common case Общий падеж

Genetive case Генетив

arrangement of words последовательность слов

agreement согласование

unmarked member немаркированный компонент оппозиции

zero inflexion нулевая инфлексия

junction юнкция

Possessive case Притяжательный падеж

Possessiveness Притяжательность

inflectional Genitive инфлексионный Генетив

prepositional Genitive предложный Генетив