Noun-case

In linguistics, "noun-case" (often shortened to just "case") refers to a grammatical category that marks the function of a noun or pronoun within a sentence. It indicates the role a noun plays, such as the subject, object, possessor, or indirect recipient. Case is typically indicated by inflections, meaning changes to the word's form, like suffixes, or by prepositions and word order. Languages vary widely in the number of cases they employ and the ways they mark them. The system allows for clear relationships between words in a sentence, regardless of word order, a feature not found in all languages.

Noun-case meaning with examples

• In Latin, the 'nominative case' marks the subject of a verb. 'Puer ambulat' (The boy walks) where 'Puer' (boy) is in the nominative case because it's the subject. The case ending -'s' shows grammatical function. Different forms indicate different case functions: the subject is the nominative, the direct object the accusative, the indirect object the dative, etc.
• In German, case is crucial for understanding sentence structure. For example, 'Der Mann gibt dem Kind einen Ball' (The man gives the child a ball). 'Der Mann' (The man) is nominative (subject), 'dem Kind' (to the child) is dative (indirect object), and 'einen Ball' (a ball) is accusative (direct object). Gender influences articles.
• In Russian, nouns change form dramatically based on case. For instance, 'Я вижу кошку' (Ya vizhu koshku – I see the cat). 'Кошка' (koshka – cat) is in the accusative case (кошку - koshku) because it's the direct object. Knowing case endings is vital to the meaning of a sentence, demonstrating the rich, complex, and inflectional character of the language.
• Ancient Greek had five cases, and sometimes more! Case endings change according to gender, number, and declension (a noun's grammatical class). For instance: 'ὁ ἄνθρωπος' (ho anthropos – the man, nominative) becomes 'τοῦ ἀνθρώπου' (tou anthropou - of the man, genitive). The case system determined the function of words within complex clauses.
• English, though primarily relying on word order, retains vestiges of a case system. Pronouns exhibit case distinctions: 'I' (nominative), 'me' (accusative/objective). 'He saw *me*.' (*me* is objective). 'She gave it to *him*.' (*him* is objective). Possessive pronouns like 'mine' also show a case distinction, differentiating possession like an equivalent genitive case.