3. The category of Case.

The Case

refers to the relations of an object/thing/phenomenon (which is denoted by a noun) to other objects, actions and signs, on the one hand, and

presents the means of material or linguistic expression of these relations, on the other.

The are two opposite points of scientific view as for the existence of the category of Case in English:

1) there is the category of Case in English (there are a few approaches to the problem of the English Case);

2) there is not the category of Case in English (a new point of linguistic view).

1. Five general approaches to the problem of the English Case are based on the principle of the number of the cases.

1). There are two cases. The principle of Form.

Henry Sweet

(19^th century; an English linguist; Classical Grammar; principles of morphological form and syntactic function)

On the ground of the principle of Form he distinguished two grammatical forms of the English Case:

1. the Common Case (shows the relations of an object in the linguistic form of a noun with actions (verbs) and signs (adjectives)).

The notion of the Common Case was introduced to the English Grammar by H.Sweet;

2. the Possessive Case (shows the object’s possession of another object, thing, phenomenon).

In the second half of the 18^th c. Robert Laud (an English linguist) attracted the attention of the scientists to a diachronical change in the structure of the language. The change concerned with the old English Genitive Case (родительный падеж) which lost its original grammatical meaning and kept only the meaning of possession.

For example:

Mother (the Common Case) did not know where the son’s (the Possessive Case) hat (the Common Case) was left.

2). There are five cases. The principle of Lexical Meaning.

In the field of Semantic Grammar five cases were distinguished on the principle of Lexical Meaning. They were said to be Nominative (именительный), Genitive (родительный), Dative (дательный), Accusative (винительный) and Vocative (звательный) cases.

The approach was criticized by

Jence Otto Harry Jespersen

(1860-1943; a Danish linguist; Philosophy of Grammar; principles of morphological form and syntactic function)

The critics was based on the peculiarity of the approach as it was grounded on Latin which left some traits in English structure but was different: the Latin Noun changed its Grammatical Form whereas the English Noun could change it only in Number and when a possession was emphasized. Latin cases were Nominativus, Genitivus, Dativus, Accusativus, Vocativus and Ablativus (отделительный).

For example:

Table 3.3

Comparing Grammatical Forms of the cases of the Latin and English Noun

Latin			English
Amicus (friend); the stem is amico-. The noun of the second declension			Friend
Case	Singularis	Pluralis	Case	Singular	Plural
Nom.	amicus	amici	Nom.	friend	friends
Gen.	amici	amicorum	Gen.	friend	friends
Dat.	amico	amicis	Dat.	friend	friends
Acc.	amicum	amicos	Acc.	friend	friends
Voc.	amice	amici	Voc.	friend	friends
Abl.	amico	amicis

Critics by O.H.Jespersen.

It is seen from the example that the English Noun does not have a grammatical paradigm of its declension. Consequently, if there is no signs of material expression of changes (Grammatical Form), if there is no opposition or properly correlated relations, then there can not be a proper Grammatical Category as there is no base for it. It is the first drawback. Though O.H.Jespersen considers the Case as a Category of English. Then there is another drawback which is the lack of attention to the relations of possession that has a material expression in the grammatical form of the Possessive Case.

3). There are four cases. The principle of Syntactic Function.

Four cases in the light of the approach are stipulated by the syntactic position of the Noun in the Sentence. The English Noun can take the positions of the Subject, Attribute, Direct Object, Indirect Object. Consequently there are proper cases distinguished. They are presented in the table 3.4.

Table 3.4

Correspondence of the syntactic function and the case of the Noun

Case	Syntactic Function	Example
Nominative	Subject	A human lives. A table is made of wood.
Genitive	Attribute	There is a human (human’s) approach. There is a table lamp.
Accusative	Direct Object	He needed a human. He brought a table.
Dative	Indirect Object	He wrote to a human. I took a book from the table.

The drawback of the approach.

The Case is a morphological Category. In the approach under critics, firstly, Morphological Form is not taken into consideration at all, secondly, Lexical Meaning is not paid attention at. Thus, the category from the morphological turns out to become syntactic, which brakes the basic principles of Grammar in general.

4). There are as many cases as many prepositions. The principle of analytics.

Theory of Analytical Cases

A case of a noun is stipulated by a peculiarity of the combination of a noun and a preposition.

For example:

To a man – the Dative Case (direction towards sb/sth is emphasized);

By a man – the Instrumental Case (an instrument is emphasized);

In a man – the Locative Case (a place is emphasized).

Critics by O.H.Jespersen.

The combinations under consideration are only prepositional combinations of a noun and preposition and can not be taken as the ground/principle for cases’ classification.

5). There are three cases. The principle of Substitution.

In the light of Structural Approach (Structural Grammar) there was the system of three cases distinguished. Each case was grounded by the principle of substitution of a noun by a proper personal pronoun (table 3.5).

Table 3.5

The principle of Substitution in stipulating the three English Cases

Case	Substitution by Personal Pronoun		Example
			Using a noun	Substituted by a personal pronoun
	Type	Pronoun
Common	Personal	He, she, it	A student is writing a test.	He is writing a test.
Possessive	Possessive	His, her, its	He looked at mother’s car. I like the colour of the car.	He looked at her car. I like its colour.
Objective	Personal Pronoun in the Objective Case	Him, her	She wrote a letter to a man.	She wrote a letter to him (She wrote him a letter).

Critics.

The approach is quite a reasonable one as it takes into consideration the Lexical Meaning (a propriety to substitute a noun by a proper personal pronoun), the Syntactic Function (the propriety of a noun to serve a definite syntactic function in a sentence) and the analytical character of the English language (to change grammatical forms by an analytical means, not by synthetic, inflective/inflectional ways).

Though Morphologically the English Noun can hardly change: it has an opposition only in the category of the Number, not in the one of the Case. As for the latter (the Category of Case) materially, morphologically it can have an opposition only when the relations concern some possession. Then there is the opposition of the Common Case and the Possessive one (as in the classification introduced by H.O.Jespersen).

2. Contemporary approach to the Category of Case.

Nowadays there is a tendency to think that there is no morphological category of the case in English.

Firstly, there are no definite morphological forms as material expression of the Case. As a result there is no paradigm of the morphological forms of it.

Secondly, there is a certain confusion as for syntactic functions of the Noun in the form of the Common Case and in the form of the Possessive Case.

Thus, in the both forms the Noun can serve the syntactic function of the Attribute, though, naturally in the Objective Case it should serve the function of the Subject or the one of the Object and in the form of the Possessive Case – the function of the Attribute.

For example:

There is the John’s book. The noun in the Possessive Case is an attribute in the sentence.

There is a table lamp. The noun in the Common Case is an attribute (prepositional attribute), too.

Thirdly, the Possessive Case in English has a few definite peculiarities, which makes it different from synthetic ways of word inflection. They are the following.

1). The main Grammatical Meaning of the Possessive Case is to express a certain possession.

For example:

A student’s book; a students’ book

Though there are also other meanings.

For example:

The day’s wait = the wait during a day (the meaning of temporality)

The hair’s width = the width of a hair, very narrow (the meaning of measure)

The snake’s character = the character that resemble peculiar behaviour of snake (the meaning of quality)

2). The Possessive Case has limited functions:

a) limited lexical function:

usually it is used with names of animated objects

For example:

A girl’s prize; a dog’s bed, etc

But not table’s lamp

b) limited positional function:

a noun takes the place before another noun which is attributed (prepositional location)

For example

A table lamp (not lamp table);

A girl’s prize (not a prize girl’s);

A dog’s bed (not a bed dog’s)

3). Singular and Plural forms of the Noun in the Possessive Case differ only in writing, not in oral speech. There are only rare exceptions.

For example:

Boy’s [boiz]; boys’ [boiz] (sounds the same)

Child – child’s; children – children’s’ (an exception)

4). The index ‘s is not fixed only for the Noun; it can also be added to a word-combination or a clause.

For example:

The girl’s father (added to the word);

The dancing with my friend girl’s father (added to a phrase);

The girl I go with’s father (added to a clause).

Conclusion:

the contemporary English Noun does not have the Category of the Case. There is a tendency to consider the Case as the syntactic attributive category (the syntactic category of attributivity) the formal index of which is ‘s.

In the contemporary English Grammar the Possessive case is included also in the grammatical group of Possessives to which nouns in the Possessive Case, possessives without following nouns, the possessive pronouns and phrases with the preposition of are included.

For example:

Mother’s car (the noun in the Possessive Case);

She got married at St Joseph’s. Alice is at the hairdresser’s (the possessive without a following noun).

There is my new coat. That coat is mine (the possessive personal pronoun)

It is easy to loose one’s temper when one is criticized (the possessive impersonal pronoun)

That policemen is a friend of Lucy. His work is no business of yours (phrases with the preposition of )

IV The Problem of English Article

4.1. Interpretation of the status of the English Article.

4.2. The problem of the number of articles (how many morphological forms the Article can be presented in).

4.3. Functions and significance of the Article.

Functionally there are two forms of the Article – definite and indefinite. The forms are not changed. Though they have definite phonetic versions/the versions in pronunciation (drawing 4.1):

the				a / an
Transcription	Position	Example		Transcription	Position	Example
[ ]	Before consonants	On the table		[ ]	Before consonants	On a table
[ ]	Before vowels	In the apple		[en]	In the stressed position	In an apple
[..:]	In the stressed position	I told: ‘On the table, but not on a table!’		[ei]	Before vowels	I told: ‘On the table, but not on a table!’

Drawing 4.1. Allomorphemes of the Definite and Indefinite Forms of the English Article

There are three main problems/questions in accordance with the English Article:

1. If the Article is a definite word or not; and what is its relation to the Noun (the problem of garamatical status)?

2. If the Article is a definite word, then if it is a definite part of speech (the problem of morphological status)?

3. What is the number of articles in English (the problem of Grammatical Category)?