19 The Category of case.

There isvery little of common in Eng and Ukr as far as the category of case is concerned. The only Isomorphic feature is the assene of the case category. In both lngs the case category is a pure gram. category which has it's own gram. meaning and morphological way of its expression. As to the scope of cases the meaning of cases Eng differs greately from Ukr. In Ukr nouns the case category is represented by a polynomic equipollant opposition of seven case forms in sing. and plural

- the nominative case хмара

- genetive case хмари

- dative хмарі

- accusative хмару

- instrumental хмарою

- locative хмарі

- Vocative хмаро

Things are quite different in eng nouns. There are four theories concerning the case deveopment in Eng. They are:

- the theory of positional cases

- the theory of prepositional cases

- the theory of possessive close position

- limited case system

1)Theory of positional cases is based on analogy of latin grammar. Within this theory besides the inflected genetive case the nominative, D Acc Voc cases are recognized according to the position a noun occupies in phrases and sentences.

---e.g I saw the girl -Acc case

--- Come here, girl - Voc case

I gave the book to the girl. – Dative case

2) The theory of prepositional cases recognizes some inflectional prepositions .The noun with some prepositions are reguarded as different case forms in some attributive and objective phrases. It concerns the prepositions of + noun, (genetive case), to for + noun (dative case). This theory can hardly pass any serious linguistic trial because in noun declentional languages all prepositions by vertur of functional nature are combined with a particular case form ( so called prepositional govement). If so than any combination of a preposition + noun in Eng should be regarded as a specific case form. It results in recognizing practically unlimited number of cases in Eng nouns.

3) The theory of posessive clause position wa put forward by the russian linguist Vorontsova. Who thinks that the case category has got extinkt, with nouns losing all inflexions of case. It goes from this that Vorontsova doesn't recognize the apostrophy S morpheme as the inflexion of Genetive case. She considers the apostrophy S sign as a pure syntactic element resembling preposition. The only difference betveen apostrophy S sign and a preposition is that the appostrophy S is always in post position to the noun while preposition can have both left and right connections to the nouns.

In order to reject the case category in modern Eng nouns Vorontsova put forward arguments

1. Apostrophy S sign is optional, because the meaning rendered by it can be expressedothevise.

--- A mans voice - a voice of a man

2. The limited character of the apostrophy sign. The restricted usage of the apostrophy S sign is prooved by using only animate nouns in the genetive case form.

3. The loose character of the apostrophy sign which is prooved by the fact that this is the only morpheme tht can be attached not to a single noun but to the phrase and even the sentense.

4. The same inflexion of apostrophy S is added in the same form to singular and plural.

Contrarguments:

1. Not all phrases N S N can be replacer by a prpositional phrase. In numerous instances the transformation NSN is imposible

2. Modern eng fact show that inanimate nouns can also be used in genetive case. ( The churce's roof, the novel's heroes).

Acc to the lates data obtained in linguistics 96 percent of total use of genetive case is with single nouns. 4 percent illustrates the use of the apostrophy S morpheme with pronouns or phrases and sentences

3. In most cases app S morpheme solves the morphological representation of the genetive case. But in regular plurals and in ancient greek names the genetive case is represented by a zero morpheme.

4) Theory of the limited case system

Is most widely spread in G teaching of English. It was formulated by such scholars as Henry Sweet, Otto Jesperson, for the developed by prof. Parcudarov, Smirnitskiy and others. This theory starts from the assumption that the case category is sintectico morphological category in m.eng nouns because the category expresses the relations of a noun with other words in the sentence. It is represented by a binary private opposition of the common and genetive case. The common case is:

1, Morphologically unmarked (zero )

2. Semantically extensive (indefinite)

3. Functionally unlimite (noun in a common case can perform different functions)

The genetive case form is morph marked by appostrophy S morpheme which is represented by 3 phonemically conditioned allomorphs ( -s -z -iz) and may have zero representation in regular plurals and in the greek names.

It s semantically intensive. A moe concrete definite individual meaning.

The genetive case form is functionally limited. The only funktion of the dependive genetive is that an atribute of moduified noun.

There a 2 positional variant of genetive case:

- the dependent genetive

- the absolute independent genetive (without a modified noun)

There are 2 structural types of genetive case:

- group genetive

- double genetive (expressed twise)

( a college of my father's)