12.The English noun. The category of case.

Case is a category of a noun expressing relations between the thing denoted by the noun and other things, or properties, or actions and manifested(проявляется) by some formal sign in the noun itself.

Etymologically the word case means 'a falling away'. The origin of this lies in Latin conception that all cases fell away or developed from the nominative. Historically the grammatical system of English suffered a loss of case as in Old English, for example, there existed a complex system of case. The sentence Se cniht geaf geif-e þæs hierd-es sun-e (The youth /N/ gave gift /Acc/ the shepherd /G/ son /D/) contains all the four cases: the Nominative, the Genitive, the Dative and the Accusative. By the 15^th century English had lost practically all case endings.

The general view is that English nouns have two cases: the common case and the genitive (or possessive case). According to other points of view the number of cases in English is more than two, or there are no cases with the English noun.

Means rendering(представление) case relations in English are: morphological means, word order (context) and prepositions. So arises the problem of analytical cases.

Some linguists claim that word-combinations with prepositions in Modern English should be treated as analytical cases. Max Deutschbein, a German scientist, found out four cases in English: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. According to this point of view expressions like 'of the book' present an analytical genitive case, 'to the man' – analytical dative case, etc.

But there are arguments which contradict this theory:

1. each analytical form is made up of at least two elements one of which is functional, and the other is notional. Regarding the above-mentioned combinations as analytical cases it is only logical to say that the first element, the preposition, is a grammatical word-morpheme devoid of any lexical meaning. This is incorrect.

2. if we include all possible word-combinations with prepositions into the system of cases the number of oppositions representing the category will increase substantially, and the number of cases will seem unlimited.

3. analytical forms are usually included into the paradigms containing synthetic forms: read – reads – is reading. Prepositional constructions are usually synonymous with synthetic forms.

e. g. my mother's sister = the sister of my mother

the garden wall = the wall of the garden

Besides, examples of the type 'a friend of John's' present double-case forms then.

d) the choice of prepositions is often a personal matter of the speaker.

There is a point of view denying cases in English. G.N. Vorontsova, B.A. Ilyish put forward the following arguments to prove that –'s is not a case morpheme:

1. the use of –'s is optional. One can equally use my sister's and of my sister. (Cf. Russ. моей сестры).

2. the group of nouns to which –'s can be attached is limited. This group includes nouns denoting living beings (e. g. the cat's paws), time (e. g. a week's delay), and some substantivized adverbs (e. g. yesterday's news).

3. one and the same morpheme functions in the singular and in the plural (e. g. child's, children's).and so on.

4. in the plural the morpheme is added only to the old plural forms (oxen's).

5. –'s is applied not only to nouns but also to adverbs (e. g. yesterday's events), word groups (e. g. my brother-in-law's visit), clauses (e. g. the man I saw in the morning's face).

Most linguists, however, admit the existence of two cases in English. This can be proved by the following:

1. the morpheme –'s is mostly attached to individual nouns, in comparison with noun-groups (96 per cent). Besides, such groups can be sometimes easily treated as one word: a good-for-nothing-young-man's hat.

2. its meaning is a typical case meaning – 'the relation of a thing denoted by a noun to other things denoted by other words'.

3. the zero form of the possessive case with some plural nouns (e. g. boy's ― boys') can not serve as a counterargument(возражение) against the existence of cases in English because: the meaning of the zero morpheme in the plural is identical with that of the singular; their distribution is complementary.

4. the fact that the meaning of the possessive case limits its usage only proves that (not like prepositions) it cannot function freely but only to reveal a certain category meaning. Theoretically it is possible with all nouns.

5. phonetically it differs from prepositions in not having a vowel in its structure which does not allow the morpheme –'s to function independently.