Lecture 7 The Noun. The Grammatical Category of Case

Case is the immanent morphological category of the noun manifested in the forms of noun declension and showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena. This category is expressed in English by the opposition of the form in ~'s |/, s, lz], usually called the possessive case, or more traditionally, the genitive case, to the featured form of the noun, usually called the common case. The apostrophized 41 serves to distinguish in writing the singular noun in the genitive case from the plural noun in the common case. E.g.: the man’s duty, the President's decision, Max’s letter. The genitive of the bulk of plural nouns remains phonetically unexpressed: the few exceptions concern only some of the irregular plurals: men’s duties, women’s dresses.

From the theoretical point of view the grammatical category of case presents some problem in connection with which the following four special views were advanced at various times.

1. The first view may be called the “theory of positional cases”. This theory is directly connected with the old grammatical tradition and its traces can be seen in many contemporary text-books for school in the English-speaking countries. This view was developed in the works of J.C.Nesfield, M.Deutschbein, M.Bryant and other scholar.

In accord with the theory of positional cases,The unchangeable forms of the noun are differentiated as different cases by virtue of the functional positions

occupicd by the noun in the sentence. Thus, the English noun, on the analogy of classical Latin grammar, would distinguish, besides the inflexional genitive case, also the non-inflexional, purely positional cases: nominative, vocative, dative, and accusative. For example:

The nominative case (subject to a verb): Rain falls.

The vocative case (address): Are you coming, my friend?

The dative case (indirect object): I gave John a penny.

The accusative case (direct object, and also prepositional object): The man killed a ra[. The earth is moistened by rain.

The drawback of this theory is quite obvious. It substitutes the functional characteristics of the part of the sentence for the morphological features of the word class. Moreover, the case form, by definition, is the variable morphological form of the noun which is characterized by presence or absence of a particular categorial feature. As for as the functional meanings rendered by cases they can be expressed in language by other grammatical means, in particular, by word- order.

2. The second view may be called “the theory of prepositional cases”. Like the theory of positional cases, it is also connected with the old school grammar teaching and was advanced as a logical supplement to the positional view of the case. In accord with the prepositional theory combinations of nouns with prepositions should be understood as morphological case forms. To these belong first of all the dative case (to + Noun, for + Noun) and the genitive case (of + Noun). These prepositions, according to G.Curme, are “inflexional prepositions”, i.e. grammatical elements equivalent to case-forms.

The prepositional theory, though somewhat better grounded, nevertheless was strictly criticized by scholars, for example, professor llish. First of all, the categorial status of the preposition as a structural independent part of speech is completely neglected within this theory. Second, in accord with the cited theory, all the other prepositional phrases must be regarded as “analytical cases”. And as a result of such an illogical redundancy in terminology this approach would be fruitful neither to the linguistic theory nor to the practical usage.

3. The third view of the English noun case recognizes a limited inflexional system of two cases in English, one of them featured and the other one unfeatured. This view may be called the “limited case theory”.

The limited case theory is at present most broadly accepted among linguists both in this country and abroad. It was formulated by such scholars as

8. Sweet, O.Jespersen and has since been radically developed by the Soviet scholars A.l.Smimitsky, L.S.Barkhudarov and others. The limited case theory in its modem representation is based on the oppositional approach. The functional mark -'s differentiates the two case forms: the possessive or genitive form as the strong member of the categorial opposition and the common or “non-genitive” form as the weak member of the categorial opposition.

The first type of reduction, consisting in the use of the absolute plural with countable nouns in the singular form, concerns collective nouns, which are changed into “nouns of multitude”.

The family were gathered round the table.

The government are unanimous in disapproving the move of the opposition.

This form of the absolute plural may be called “multitude plural”.

1. The second type of reduction, consisting in the use of the absolute plural with uncountable nouns in the plural form, concerns cases of stylistical marking of nouns. Thus, here we deals with transposition.

The sands of the desert, the snows of the Arctic, the waters of the Atlantic.

This variety of the absolute plural may be called “descriptive uncountable plural”.

2. The third type of oppositional reduction concerns common countable nouns used in repetition groups. The acquired implication is indefinitely large quantity. The nouns in repetition groups may themselves be used either in the plural or in the singular.

There were trees and trees all around us. I lit cigarette after cigarette.

This variety of the absolute plural may be called “repetition plural”.