COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Semester 2 (2021)

ASSIGNMENT III

Topic:
Comparative Case Structure with respect to Morphology
(German, English, Marathi)

Professor: Dr. Anagha Bhat Behere

Student: Swaminee Moye (MA German)

Savitribai Phule Pune University

INTRODUCTION

Grammatical case is a linguistic feature that changes the form (morphology) of a word to
denote the “role” that that word plays in a sentence. If a language has a number of
grammatical cases that denote a variety of roles, that language is said to have a case system.
It is important to keep in mind that case is both a morphological and a syntactic category. It
basically refers to the grammatical function of a noun or of a pronoun in a sentence

Case refers to the relation that one word has to another in a sentence, i.e., where one word
“falls” in relationship to another. The word comes from a Latin word meaning “falling, fall.”
In other modern languages, adjectives have case, but in English, case applies only to nouns
and pronouns. In many languages word order and prepositions are not the main ways to show
the function of the noun. The form of the noun might change or a special ending might be
added to the word to its function in the sentence.

The most common grammatical cases are nominative, accusative and genitive. Nominative
case generally indicates the subject of a sentence (i.e a person or thing doing the action)
Nominative Case can also indicate the thing that the subject is equivalent to. The changes
made to the form of a word to show grammatical differences are called inflections.
Accusative Case generally indicates the direct object of a verb. Genitive case generally
indicates that one noun is being modified by another one, often to show possession. The
dative case which is generally used for a noun which receives something, something moves
towards that noun. Locative case is used to indicate a location. In English we use separate
preposition like at, in or on to show location. Instrumental case is used for a noun that is used
a tool or means of completing action. These are some of the most common cases. The form of
the noun or the pronoun changes depending on its function in the sentence. Sometimes cases
apply not only to nouns but also to words that are connected to them like adjectives and
articles. Words have particular functions in all languages, but only in certain languages do
they commonly indicate these functions with changes to the form of the word. When talking
about languages that do so we often talk about noun cases or case endings. But the important
thing to remember is that not only noun but also pronouns, which represent nouns, and also
adjectives, which modify nouns, and articles, which show whether nouns are definite or
indefinite can be inflicted for case.
A.) CASE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Modern English has four cases:

1. Nominative (also called subjective)

2. Accusative (also called objective)

3. Genitive (also called possessive)

4. Vocative

1. Nominative/Subjective Case

When a noun is used as a) the subject of a verb or b) the complement of a being verb, it is
said to be in the subjective or nominative case.

For example: - The king laughed heartily.

King is a noun in the subjective case because it is the subject of the verb laughed.Few
more examples are: -

 Claudia works in the accounting department.

 She works hard for the company.

 I love to bake cakes in my free time.

2. Accusative/Objective Case

When a noun is used as the object of a verb or the object of a preposition, it is said to be
in the objective or accusative case.

For example: - The king subdued his enemies.

Enemies is a noun in the objective case because it receives the action of the transitive verb
subdued; it is the direct object of subdued.
Few more examples are: -

 She ate the chocolates.

In this example, chocolates is the object and it has a direct relationship to verb ate, so this
is an objective case.

 He loves animals.
 Robert follows Petra.

3. Genitive/Possessive Case

Of the three noun cases, only the possessive case is inflected (changes the way it is
spelled). Possessive cases indicate a relationship of possession or belongingness between
two nouns or a noun and a pronoun. Nouns in the possessive case are inflected by the
addition of an apostrophe–with or without adding an “s.”

For example: -

The boy’s shoe is untied.

Boy’s is a singular noun in the possessive case.

The boys’ shoes are untied.

Boys’ is a plural noun in the possessive case.

 Mark’s house is near the river.

 That is Adam’s phone.

4. Vocative Case

There is another kind of case. It is called the vocative case. This case is similar to the
subjective case in term of spelling. The vocative case indicates a person being addressed
directly by his/her name. This name is separated by a comma.
  William, could you please open the door.

 Listen to me Kenny.

 How are you doing, Rachel?

The change in pronoun in different cases: -

B.) CASE STRUCTURE IN GERMAN

 German Nouns Have Genders

The first thing to know about German nouns is that they have genders. For native English
speakers, this is an entirely new concept.

For example: 

 the dog: der Hund

 the cat: die Katze

 the horse: das Pferd 

As you can see, German nouns can have one of three genders: 

 der (masculine form of “the”)

 die (feminine form of “the”)

  das (neuter form of “the”)

In addition to having a gender, a noun's article changes depending on if it's a subject, object,
direct object, or indirect object. The four German cases are nominative, accusative, dative,
and genitive.

1. The German Nominative Case (Der Nominativ)

The nominative case- in both German and in English, is the subject of a sentence. The

nominative case answers the question, “wer?” or “who?”

For example:

 Der Hund beißt den Mann. (The dog bites the man.)

 Dieser Gedanke  ist blöd. (This thought is stupid.)
 Meine Mutter ist Architektin. (My mother is an architect.)

Thus, the nominative case describes the subject of a sentence. The nominative case can
follow the verb "to be," as in the last example. The verb "is" acts like an equal sign (my
mother = architect). But the nominative is most often the subject of a sentence.

2. The Accusative Case (Der Akkusativ)

The accusative case, known as the objective case in English, answers the question “wen?” or
“whom?” and describes the direct object of a sentence. 

In German, the masculine singular articles der and ein change to den and einen in the
accusative case. The feminine, neuter and plural articles do not change. The masculine
pronoun er (he) changes to ihn (him), in much the same way as it does in English. In the
examples below, the accusative (direct object) noun and pronoun are in bold:

 Der Hund beißt den Mann. (The dog bites the man.)

  Er beißt  ihn. (He [the dog] bites him [the man].)
 Den Mann beißt der Hund. (The dog bites the man.)
 Beißt der Hund  den Mann? (Is the dog biting the man?)
 Beißt den Mann  der Hund? (Is the dog biting the man?)

Note how the order of the words may change, but as long as you have the proper accusative
articles, the meaning remains clear. 

The direct object (accusative) functions as the receiver of the action of a transitive verb. In
the examples above, the man is acted upon by the dog, so he receives the action of the subject
(the dog). To give a few more transitive verb examples, when you buy (kaufen) something or
have (haben) something, the "something" is the direct object. The subject (the person buying
or having) is acting on that object.

3. The Dative Case (Der Dativ)

The dative case is a vital element of communicating in German. In English, the dative case is

known as the indirect object. Unlike the accusative, which only changes with the masculine
gender, the dative changes in all genders and even in the plural. The pronouns also change
correspondingly. In addition to its function as the indirect object, the dative is also used after
certain dative verbs and with dative prepositions The dative case describes the indirect object
of a sentence in German and English and answers the question, “wem?” (whom/ to whom),
or also “was?” (what).

For example:

 Der Polizist gibt dem Fahrer  einen Strafzettel. (The policeman is giving the driver a

ticket.)
 Ich danke  Ihnen. (I thank you.)
 Wir machen das mit einem Computer. (We do that with a computer.)

The indirect object (dative) is usually the receiver of the direct object (accusative). In the first
example above, the driver got the ticket. Often, the dative can be identified by adding a "to"
in the translation, such as "the policeman gives the ticket to the driver." 

4. The Genitive (Der Genitiv)

The genitive case in German shows possession. In English, this is expressed by the
possessive "of" or an apostrophe with an "s" ('s). The genitive case is also used with some
verb idioms and with the genitive prepositions.

The genitive is used more frequently in written German than in spoken form: It's essentially
the equivalent of English speakers using the word "whose" or "whom." In spoken, everyday
German, von plus the dative often replaces the genitive. For example: 

 Das Auto von meinem Bruder. (My brother's car or literally, the car from/of my
brother.)

You can tell that a noun is in the genitive case by the article, which changes to des/eines (for
masculine and neuter) or der/einer (for feminine and plural). Since the genitive only has two
forms (des or der), you only need to learn those two. However, in the masculine and neuter,
there is also an additional noun ending, either -es or -s. In the examples below, the genitive
word or expression is in bold.

 Das Auto meines Bruders (my brother's car or the car of my brother)

 Die Bluse  des Mädchens (the girl's blouse or the blouse of the girl)
 Der Titel des Filmes/Films (the film's title or the title of the film)

Feminine and plural nouns do not add an ending in the genitive. The feminine genitive
(der/einer) is identical to the feminine dative. The one-word genitive article usually translates
as two words ("of the" or "of a/an") in English.

C.) CASE STRUCTURE IN MARATHI

There are 7 cases in Marathi: nominative, genitive, accusative–dative, instrumental, ablative,

locative, and vocative. All cases, except the vocative, are marked by postpositions. In
grammar, case relates noun or pronoun to the verb present in a sentence. In order to do that,
noun or pronoun is distorted/inflected to match with the action of the verb. or example

1. राम मारतो. (Ram kills)

2. रामाने मारले . (Ram killed)
 3. रामाने रावणाला मारले . (Ram killed Ravana)
4. रामाने रावणाला बाणाने मारले . (Ram killed Ravana by an arrow)

The highlighted letters are called case endings that show how subject or object is altered to
relate itself to the action.

The change in endings for different cases in Marathi:

 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CASE STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH,

GERMAN AND MARATHI

Based on my research about the case structure in the 3 languages- English, German and
Marathi, I have derived some inferences, on the basis of which we can compare the
similarities and differences. The Nominative case, that is the subject of the sentence is what I
found was common in all the 3 languages. Since it is the subject of the sentence, there are no
changes in the noun form. The accusative or the objective case convey the same meaning in
all the all these 3 languages, it describes the direct object in the sentence and answers the
question ‘whom’. There are no morphological changes in the English language when we use
the accusative case. But in German there are noticeable changes in the article. These changes
make it very easy to recognize the accusative case because of the specific endings.
Unlike English, it is not mandatory to keep the positions of the subject and object constant in
German. The change in position will not affect the meaning of the sentence, because of the
inflection of the articles and pronouns. In Marathi on the other hand, we can observe the
postposition for the accusative case. This aspect of postposition is very common in Marathi
when it comes to case structure. This phenomenon is known as ‘vibhakti pratayay’ in
Marathi. It is nothing but the changes made in the noun form or the pronoun while
demonstrating the relation between the two words in a sentence. To endings which are used
to demonstrate the relation of a noun and a pronoun to the verb and other aspects of the
sentence is known as ‘vibhakti’. And ‘pratyay’ is nothing but a suffix. I find this concept
very similar to what we have in the German language. The inflection in the article indicates
the case change. The dative case is a grammatical case for nouns and pronouns. The case
shows a noun’s or pronoun’s relationship to other words in the sentence. It also shows the
relationship of an indirect object to a verb. In English language nouns do not change their
forms for the dative case, but there are changes in the pronouns. For example: - he changes to
him, she changes to her, etc. In German there are changes in Gender, that is the article and the
corresponding pronoun. Dative case answers the question ‘to whom’ and similar to the
German language it is indicated by the suffix which is added to the Noun. The Genitive or
the possessive case is used to show possession or ownership. The nouns in the possessive
case are inflected by adding an apostrophe ‘s’. In German there are changes in the articles or
the word ‘von’ (of) is added to show ownership. In Marathi it is again simply indicated by a
suffix which is attached to the noun whose ownership we want to show.

What I found surprising and interesting through this research is that there are many
similarities in the case structure or the adpostions when it comes to German and Marathi.
Having learnt Sanskrit, I also found a close relation of that to the case structure in Sanskrit
language. But English is a bit different from these 3 languages. I observed that English is a
bit complicated when it comes to case structure because it is a bit rigid when it comes to
changing the positions of the words in a sentence. But in German and Marathi that can be
done very easily because of endings or the suffixes or changes in the articles and nouns itself.
As long as we use the proper accusative articles the sequence of the words in flexible. I
thoroughly enjoyed doing this research which also helped me gain some insights in this topic
would love to research and read more about this topic further.
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http://mindurmarathi.com/cases-in-marathi/