Case: case
| Values: | Acc | Abl | Dat | Gen | Ins | Loc | Nom |
Case is an inflectional feature of nouns and pronouns. It is also an inflectional feature of certain adpositions (and not a valency feature indicating that the adposition requires its argument to be in a particular case).
Case helps specify the role of the noun phrase in the sentence.
Here on the level of morphosyntactic features we are dealing with case expressed morphologically, i.e. by bound morphemes (affixes). The descriptions of the individual case values below include semantic hints about the prototypical meaning of the case. Bear in mind that quite often a case will be used for a meaning that is totally unrelated to the meaning mentioned here. Valency of verbs, adpositions and other words will determine that the noun phrase must be in a particular grammatical case to fill a particular valency slot (semantic role).
Armenian linguistics distinguishes between five (morphological) and seven (syntactic) cases: Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc, Abl, Ins and Loc (this ordering is fixed in the grammar).
Note that the direct object of the verb can be formed in nominative or dative (syntactic accusative), this is related to Animacy. They will be tagged Case=Nom and Case=Dat and not Case=Nom,Acc or Case=Gen,Dat as in some Armenian grammars.
The difference between Gen and Dat is related to definiteness. The Gen cannot have Definite=Def.
Note also that vocatives and noun modifiers in nominative or as a genitive complement in genitive cannot have Definite=Def. In these cases we declare Definite=Ind. Only this value will have also Ins, Abl and Loc cases.
Personal and some demonstrative pronouns distinguish between Case=Gen and Case=Dat. In genitive they will have Poss=Yes.
Examples
- singular nominative դպրոց/dproc’ “school”, dative դպրոցի(ն)/dproc’i(n), ablative դպրոցից/dproc’ic’, instrumental դպրոցով/dproc’ov, locative դպրոցում/dproc’owm
- singular nominative ժամանակ/žamanak “time”, dative ժամանակի(ն)/žamanaki(n), ժամանակվա(ն)/žamanakva(n), ablative ժամանակից, ժամանակվանից/žamanakic’, žamanakvanic’, instrumental ժամանակով/žamanakov, locative ժամանակում/žamanakowm
- singular nominative արյուն/aryown “blood”, dative արյան(ը)/aryan(ë), ablative արյունից/aryownic’, instrumental արյունով, արյամբ/aryownov, aryamb
- singular nominative մայր/mayr “mother”, dative մոր(ը)/mor(ë), ablative մորից/moric’, instrumental մորով/morov
Nom: nominative
The base form of the noun, also used as citation form (lemma). In Armenian this is the word form used for subjects of clauses, for direct objects of verbs and for addressing someone.
Examples
- դպրոց/dproc’ “school”
Gen: genitive
In many languages, the prototypical meaning of the genitive is that the noun phrase somehow belongs to its governor.
We recognize genitive only for possessive personal pronouns, certain demonstrative pronouns/determiners, and իր/ir “one’s own”.
Examples
- իր/ir “one’s own”
Dat: dative
This is the word form often used for indirect objects of verbs.
In Armenian, this form is also used for cases when the noun phrase somehow belongs to its governor (adnominal dative) or depends on the verb (adverbal dative), see above.
Examples
- պատվերներ պետք է տալ նորոգողներին/patverner petk’ ē tal norogoġnerin “orders should be give to the repairmen” (նորոգողներին “repairmen” is dative and պատվերներ “orders” is nominative),
- Երևանը Հայաստանի մայրաքաղաքն է։/Erewanë Hayastani mayrak’aġak’n ē “Yerevan is the capital of Armenia.”
Acc: accusative
Although accusative is one of the most widespread morphological cases cross-linguistically, we do not distinguish a separate morphological accusative. Direct objects are expressed by nominative or dative forms (see above).
Examples
- այդպիսի բաներ շատ են սիրում/aydpisi baner šat en sirowm “(they) like such things very much”
- Եղբայրս սիրում է Աննային։/Eġbayrs sirowm ē Annayin “My brother loves Anna.”
Abl: ablative
Prototypical meaning: direction from some point (object, location or time).
Examples
- սեղանից/seġanic’ “from the table”
- ծովափից/çovap’ic’ “from the beach”
- ամառվանից/amaṙvanic’ “from the summer”
Ins: instrumental
The role from which the name of the instrumental case is derived is that the noun is used as instrument to do something (as in գրել գրիչով/grel gričov “to write with a pen”). Many other meanings are possible, for example the instrumental is required and it includes the meaning expressed in other languages by adverbs of manner.
In Armenian the instrumental is also used for the agent-object in passive constructions (cf. the English preposition by, with).
Examples
- Օրինագիծը դժվարությամբ հաստատվեց։/Òrinagiçë džvarowt’yamb hastatvec’։ “The bill was approved with difficulty.”
- Գետնինը ծածկվեց ձյունով։/Getninë çaçkvec’ jyownov։ “The earth has been covered with snow.” (Passive example)
Loc: locative
The locative case often expresses location in space or time, which gave it its name. As elsewhere, non-locational meanings also exist and they are not rare. On the other hand, some location roles may be expressed using other cases (e.g. because those cases are required by a preposition).
Examples
- Նա 7-10 օր անցկացնելու է Հայաստանում։/Na 7-10 òr anc’kac’nelow ē Hayastanowm։ “He/She will spend 7-10 days in Armenia.”
- փլվեց տասը օրում/p’lvec’ tasë òrowm “it collapsed in ten days”
Case in other languages: [am] [apu] [arr] [axm] [bej] [bg] [cs] [ctn] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [ga] [gn] [gor] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [ka] [kmr] [koi] [kpv] [ky] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [oge] [pal] [pcm] [ps] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [uz] [xcl] [xmf] [yrk]