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).
Western Armenian linguistics distinguishes between four (morphological) and six (syntactic) cases: Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc, Abl and Ins.
For nouns, the difference between Gen and Dat is related to definiteness. The Gen cannot have Definite=Def. Personal pronouns, however, distinguish the two cases morphologically. In genitive they will have Poss=Yes. Likewise, the nominative and accusative are morphologically distinct only in the paradigms of certain pronouns.
Note also that vocatives and noun modifiers in nominative cannot have Definite=Def. In these cases we declare Definite=Ind.
Examples
- singular nominative դպրոց/dproc’ “school”, dative դպրոցի(ն)/dproc’i(n), ablative դպրոցէ/dproc’ē, instrumental դպրոցով/dproc’ov,
- singular nominative ժամանակ/žamanak “time”, dative ժամանակի(ն)/žamanaki(n), ժամանակվա(ն)/žamanakva(n), ablative ժամանակէ/žamanakē, instrumental ժամանակով/žamanakov,
- singular nominative արիւն/ariwn “blood”, dative արիւնի, արեան/ariwni, arean, ablative արիւնէ/ariwnē, instrumental արիւնով/ariwnov
- singular nominative մայր/mayr “mother”, dative մօր(ը)/mòr(ë), ablative մօրէ/mòrē, instrumental մօրով/mòrov
Nom: nominative
The base form of the noun, also used as citation form (lemma). In Western 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 and the emphatic pronoun իր/ir “one’s own” (see above).
Examples
- իր/ir “one’s own”
- անոր/anor “his/her”
- մեր/mer “our”
Dat: dative
This is the word form often used for indirect objects of verbs.
In Western 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
- գրականութիւնը կրնայ ծառայել զանգուածին ալ շահերուն/grakanowt’iwnë krnay çaṙayel zangowaçin al šaherown “Literature can also serve the interests of the masses”
- կը սկսին Քէսապի լեռներուն եւ ձորերուն հրաշալի տեսարանները/kë sksin K’ēsapi leṙnerown ew jorerown hrašali tesarannerë “The wonderful scenery of Kassab’s mountains and valleys unfolds.”
Acc: accusative
Although accusative is one of the most widespread morphological cases cross-linguistically, Western Armenian does not distinguish a separate morphological accusative. Direct objects are expressed by nominative forms (see above).
Examples
- այդպիսի բաներ շատ են սիրում/aydpisi baner šat en sirowm “(they) like such things very much”
- Կը սիրէ՞ր արդեօք այն երիտասարդը, որ իր ամուսինը եղած էր/Kë sirē՞r ardeòk’ ayn eritasardë, or ir amowsinë eġaç ēr “Did she really love the young man who was her husband?”
Abl: ablative
Prototypical meaning: direction from some point (object, location or time).
Examples
- գիւղէն/giwġēn “from the village”
- մակերեսէն/makeresēn “from the surface”
- պայքարելէ/payk’arelē “from struggling”
- սկիզբէն/skizbēn “from the beginning”
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 ջուրով լուալ/ǰowrov lowal “to wash with water”). 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 Western Armenian the instrumental is also used for the agent-object in passive constructions (cf. the English preposition by, with).
Examples
- արհամարհանքով կ՚ըսէին/arhamarhank’ov k՚ësēin “They used to say with contempt.”
- մազերը երկար կտրուած են եւ սանտրով մը բռնուած գլխուն ետեւը/mazerë erkar ktrowaç en ew santrov më bṙnowaç glxown etewë “The hair is cut long and held at the back of the head with a comb.” (Passive example)
Loc: locative
The locative case is not part of the regular case system of Modern Western Armenian. However, forms exhibiting locative morphology occasionally occur in the corpus, particularly under the influence of Eastern Armenian, in quotations, and in forms preserved from earlier stages of the language. Such forms are annotated with Case=Loc to reflect their morphological characteristics, even though the locative is not productive in Western Armenian. Forms originating from Eastern Armenian are additionally marked with LangId=Hy, while archaic forms are marked with Style=Arch.
Examples
- կեանքում/keankʼowm “in life” (LangId=Hy)
- ընդ որում/ënd orowm “moreover” (Style=Arch)
Case in other languages: [am] [apu] [arr] [axm] [bej] [bg] [ce] [cs] [ctn] [dar] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [ga] [gn] [gor] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [hyw] [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]