Case: case
| Values: | Core: | Nom | Erg | Dat | |||
| Non-core: | Gen | All | Abl | Ben | Ins | Ess | |
Case is an inflectional feature of nouns, proper nouns, pronouns, adjectives, numerals and verbs that mark agreement with nouns or verbs.
Case can also be a lexical feature of adpositions and describe the case meaning that the adposition contributes to the nominal in which it appears.
Case helps specify the role of the noun phrase in the sentence. In Megrelian, with regards to noun-verb concord, nominative and dative cases mark either subject or oblique grammatical functions, while the ergative case always marks subjects. In addition to their use to mark the agent of an action, the nominative and dative cases are also used to mark the patient.
On the level of morphosyntactic features the case expressed morphologically is always represented by bound morphemes (suffixes).
Nom: nominative case
The base form of the noun, typically used as citation form (lemma). This is the word form used for subject or object of clauses.
Examples
- ორთვინი (ɔrtvini) ‘vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგი (d͡ʒɔɡi) ‘herd’ etc.
Erg: ergative case
The ergative case marks subject of transitive verb.
Examples
- ორთვინქ (ɔrtvink) ‘vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგიქ (d͡ʒɔɡik) ‘herd’ etc.
Dat: dative case
The dative case marks subject or object of clauses.
Examples
- ორთვინს (ɔrtvins) ‘to the vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგის (d͡ʒɔɡis) ‘to the herd’ etc.
Gen: genetive case
Prototypical meaning of genitive is that the noun phrase somehow belongs to its governor.
Examples
- ორთვინიშ (ɔrtviniʃ) ‘of the vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგიშ (d͡ʒɔɡiʃ) ‘of the herd’ etc.
All: allative / adlative case
The allative is a grammatical case that indicates movement toward or in the direction of something.
Examples
- ორთვინიშა (ɔrtviniʃɑ) ‘to the vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგიშა (d͡ʒɔɡiʃɑ) ‘to the herd’ etc.
Abl: ablative case
The ablative is a grammatical case that expresses movement away from, out of, or from a place, source, or point of origin.
Examples
- ორთვინიშე (ɔrtviniʃɛ) ‘from the vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგიშე (d͡ʒɔɡiʃɛ) ‘from the herd’ etc.
Ben: ablative case
The benefactive is a grammatical case or construction that indicates that something is done for the benefit of someone or something.
Examples
- ორთვინიშო(თ) (ɔrtviniʃɔ(t)) ‘for the vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგიშო(თ) (d͡ʒɔɡiʃɔ(t)) ‘for the herd’ etc.
Ins: instrumental case
The instrumental case reflects that the noun is used as instrument to do something.
Examples
- ორთვინით (ɔrtvinit) ‘for the vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგით (d͡ʒɔɡit) ‘for the herd’ etc.
Ess: essive case
The forms in the essive case express a relation of place, time, manner, etc. and meet the often-given definition of adverbs as words or phrases used to modify and/or qualify nouns, adjectives and verbs. The language-specific term used in Georgian is adverbial case.
Examples
- ორთვინო (ɔrtvinɔ) ‘to the vegetable garden’ etc.
- ჯოგო (d͡ʒɔɡɔ) ‘to the herd’ etc.
Case in other languages: [am] [apu] [arr] [bej] [bg] [cs] [ctn] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [ga] [gn] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [ka] [kmr] [koi] [kpv] [ky] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [pcm] [ps] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [uz] [xcl] [xmf] [yrk]