Case theory

In generative grammar , the term case theory describes a part of the theory of direction and attachment .

Case theory examines the areas in which cases occur and how cases are assigned to certain lexical categories. A distinction must first be made between an abstract case on the level of universal grammar and the morphological case on the level of the individual language . For example, English also has (abstract) cases, but these are only realized morphologically in the area of the pronouns: I ( nominative ), me ( accusative ), my ( genitive ); he , him , his.

Case filter

The Kasusfilter (case filter) states that every noun phrase must be one (and no more than one) assigned case; otherwise a sentence in which such a noun phrase is used is ungrammatic.

Case assignment

Which categories can assign cases differs from language to language. In general, verbs and prepositions can assign cases: help the friend ( dative ) , through the storm (accusative). In contrast, only in some languages, as in German, nouns and adjectives are able to assign cases: my brother's house (genitive), his mother (dative) similar . Nouns and adjectives as case allocators are alien to French, as the impossibility of * Elle est contente sa vie shows; Here the preposition (case assigner!) "de" is required to obtain a grammatically correct expression: Elle est contente de sa vie .

The direction in which the case assignment runs differs from language to language. In English the case is assigned to the right, in German, however, to the left. This becomes clear when assigning the accusative in the subordinate clause in the following example sentence: I think that he knows the answer (A); but not * I think he knows the answer (A), but I believe that the answer he (A) knows . In each of these sentences the verb "knows" or "sucht" assigns the accusative, to the right in English and to the left in German.

Adjacency condition

In some languages, such as English, the condition also applies that a complement is only assigned a case if it is directly next to the lexical head (i.e. the element that assigns the case), i.e. is adjacent : Martin did his homework yesterday , but not * Martin did yesterday his homework . For comparison, the German equivalent: Martin did his homework yesterday , and just as Martin did his homework yesterday . The adjacency condition does not apply in German.

The case of the subject

A case is also assigned to the subject ; however, not from the head of a verb phrase, but from the INFL node. In German, the subject is always assigned the nominative. The ergative languages show that this is not the case everywhere , where in certain cases the ergative rather than the nominative is assigned.

The case of complements

In all languages there is a case that verbs "by default" assign to their complements ; it is called an accusative or objective . This case cannot be assigned to nouns or adjectives: I write the letter (A), but not * I find it difficult to write the letter , but rather it is difficult for me to write the letter . For German, however, nouns can only assign the genitive anyway, so a look at Russian is more informative for the above restriction: Here the verb "leiten" assigns the instrumental ( руководить предприятием - to run a company ), and the noun "management" does the same ( руководство предприятием - the management of a company ). In the case of a verb that assigns the accusative, the corresponding noun - according to the above rule - cannot also assign the accusative; in fact the genitive is found here: написать тексты (accusative) - writing texts vs. написание текстов (genitive) - the writing of texts .

However, if the verb were to assign the accusative or objective as a case to its complement in all cases, then all verbs with an accusative object would have to appear in German, which is obviously not the case. The cases that are assigned in a specific case can be differentiated according to:

Inherent (oblique) case: They can either be assigned as a peculiarity of the lexeme ("follow" always assigns the dative case, "pursue" always the accusative) and are then also referred to as lexical case . Or they are tied to a certain semantic role ; To express the role of "instrument", the ablative serves as an inherent case in Latin .
structural case: the assignment is made depending on the grammatical function; The objective is assigned to the verb complement and the nominative to the subject (e.g. in German).

literature

Barry J. Blake: Case . 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 .
Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language . Stuttgart / Weimar: Verlag JB Metzler, 2000
Gisbert Fanselow / Sascha W. Felix: Language theory. An introduction to generative grammar. Volume 2: The Rection and Attachment Theory . Tübingen 1987 (UTB 1442)
Martin Haspelmath : Terminology of Case (PDF; 269 kB). In: A. Malchukov & A. Spencer (eds.), Handbook of Case , Oxford. (not published yet)