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§ 7. The category of case.

Case is the form of the noun (or pronoun) built up by means of inflexion, which indicates the relations of the noun (or pronoun) to the other words in the sentence.

The noun in Modern English has two cases: the common case and the genitive case.

The Common Case

The common case in English is characterized by the zero-inflexion: a girl, a child, a garden, a tree etc.

The common case has a very general and indefinite meaning. The noun in the common case may have various functions in the sentence, which are defined syntactically by means of word order and prepositions.

The common case falls under: the nominative case and the objective case.

A noun in the nominative case can be used as a subject or a predicative of the sentence:

My brother (SUBJECT) is a student (PREDICATIVE).

The noun, which follows the predicate verb, is usually the direct object:

The old woman… lifted the child (DIRECT OBJECT)… (Galsworthy)

Placed between the transitive verb and its direct object the noun is the indirect object:

I wish Jane (INDIRECT OBJECT) success with all my heart. (Austin)

Preceded by a preposition the noun may be a prepositional indirect object or an adverbial modifier of place or direction:

I hand the first book to my mother (INDIRECT PREPOSITIONAL OBJECT). (Dickens)

Paul went… to the orchard (ADVERBIAL MODIFIER). (Lawrence)

The Genitive (Possessive) Case

The possessive case represents in Modern English the Old English genitive case but it is much narrower in its meaning and function, it expresses possession with various shades of meaning depending on the lexical meaning of the words. In Modern English the use of the possessive case is restricted chiefly to nouns denoting living beings and its syntactical function is exclusively that of an attribute:

The Blind Girl, greatly agitated, rose, and led the Carrier’s little wife

aside. (Dickens) Annette’s clear eyes opened…(Galsworthy)

With nouns denoting inanimate things and abstract notions the possessive case relation is rendered in English by of-phrase (which then is an equivalent of the possessive case):

…the first light of the winter dawn crept round the edges of the blinds. (Shaw) The door of his room was open… (Galsworthy)

The of-phrase may also be used with nouns denoting living beings:

The father of Keesh had been a very brave man…(London)

1. The possessive case is formed by adding -'s (the apostrophe s) to the noun in the singular and only ' (the apostrophe)-to plural forms ending in -s.

singular: a girl's book

plural: a girls' school

Note 1. Nouns forming the plural by changing the root vowel take the apostrophe both in the singular and in the plural:

singular: a man's hat

plural: men's hats

Note 2. Nouns ending in -s form the genitive case in two ways:

Dickens' novels,

Dickens's novels.

Note 3. Sometimes the apostrophe s may refer to a whole group of words (the group-genitive):

This is Jane and Mary's room.

The last word of the group need not even be a noun:

I shall be back in an hour or two's time.

As to its use the genitive case falls under:

  1. The Dependent Genitive (Possessive)

  2. The Absolute Genitive (Possessive)

The Dependent Genitive (Possessive) is used with the noun it modifies and comes before it.

The Absolute Genitive (Possessive) may be used without any noun or be separated from the noun it modifies.

A. The Dependent Genitive.

1. The chief meaning of the genitive (possessive) case is that of possession:

…a young man and a girl came out of the solicitor's office.

(Braine)

He stayed at Fanny's flat. (Aldington)

2. Very close to the meaning of possession is that of a part to a whole:

A faint smile had come on Victorine's face - she was adding up

the money she might earn. (Galsworthy)

His sister's eyes fixed on him with certain astonishment obliged

him at last to look at Fleur. (Galsworthy)

3. The Dependent Genitive (Possessive) may express the doer of an action (the so-called subjective genitive) or show that some person is the object of the action (the so-called objective genitive):

It was Tom's step, then, that Maggie heard on the steps. (Eliot)

Gwendolyn’s reception in the neighborhood fulfilled her uncle's expectations. (Eliot)

4. The noun in the genitive (possessive) case may denote qualitative rela­tions:

He looked ever so much smarter in his new officer's clothes with

the little blue chevron... (Aldington)

The use of the genitive (possessive) case of nouns denoting inanimate things and abstract notions is rather limited.

The genitive (possessive) case of nouns denoting inanimate things may denote the relations between a part and the whole.

... the sudden shaking of an aspen's leaves in the puffs of breeze that rose along the river... (Galsworthy)

He stepped on the truck's running board hanging on with his left arm. (Heym)

The genitive (possessive) case of nouns expressing time, distance and weight is widely used.

From the depot he was sent to the officers' training camp with two days' leave. (Aldington)

They both quite took to him again and during his month's leave gave him a good time. (Aldington)

There is a remnant still of the last year's golden clusters... (Eliot)

The three of us had had dinner, and walked down past the theatre to the river's edge. (Snow)

The genitive (possessive) case is used in some set expressions: for heaven's (God's) sake; to one's heart's delight; at one's wit's end; a stone's throw); a hair's breadth etc.

When Saturday came round I was at my wit’s end. (Cronin)

The genitive (possessive) case is often used with the nouns town, city, country, river, water, ocean, wind, world etc.

And the wind’s rustle was so gentle…(Galsworthy)

B. The Absolute Genitive.

1. The Absolute Genitive may be used anaphorically. If the noun, which is modified by the possessive case, has already been mentioned and is clear from the context, it may be omitted.

Mrs. Moss's face bore a faded resemblance to her brother's. (Eliot).

The face Michael drew began by being Victorine's and ended by being

Fleur's. (Galsworthy.)

2. The Absolute Genitive may have local meaning: the station­er's, the baker's, the tobacconist's, my uncle's etc.

On her way home she usually bought a slice of honey-cake at the baker's. (Mansfield)

My dear," said the lace collar she secured from Partridge's, I fit you beautifully." (Dreiser).

The Absolute Genitive may be introduced by the preposition of.

She is a relation of the Colonel's. (Austen)

Chapter II

THE ARTICLE