Case Study (No Pun Intended...)

Understanding Case: Summation of Chapter 4 of Peter S. Baker's

Introduction to Old English
Case is the inflection or change in nouns, pronouns and adjectives that represents or indicates meaning in a sentence. Simply, changing the form (word ending, spelling, pronunciation, etc…) of a word changes its meaning or function in a particular sentence.

In Modern English, we usually see three different case forms: subjective, objective and possessive.

These case forms are direct descendants from Old English forms, which numbers five: nominative (Modern English subjective), accusative (Modern English objective), genitive (Modern English possessive), dative (Modern English objective), and instrumental (Modern English objective).

WARNINGS about determining functions of nouns, pronouns and adjectives in Old English Sentences:
· Unlike in modern English, you will not necessarily be able to determine case by word ending
· In Modern English, word order is essential to understand what a noun, pronoun or adjective is doing in a sentence. In Old English, word order is more flexible. It may or may not help determine meaning of a sentence.
· Old English words have no more than six forms, even though there is a singular and plural for each form of case…

Functions of Each Case

Nominative: The nominative case will be used for: any subject of a sentence; the complement in a sentence (the word paired with verbs of being/linking verbs); and direct address of a person by name or title.

Accusative: Used in direct objects of transitive verbs and objects of prepositions. It can be used as an adverb expressing time.

Genitive: Genitive case modifies or limits a word by associating it with something (as in the king’s sword, the word sword would be modified to genitive case).

There are 3 categories of genitives: possessive, indicating possession or association; partitive, which represents a whole collection of things to which a certain thing belongs; and descriptive, which names or gives a quality to a thing.

Dative: Serves a variety of functions, including but not limited to: object of a preposition; indicating interest in the outcome of the action; situations in which something has been taken away; some direct objects; some indications of possession; expressions of comparison and indications of instrument, means and manner (as in with and by, etc…).

Instrumental: Already disappearing when Old English was being transcribed, however the instrumental case may be used in indicating instrument, means and manner; accompaniment; and expressions of time.