THE CASE OF NOUNS

Lecture 4
 English and Bulgarian pronouns in
subject and object position
English Bulgarian
Subject Object Subject Object
(nominative) (accusative) (nominative) (accusative)
1p.sg. I 1p.sg. me 1p.sg. аз 1p.sg. мен (ме)
2p.sg. you 2p.sg. you 2p.sg. ти 2p.sg. теб (те)
3p.sg. 3p.sg. him/her/it 3p.sg. 3p.sg. него (го)
he/she/it той/тя/то нея (я)
него (го)
1p.pl. we 1p.pl. us 1p.pl. ние 1p.pl. нас (ни)
2p.pl. you 2p.pl. you 2p.pl. вие 2p.pl. вас (ви)
3p.pl. they 3p.pl. them 3p.pl. те 3p.pl. тях (ги)
 Defining the Category

▣ Case is a grammatical category expressing various

relations of the noun to other elements in the
sentence structure or in the structure of the phrase.

▣ English: common ↔ genitive.

▣ The common case form is unmarked.
▣ The genitive case form is marked by the –‘s grammatical
ending: the teacher’s pencil, the children’s pencil, Jack
and Jill’s adventure, the students’ papers
Proper nouns in –s can be marked in two
ways:

▣ either ‘s or apostrophe

▣ Example: Burns’s poems or Burns’ poems

▣ but the ending should be pronounced [iz] in both

cases
 The genitive case forms express relations
between two nouns:
Jane’s brother; my sister’s house.

▣ The inflected genitive is common with animate

nouns:
▣ - personal names – Dr. Brown’s students;
▣ - personal nouns – my father’s watch;
▣ - collective improper nouns – the party’s political
platform;
▣ - higher animals – the lion’s cage;
 The inflected genitive is also used with some
inanimate nouns:

▣ - geographical names – Bulgaria’s past;

▣ - names of institutions – the Chamber of Trade
and Industry’s Premises;
▣ - temporal nouns – a two months’ holiday;
▣ - nouns of distance – a three miles’ walk;
▣ - in some set phrases – at a stone’s throw; within
arm’s reach;
 The uses of the ‘s (inflected) genitive and the
of- (periphrastic) genitive overlap to a
considerable degree.

▣ But the two structures cannot always replace each

other.
▣ The inflected form is common in headlines,
captions and titles. This is due to its brevity and the
prominence it gives to the noun:
‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’
 Structural Types of Genitive Phrase

▣ the Group Genitive – the case marking refers to a

group of nouns or a NP – the United States’ policy
▣ If it is a group of nouns, the marker is added to the
last one – Mary and Paul’s home.

▣ It shows certain independence of the marker which

can be likened to that of the article.
▣ the Double Genitive – the relation between the
two nouns is marked twice –
1. by means of case ending and
2. the preposition of
a friend of my brother’s
(one of my brother’s friends)
▣ It is used whenever another determiner besides
the genitive is needed:
a friend of Tom’s, an old song of Greene's,
a book of John's
▣ the Independent Genitive – the head noun is
omitted if the context makes it possible for the
addressee to recover the relation
Ann’s office is larger than Tom’s.
My car is faster than John's (=John 's car).

▣ the independent genitive is also called elliptic

▣ The genitive here is an elliptical variant of the
noun phrase.
▣ the local genitive phrase – this is a variety
of the elliptic type

▣ The omitted noun refers to buildings or

establishments.
at St. Paul’s (Cathedral);
at the newsagent’s

▣ In conclusion