Re: cases

> From: Mario Bonassin
>
> Hi
>
> I'm not a linguist but I am tring to create a language and I was
> wondering if there was a min. number of noun cases needed in a language
> to keep it clear.  is it better to have more or less affix cases etc.
One of the primary uses of case is discriminatory.  In intransitive
constructions there is only one argument (S-function) and, therefore, from a
functional viewpoint, no need to discriminate this NP from any other. In
transitive construction, however, there are two NPs (A-function and
P-function) requiring discrimination to avoid ambiguity.  When case is used
to disambiguate these, different cases are used to distinguish the
A-function from the P-function argument. Since it is never necessary to
distinguish morphologically between the S-function and the A-function
arguments, nor between the S-function and the P-function arguments, (they
never co-occur), either case could be used to mark S-function arguments.
This disambiguation would require a minimum of 2 cases.  Depending on how
these cases are distributed, one gets either a nom/acc cases system (S and A
using one case [nom], while P uses a different case [acc]) or an ergative
case system (S and P using one case [abs], while A uses a different case
[erg]).  Many other uses of case could be eliminated by using periphrastic
means.  Adpositions frequently substitute for locative cases for example.

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
    dbell@graywizard.net
    www.graywizard.net

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates