Re: Case
| From: | Padraic Brown <pbrown@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, July 16, 1999, 2:42 |
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On Thu, 15 Jul 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:
> Padraic Brown wrote:
> > It has four by mine.
>
> Not this again! :-) As I said last time we had this debate - English
> has two MORPHOLOGICAL cases, and four SYNTACTIC cases
Now, Nik, at least _I_ didn't bring it up! But once it's brought up ...
>
> > I suppose one could
> > argue that, for ex., Spanish nouns don't have case: when the need arises
> > for specifying the nouns function within the sentence, you simply pick the
> > correct preposition.
>
> Well, by the argument you have for four in English, Spanish would have
> two - nominative and accusative, which is sometimes marked by _a_
Well, I only _supposed_; and wasn't intent on connecting the two parts in
that way, but OK. I also suppose one could argue 5 Latin cases (with an
occasional appearance by the vocative making for six). :) It's been done
with English as well.
Padraic.