Re: OT: sorta OT: cases: please help...

Far from a stupid question, I myself asked for help on this when I joined
the list last year. And though I am not an expert or well versed in all the
cases (as there are many) I can explain all the ones I know from Latin and
some I picked up along the way.

Nominative: Usually used to define the subject of a sentence, or in latin's
case the predicate nominative (for nouns following linking verbs)
Genitive: Used to show possession. My language, Durana, has two genitives,
Genitive of Possession and Genitive of membership. In english the Genitive
would be using 's as in Mike's car. Or it uses "of" like "one of us." There
are other signs also.
Dative: Is used for various purposes. Latin uses it for indirect objects.
"Let me give this note to you" - to you is Dative. It is an object of the
direct object (note). Dative is also used with certain prepositions in many
languages such as Greek and Latin.
Accusative: Used for direct objects, and in Latin it is used for
prepositional phrases of motion.
Ablative: is used in Latin for all other prepositional phrases. It was the
junk drawer for latin ;).
Locative: My understanding is it is used to define a place or location. So
if you say "I went to Las Vegas" Las Vegas would be Locative. I dont have
much experience with it but that is my understanding.
Vocative: used to address someone directly.
Instrumental: Used when talking about when something was accomplished with
something. I dug a hole with a shovel. - with a shovel would be
instrumental.

This is believed to be correct but I openly invite all members of the list
to critique and add to it. We need to produce a tangible file about cases
for newbies cause its a pain in the butt to dig up info on them on the net.

Patrick



----- Original Message -----
From: "nicole dobrowolski" <fuzzybluemonkeys@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2001 6:07 PM
Subject: sorta OT: cases: please help...


this is a really stupid and obvious question and it seems like
everyone on the planet can understand it except me... but could
someone please explain the cases to me (nominative, accusative,
dative, genitive, instrumental, locative, vocative) i was never
taught them very well in english and for a while there i thought i
understood them from german but then i took polish and now i'm all
confused again... and i'm going to need to know them for my polish
final exam (it's not a matter of memorizing the endings... i can do
that... i just don't know when to use them)... it might also be
helpful if i ever want to create a language with cases (thankfully
narethanaal doesn't have any... hmmm... i wonder why...?)... and try
not to use too many technical terms else there will be large amounts
of meeping on my part... so explain it to me as if i were a complete
and utter idiot (which i quite possibly am)... and maybe i'll be able
to muddle through somehow...

...nicole, who gives many thanks to anyone willing to patiently
explain this stuff...



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