Re: Cases, again

Hi!

Michael Martin <mdmartin@...> writes:
> Me again. Still thinking about cases.
That's fun! :-)

> I got to wondering, is there any reason that case markings have to be
> attached to the noun?
No, not at all.

> Could there be a separate word, before or after the noun, that
> designates case? Or maybe the article inflects for case instead of
> the noun? Are there any real languages that do something like this?
Yes.  I'm affraid I will cite German again. :-)

In German, case and number are often only visible on the article.
Case is very often only overt from the article, because most nouns
have lost most of their forms.  Only nouns with adjective declension
show some more forms.

A short overview to show that case is often only visible at the
article:

Frau 'woman':
   sg:
       die Frau   nom., acc.
       der Frau   gen., dat.

   pl:
       die Frauen nom., acc.
       der Frauen gen.
       den Frauen dat.

Mann 'man':
   sg.:
       der Mann   nom.
       den Mann   acc.
       dem Mann   dat.
       des Mannes gen.     <- wow! additional case marking at noun

   pl.:
       die Männer  nom., acc.
       der Männer  gen.
       den Männern dat.    <- again, additional case marking at noun

As you can see, it is rare to mark the case on the noun in German.
Those are only two examples, but actually, most nouns do not care
about marking their case.

Number is also interesting, btw.  If you are not interested, skip this
paragraph.  Number in German is sometimes visible at strange places
only:

  a) on article and noun:
       (Ich sehe) das Glas.   (ACC SG)  'I see the glass.'
                  die Gläser. (ADD PL)  'I see the glasses.'

  b) only on article:
       (Ich sehe) den Fehler (ACC SG)  'I see the mistake.'
                  die        (ACC PL)  'I see the mistakes.'

  c) only on noun:
       (Ich sehe) die Kanne.   (ACC SG)  'I see the jug.'
                  die Kannen.  (ACC PL)  'I see the jugs.'

  d) only on preposition:
       (Ich komme) ohne den Jungen.  (ACC SG)  'I come without the boy.'
                   mit  den Jungen.  (DAT PL)  'I come with    the boys.'

I like d) very much. :-)

(Please note that 'only' in the above sentences means that
disambiguation between the corresponding two sentences is 'only'
possible by looking at the named place.  Taking additional other
sentences, number will most probably be seen on *both* noun and
article.)

**Henrik