Re: Cases, again

Quoting Michael Martin <mdmartin@...>:

> I've got another question regarding noun cases. In a situation where a
> language has Nominative, Accusative, Dative and Genitive, but no other
> cases, what case is used for nouns being used in ways that this
> language doesn't have a case for? In other words, in the sentence "the
> man stands beside the river" if there is no case for "beside"
> (Adessive?) but we do have the four cases mentioned above, which of
> those cases should be used for the noun "river"? Or should there be a
> separate fifth case that is used in these situations, a sort of
> catch-all, miscellaneous case?
>
> Thanks for taking time to answer my questions. I know it's probably
> basic stuff to all of you.
Most typically, the noun would be governed by an adposition (like in English),
and turn up in one of the non-nominative cases. Which might depend on
adposition, or by something else - German uses preposition+dative for
stationary position somewhere and preposition+accusative for movement to some
position (not for all spatial prepositions, mind you!).

                                                      Andreas