Re: Order of cases
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, September 30, 2004, 16:15 |
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On Thu, Sep 30, 2004 at 05:49:31PM +0200, Philip Newton wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:19:20 +0200, Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:
> > m.sg. n.sg. f.sg. pl.
> > NOM der das die die
> > ACC den das die die
> > DAT dem dem der den
> > GEN des des der der
>
> Why do you use this particular order?
I dunno why Henrik used it, but that order is the one that has always
felt most natural to me. The nominative is the usual "main" case,
since it is the case of the first argument of all verbs (in an
accusative system), so it goes first. Verbs that take a second argument
take either another nominative or the accusative, so the second
case is the accusative. The dative is used for the third argument of a
verb, so it goes third. The genitive is not used for any verbal
arguments; it is an auxiliary case, with basically an adjectival
function, so it goes last. Additional cases would have basically an
adverbal function and would be grouped either between DAT and GEN or
after GEN.
-Marcos
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