Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: English has 4 cases, not 3!

From:Padraic Brown <agricola@...>
Date:Saturday, December 29, 2001, 23:50
Am 29.12.01, Michael Poxon yscrifef:

> If you take the broadly-acceptable definition of case (i.e., a > nominal/pronominal morpheme of some sort) then, for the most part, English > doesn't really have cases, and certainly no allative/locative, etc. I'd have > thought to be called a 'case' you'd have to have some sort of > across-the-board feature, which -ward(s) isn't. You can't say "mewards", > "windowwards", "dogwards" or so on. But of course these things are rarely > shut up in neat boxes, and the case (sorry!) that can be made for a > Genitive, say, is very strong.
While I agree that -ward(s) is not a case ending (it's an adverb); why can't you say "windowward of the davenport was an old grammophone"? Pronoun + -ward(s) would be an interesting construction, and perhaps a bit odd sounding; but I don't think inherently incorrect.
> Mike
Padraic. -- Bethes gwaz vaz ha leal.