grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

, the term verbal case has been used with various meanings. #It may simply indicate the noun-case system of

core argument In linguistics, an argument is an expression that helps complete the meaning of a predicate, the latter referring in this context to a main verb and its auxiliaries. In this regard, the '' complement'' is a closely related concept. Most predicate ...

s of the verb, such as

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...

accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...

, ergative,

absolutive In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative� ...

, and sometimes core

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this exampl ...

benefactive The benefactive case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used where English would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g. "She opened the door ''for Tom''" or "This book is ''for Bob' ...

. That is, the cases of those nouns most closely associated with the verb, and which may trigger verbal agreement or may be affected by the

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

of a clause, rather than the cases of the more peripheral oblique arguments. A ''verbal case system'' may thus be synonymous with ''

morphosyntactic alignment In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments (in English, subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument of ...

''. #'Verbal case' may also mean those noun cases governed by the relationship of the noun to the verb, in contrast with 'nominal case', where the case of a noun is determined by another noun (for example, the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

). In this use, 'verbal case' is nearly synonymous with 'case', as in most languages with case, all cases but the genitive are governed by the verb. #It may also be used for noun inflections which confer verbal properties to the noun. When a noun takes certain cases, it may also agree with the verb in

tense–aspect–mood Tense–aspect–mood (commonly abbreviated in linguistics) or tense–modality–aspect (abbreviated as ) is an important group of grammatical categories, which are marked in different ways by different languages. TAM covers the expression of ...

, for example, and so not behave as a typical noun. #It may refer to inflections of the verb which are argued to behave semantically like case on nouns. Traditionally, case is defined as a morphological inflection of the noun, not the verb, and it is controversial whether verbal inflections can truly behave like a case system.

Verbal case vs. nominal case

It is frequently remarked that the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

behaves differently than other cases: Most cases (sometimes 'verbal' cases) are governed by their role in the clause relative to the verb, whereas the genitive (a 'nominal' case) is governed by another noun. For instance, the difference in English between nominative "I" and

oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) *Oblique angle, in geometry * Oblique triangle, in geometry * Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the ...

"me" is governed by its relationship to the verb (at least according to prescriptive grammars), whereas the genitive form "my" is associated with a noun: ''I see the dog, the dog sees me,'' but ''my dog''. There are other situations where a case has been argued to be nominal rather than verbal. For instance, in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, a noun may be inflected for case according to its role with an

infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...

, which is arguably as much a noun as a verb, and this has been called nominal case:Miriam Butt, 2006. ''Theories of Case'', p 9. Similarly, when a verb is nominalized, its arguments may remain with their original cases: :''She likes me → (I don't like) her liking me'' Here, as the verb 'likes' is changed to the

gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...

'liking', and the nominative 'she' changes to genitive 'her', but the oblique case of 'me' remains. Such situations are very common in

subordinate clause A dependent clause, also known as a subordinate clause, subclause or embedded clause, is a certain type of clause that juxtaposes an independent clause within a complex sentence. For instance, in the sentence "I know Bette is a dolphin", the claus ...

References

{{reflist Grammar Grammatical cases