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#REDIRECT Case tableIn linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role.
In inflected languages, nouns are said to decline into different forms, or morphological cases. Morphological cases are one way of indicating grammatical case; other ways are listed below.
This is seen, for example, in Latin, German, Russian, and many other languages. Old English had an extensive case system. In modern English grammar, the same information is now mostly conveyed with word order and prepositions, though a few remnants of the older declined form of English still exist (e.g. the words "who" and "whom"; see Declension in English).
Languages are categorized into several case systems, based on how they group verb agents and patients into cases:
- Nominative-accusative: The agent of a verb is always in the nominative case, along with the patient of intransitive verbs. If both agent and patient are present, the patient is in the accusative caseThe accusative case of a noun is, generally, the case used to mark the direct object of a verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of (some or all) prepositions. The accusative case exists (or existed once) in all the Indo-European la. The dative caseThe dative case is a grammatical case for nouns and/or pronouns. The dative generally marks the indirect object of a verb. Other uses include possession, as in Vulgar Latin and, to a lesser extent, Classical Latin; also, in Classical Greek, which has lost may also be present.
- Ergative-absolutive: The patient of a verb is always in the absolutive caseIn ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive case is used to mark the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb. In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most salient), while the absolutive case is unmarked., along with the agent of intransitive verbs. If both agent and patient are present, the agent is in the ergative caseIn ergative-absolutive languages, the ergative case identifies the subject of a transitive verb. In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most salient), while the absolutive case is unmarked. Certain Australian languages possess an intran.
- Active: The agent of a verb is always in the subject case, and the patient is always in the object case. The case does not depend on whether a verb is used in a transitive or intransitive form.
- Trigger: One noun in a sentence is the topic or focus. This noun is in the trigger case , and information elsewhere in the sentence (e.g. a verbA verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action ("bring", "read"), occurrence ("to decompose" (itself), "to glitter"), or a state of being ("exist", "live", "soak", "stand"). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many fact affixAn affix is a morpheme that is attached to a base morpheme to form a word form. An affix can be a prefix (something attached at the front), a suffix (attached at the back), an infix (in between) or a circumfix (two parts, one in front, the other at the ba in Tagalog) specifies the role of the trigger. The trigger may be identified as the agent, patient, etc. Other nouns may be inflected for case, but the inflections are overloaded; for example, in Tagalog, the subject and object of a verb are both expressed in the genitive case when they are not in the trigger case.
The following are systems that some languages use to mark case instead of, or in addition to, declension:
- Positional: Nouns are not inflected for case; the position of a noun in the sentence expresses its case.
- Prepositional/ postpositional: Nouns are accompanied by words that mark case, but the noun itself is not modified.
Some languages have more than 20 cases. For an example of a language that uses a large number of cases, see Finnish language noun cases.
Chinese, Japanese and Korean have systems similar to declension whereby different counting words are used when counting different classes of nouns, e.g. persons, animals, things, cylindrical objects, flat objects, etc.
