The first scientific definition of the case (according to V.A. Uspensky) was given by a mathematician named Kolmogorov Andrei Nikolaevich. He believed that this requires the involvement of not only formal, syntactic, but also semantic means. The modern definition is as follows: case is a category of a word that indicates its syntactic role in a sentence and helps to connect individual words into a single whole.
The term "case" itself, as well as the names of cases, has been translated from Latin and Greek.
There are two main types of cases: direct case and indirect case. The direct cases are nominative and accusative, and indirect are the remaining four types (genitive, dative, instrumental, prepositional).
The terms “direct” and “indirect” case appeared in our language in connection with the ancient notions of declination as a deviation from the only correct form of the word. An analogy was drawn with a dice game, where for any throw, either the straight side (direct case) or the indirect sides (indirect case) drop out.
The case system in Russia is represented by six cases. Each of them has auxiliary words that allow them to be accurately determined.
1). Nominative - the words in this case are combined with the auxiliary word "is".
2). Genitive - an auxiliary word "no."
3). Dative - the auxiliary word "give."
4). Accusative - the auxiliary word "blame".
5). Tutorial - the auxiliary word “satisfied” (“created”).
6). Prepositional is the auxiliary word “think (o)”.
Also, for ease of definition, there are questions about cases. Direct cases have one of two identical questions: the nominative answers the questions “Who?” What? ", And the accusative -" Who? What?". The issues of indirect cases are different. The genitive answers the questions “Who?” What? ”, Dative -“ To whom? ” What? ", Instructive -" By whom? What? ", Prepositional -" About whom? About what?" ("In whom? What?").
In the Russian language , nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals change and decline in cases. Word endings are nothing more than a way to express declension.
Direct case and indirect case are not the only types of cases, as many claim. There are additional cases:
1). Vocal case - it was the seventh case in Russian until 1918 and was used when referring to a person. Examples of the vocative case are Kat, An, Tan, grandfather, daughter. Now the vocative case to some extent replaces the dative.
2). Quantitative separation case - used for a noun showing the whole in relation to a certain part, also mentioned at the same time. In the school system, the word forms of the quantitative-separation case are equated to the genitive case.
3). Local case is a prepositional case combined with a place. Answers the questions “About what? Where?". Examples: talk about the table, be in the table.
4). The initial case is the case using a noun indicating the place where the movement began. Example: left the forest.
In addition to these cases, several more stand out: counting, time, waiting, inclusive and others. The exact number of cases is still unknown.
There is a problem of determining the case of a noun on the subject, if it is accusative, prepositional or vocal cases.
Different countries have their own case systems, sometimes overlapping with the Russian one in morphological, stylistic and other ways. Abroad used such cases as spatial, possessive, original, directive, derogatory, as well as accusative, instrumental, dative and others.
In languages ​​where there are no cases, other methods are used to show the role of a word in a sentence (the use of prepositions and postpositions, a certain order of words in the text).
Do I need to know the cases? Of course, it is necessary, because it is not without reason that they are studied even in the school curriculum!